Riderville.com
There’s a rumbling emanating from the prairies that hasn’t been felt in at least four years. While it isn’t easily recognizable it is very distinct. It’s the unique buzz that the Saskatchewan Roughriders create when they’ve got a Grey Cup contending team.
There’s a lot of excitement around this year’s Riders team and that was evident in the questions that VP, football ops, GM and head coach Chris Jones and quarterback Zach Collaros took on Thursday’s season preview conference call. Here are five of the highlights from near 30-minute session.
Duron Carter will be busy this season
What would a Riders’ avail be without some Durton Carter chatter? The enigmatic receiver has a marijuana possession charge to deal with — his court date was pushed to June 14 — but Jones said they’ll be “business as usual.”
“It’s in the court’s hands and again when they come down with their ruling we’ll be prepared either way,” he said.
While he broke the 1,000-yard receiving mark last season, Carter also dabbled with defence, including a pick-six on Calgary QB Bo Levi Mitchell in a win over the Stampeders. Jones said to expect to see more of that this season.
“He’s going to play defence and offence. I’m going to keep him very busy,” Jones said.
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“I’m hoping that we make strides, as Willie Jefferson did a few years ago. He was a very outspoken guy … just like Duron. As we got to know each other better and he got to know me better, our working relationship got even stronger.
“I think you can ask Willie and some of the guys we’ve coached in the past, we’re not bad guys, we’re there for the players. Hopefully Duron, we want him to make plays for us, help us win football games but want to bring him along in other ways as well.”
O-line taking shape
The addition of free-agent Travis Bond will have a ripple effect on the Riders’ offensive line. Jones said he sees the former Winnipeg Blue Bomber starting at left or right guard this season.
“I spent some time with him down in North Carolina this year,” Jones said.
“He’s just a great guy, a big old country guy. He brings a level of physicality that a lot of people can’t bring in our league and that was one of the things we tried to do as we recruited. We’re trying to become a more physical football team. That’s been taken into account in all three phases: Free agency, the draft and our workout guys. We’re trying to get guys that are physical.”
Jones said the rest of the line — including where Brendon LaBatte, Dan Clark and second-year Dariusz Bladek fit in — would take of itself.
“LaBatte, the good thing about him is he can play centre or guard. Bladek has played both guards before,” Jones said. “We do have a good, solid problem there with some guys that can play. And Clark brings some tremendous leadership to our football team. He gets a lot out of his ability. That’s a good group”
CJME analyst and CFL.ca’s Jamie Nye revised his pre-camp depth chart to reflect what Jones said:
After listening to #Riders Chris Jones today, I re-worked the positional chart to better reflect how they COULD start camp… although Clark/LaBatte/Bladek/Bond will be mixed around, WLB is a question mark, and expect more moves in the next 10 days. pic.twitter.com/ZcKnClA1pU
— Jamie Nye (@jamienye) May 10, 2018
From worst to (they hope) first
Under Jones, the Riders took a five-win season in 2016 and turned it into a 10-win, Eastern Final appearance campaign in 2017. He worked similar magic in Edmonton, inheriting a four-win team and turning it into a 12-win team in 2014 that became a 14-win, Grey Cup Champion in 2015. He downplayed the role he and his staff played in turning teams into winners, though.
“It’s not really so much as what we do. Yeah, the coaches are a part of it, but you’ve got to have great players,” Jones said.
“If you look at the Grey Cup teams…we’ve got great players at every one of those spots. When we have those (free-agent) workouts we tell them the same thing. It really doesn’t have a lot to do with us.
“I think that’s the biggest thing, the biggest hurdle is getting the right players. It’s not always about the best athlete. Sometimes it’s about the best football player and we’ve had to wade through some guys and we feel very strongly about the grup we put together.”
Collaros is the veteran QB
At the Riders’ mini-camp in Florida last month, Zach Collaros looked around, looked at the roster and realized that he’s the oldest quarterback on the team. Turning 30 in August, he said he’s obviously grown a great deal over the last 10 years.
“When I was 20 years old I didn’t know a damn thing about how to play the quarterback position,” Collaros said.
“I just ran around a lot and was able to make plays with my feet and threw the ball. I’ve been around great people, whether it’s coaches or other quarterbacks that know this game of football very well. I’ve been able to learn from them and apply it to my game.”
The addition of Zach Collaros gives the Riders a proven veteran pivot (Riderville.com)
“My style of play is different (today). I try to be smarter and pick and choose the spots where I really have to lay my body on the line. If you’re not on the field you don’t have much value. But at the same time, be able to make the plays with my feet and pick up the extra yards, like if it’s second and four to the first down, those things.
“All those situations matter and I’ve really tried to realize those and understand those. I’ve been around a lot of great people that have helped facilitate that for me.”
No downtime for Jones
While his team vastly improved last season, the off-season wasn’t that much different for Jones than it was a year ago. Jones’ commitment to off-season scouting is a key to his teams’ success.
“I took one (weekend) off at Christmas, one off at New Year’s and one off at Easter,” he said.
“Other than that we’ve been on the road every weekend. We’ve got a great roster put together. I can’t wait to get it started.”
He said he would have liked to have had a few more draft picks — the team lost three through various trades — but was happy with who the team chose last week.
“I thought the draft went well and I feel like we’ve picked up some pretty good players,” he said. “I’m looking forward to getting it started.”
