Rod Pedersen
CFL.ca
With his Saskatchewan Roughriders on a bye week, General Manager Eric Tillman is on a scouting mission of National Football League training camps in the U.S. Although his team is a CFL-best 6-1, they have been ravaged by injuries to star players.
On the injured list with broken legs are slotbacks Andy Fantuz and D.J. Flick, offensive tackle Belton Johnson, defensive back Leron Mitchell, and fullback Neal Hughes.
Quarterback Darian Durant has missed the past two games with cracked ribs, wide receiver Matt Dominguez is out for the season with a torn ACL, returner Carl Berman is gone for the season with a torn achilles tendon and defensive end John Chick is rehabbing a knee injury of his own. This list doesn’t include fullback Chris Szarka (broken foot), quarterback Marcus Crandell (hamstring) and returner/receiver Weston Dressler (hamstring) who have missed significant time, but since returned.
Tillman and Rider head scout Joe Womack have set out with a clear shopping list on their American excursion. It includes – according to Tillman – a quarterback (or two), two receivers, an offensive tackle, a defensive lineman and a defensive back; all imports.
“We’re talking to one young man who was just released by the Pittsburgh Steelers,” Tillman said on Wednesday. “His name is Gerran Walker. He was on the Steelers’ practice roster all of last year. You could see him in Regina in the next couple weeks. He has tremendous speed and is a very good return guy.”
“We’ve identified some players that we believe long-term can be good players. But, when you’re asking guys to come in mid-season, other than a special teams guy, that’s a lot to put on a guy to learn.”
The Roughriders’ 6-0 start in 2008 was their best since 1934, but they tasted defeat for the first time last week thanks to a 30-25 home loss to the Calgary Stampeders. Saskatchewan doesn’t play again until Thursday, August 21 at Edmonton.
“You have to give credit to Calgary,” Tillman explained. “They desperately needed a win and were well-prepared and they dominated us early on. We’re thrilled that we’re 6-1 but you can start to believe by divine right that you’re supposed to win every game. It was probably good for us to be punched in the nose. We’d prefer to be 7-0 but we found out we can’t just put on the green helmet and jersey and go out and win.”
The jury’s out whether or not the Roughriders can keep up this torrid pace over their final eleven games, given their devastating list of injuries. Still, Tillman is undeterred.
“We’ve just finished the first third of the season and we’ve had a lot of things thrown at us but I have confidence in our team that we’ll come back and win a lot of games in the second half. I believe we’ll play in November and our goal hasn’t changed. It’s a goal that many in this province thought was unthinkable and that’s to win back-to-back Grey Cups.”
Rod Pedersen is the Voice of the Roughriders and Saskatchewan correspondent on The Score Sports Network. Check out his award-winning blog at www.rodpedersen.com.
