CFL.ca
Chris Jones has decided to go from first to worst.
The now former Edmonton Eskimos head coach is taking on a gigantic challenge. Maybe the biggest challenge in the CFL, next to trying to figure out how to succeed against one of his defences.
Winning seems to follow Chris Jones around and that is exactly why the Saskatchewan Roughriders threw away their own succession plan to give Jones the job over Assistant General Manager Jeremy O’Day.
To be the best, sometimes you have to take from the best — exactly what the Riders are doing by taking from a division rival and Grey Cup Champion Edmonton Eskimos organization.
But Jones now has to get to work. The construction of the new stadium that will open for the 2017 season in Regina seems like it is further along than the rebuild of the team that will be moving in.
Jones, however, is now the foundation to allow this project to get started.
What Jones inherits is a team with an aging core, a swollen salary structure and a depth chart that doesn’t even come close to the one that won a Grey Cup just two short years ago.
Jones may be asking whoever is in charge of bringing down the old Mosaic Stadium when it meets it’s fateful end if he could borrow some dynamite.
Rider Nation should prepare itself for a wakeup call. Jones is the same coach who came into Edmonton and in just over a year Fred Stamps was gone to Montreal. A diminishing asset in the eyes of Jones. A cherished veteran in the eyes of the fans.
Only eight days after he led the Edmonton Eskimos to their first Grey Cup Championship in 10 years, Chris Jones is headed to a division rival, named the General Manager and Head Coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Monday … READ MORE.
Instead, Jones finds his own talent in free agent camps including back to back rookies of the year; LB Dexter McCoil and WR Derel Walker. Eskimo fans barely missed Stamps after they saw Walker become a CFL top performer.
An insertion of youth would be a refreshing change to an organization that signed veterans Paul McCallum, Geoff Tisdale, Alex Suber and Jamel Richardson to help fill holes on the roster.
No one on the Riders roster should feel comfortable.
Jones, however, must quickly start settling the nerves among the players he wants to bring back and serve as part of the solution to the problem. Maybe start with a call to quarterback Darian Durant, like his predecessor Corey Chamblin did before he even took the job.
On the coaching side of things, the assumption is it will be a clean slate for Jones. Offensive Coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine and the man who served admirably in the interim head coaching role, Bob Dyce, should be the first to learn their fate, if they haven’t already.
Will Jarious Jackson get a call for the offensive coordinator job? After serving as Jones’ quarterbacks coach and passing game coordinator over the last two years in Edmonton, you would have to think he’d be among the people Jones would be interested in talking to.
WATCH Riders Introduce Jones as new GM and Head Coach
He’ll have to act fast however as Jackson has already been contacted by the BC Lions and Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Defensive Coordinator Greg Quick already read the tea leaves and resigned late last week as Jones will likely be running his own defence like he’s done over the last decade in the CFL.
Now that he’s been hired in Saskatchewan, the coaching dominoes will start to fall quickly around the CFL and he must put his plan into action on Day 1 to keep pace.
As general manager, Jones must also start on who he wants to surround himself with in the front office to bring in the talent and scout the talent necessary to win in the league. Try as he might, Jones won’t succeed without a few good right hand men, starting with his assistant.
Jeremy O’Day will likely retain his role as assistant general manager as a confidant to Jones to help him settle in the football crazy market of Saskatchewan.
But there is also Director of Player Personnel Craig Smith. The long serving scout of the Riders hasn’t missed a beat throughout this entire process, attending a collegiate championship game in North Dakota on Saturday night to put more work in to help the team turn around.
Jones will definitely have his own people to either change or enhance the current scouting staff in Saskatchewan. With free agency only two months away and scouting combines and free agent and mini-camps not too long after, it’s another part of his increased duties he must decide on quickly.
How about that for a to-do list in week one on the job?
P.S., Welcome to Saskatchewan, Chris Jones.
If you have any questions, don’t worry, you’ll get a lot of unsolicited advice.
