Nye: Riders’ national depth much improved in 2016

The Canadian passport is an important ingredient in winning championships in the CFL.

Every general manager knows this. They need some Canuck strength to be a contender and in Chris Jones’s first foray into having the final say on player personnel, he’s clearly been paying attention.

Jones most recently talked about where you need Canadians to win — receivers, offensive line and then wherever you can find quality and depth on the defensive line.

So let’s start at receiver.

The Canadian depth has improved since the end of the 2015 season. The team appears to be ready to make Nic Demski a bigger piece in his sophomore season after a promising rookie year, which allowed the team to dispose of veteran receiver Chris Getzlaf and maybe more importantly his sizeable contract.

And while Demski will get a bigger role, Shamawd Chambers comes aboard via free agency to aid in the depth of quality Canadian receivers.

Oh, and never sleep on Rob Bagg — he’s had back to back under appreciated seasons, which have come in the form of a career year in yards in 2014 and touchdowns in 2015.

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Along the offensive line, Corey Watman moved on in free agency after never living up to the expectations of the fourth overall pick in 2013. Instead the Riders are committed to Dan Clark, Brendon LaBatte and Chris Best again in the middle of the offensive line to be backed up by veteran Andrew Jones.

With the first overall pick they took Josiah St. John, who could soon be a ratio breaker like Ben Heenan was as a starting tackle. Later in the draft they picked up Alex McKay, who is another potential tackle but also played inside some as well.

The Riders then have a crop of young offensive linemen who appear to be on the same career curve as Clark — slow and steady improvement and could be soon ready when their number is called. They are Matt Vonk and Aaron Picton.

The Riders are eight deep along the offensive line, the type of depth they didn’t have last year among their Canadians.

Now let’s slide over the defensive side of the ball where they made the most changes.

Last year the Riders had Shea Emry and a young crop of defensive tackles to fill up their seven starting spots. Emry got hurt in the first game and with no sufficient Canadian back-up and Canadian defensive tackles who weren’t quite ready for the pro game, the Riders were weak up the middle and exploited because of it.

The best teams play their Canadians where they are deepest; the Riders didn’t do that last year.

RIDERS’ NATIONAL ADDITIONS IN 2016

This year, you saw the Roughriders bolster their Canadian starters on defence with the addition of defensive end Justin Capicciotti, where he has defensive end Dylan Ainsworth backing him up. They also can still rotate in Canadian defensive tackles and added veteran Hasan Hazime to the fold of DTs with last year’s rookies Rory Connop and Tim Agbaje hoping to make an impression in camp for their sophomore season.

The Riders have also committed to a Canadian at safety by bringing back Saskatoon Hilltop standout Graig Newman to battle with a strong crop of Canadian defensive backs, including Matt Webster, who played safety late last season for the Riders.

They are not only deep for their seven required Canadian starting spots but at times could have eight, if not nine, lining up.

Bolstering the roster of Canadians was imperative for the new regime of Chris Jones to have success in year one.

They’ve done an admirable job. Yes, the depth behind some of the starters is still somewhat unproven. However, Jones is ahead of the team that last year had no depth behind some starters, or unproven players being forced into starting roles.

When the inevitable injuries come will truly test the job Jones did this off-season replenishing the Riders Canadian depth chart.