Monday Morning Sentimonies: And Then There Was One

… draft pick that is.

That’s right, going into this year’s draft the Riders currently have only 1 pick remaining. Now for those of you how haven’t religiously tracked the ever changing 2009 draft order, first of all what the heck is wrong with you? Second of all don’t worry the Rider Prophet is here to compensate for you actually having a life.

We traded our first round pick during the last draft to BC along with our 3rd rounder in that draft for 2 picks in last year’s draft (with which we drafted Michael Stadnyk and Frenchy McFour-names himself Jean-Francois Morin-Roberge).

We traded our 4th round pick to Calgary as part of the Wes Cates deal.

We traded our 5th round pick to Winnipeg during 2007 for Jermese Jones.

We traded our 6th round pick to Hamilton but I couldn’t tell you for what. (Media Consultant maintains that it was part of the trade to draft Orban last year but I think he’s wrong).

And most recently we traded our 2nd round pick along with our 2nd round pick in 2010 to Montreal in exchange for Donovan Alexander.

I’ll have more on the draft and our complete lack of picks as it gets closer, but for now this is shaping up to be the easiest draft coverage ever. My Live Draft Day Blogging may look like this…
10:00 – Draft begins
11:00 – Rider Prophet rolls out of bed
11:05 – Riders use their only pick to select so and so.
11:06 – Rider Prophet returns to bed.

This must be what it’s like to cover the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on draft day. Though maybe I should ease off slightly on the Winnipeg draft jokes given that they currently have more picks than us (I never thought I’d see the day).

Now back to the Alexander trade. For those of you unfamiliar with Alexander (due to this aforementioned “life” you seem to have), he’s a non-import cornerback who went to school with Weston Dressler and apparently runs faster than him. He is obviously meant to join Leron Mitchell and Konrad Wasiela in the competition for starting wide-side corner. While you never like giving up 2 draft picks I don’t really see it as a loss when you are getting a young Canadian in return. The whole point of the draft is to improve your young Canadian talent so if you can accomplish this by trading picks away then it’s just as good.

While Alexander seems like a talented player I do have my concerns. I mean if acquiring the effeminate prancer known as Henri Childs cost us a first rounder, how much worse must this guy be for Montreal to only charge us a couple of second rounders?

CFL Ins and Outs

Saskatchewan
In: WR David McKoy (re-signed), KR Casey McGahee (free agent signing)
To me, this is the deciding year for McKoy. Is he really as good as he’s been made out to be? His time here has been spent mainly on the injury list. The coaches obviously have faith in his potential given that they have been willing to be patient with his injuries. Hopefully this is the year he gets a chance to show his talent as opposed to becoming Nathan Hoffart version 2.0… okay maybe that comparison is not completely fair to McKoy as his 2 career receptions actually double Hoffart’s production as a Rider.

BC
In: Korey Banks (contract extension)
While terms of the deal were not released I’m guessing I’ll be able to gauge the size of the signing bonus based on how much more jewels and precious metals Banks has attached to his teef come the season opener.

Montreal
In: DB Stanford Samuels, LB Cam Hall, DB Jonathan Ordway, DT Tim McGill (free agent signing)
Out: DB Khalil Carter (released)
… good for them …

Hamilton
In: QB Josh Betts, QB Erik Meyer, DL Dennis Haley, DL Mike McFadden (free agent signing)
Out: Nautyn McKay-Loescher, Nick Kordic (released)
Back in 2007 when McKay-Loescher signed with Hamilton, Eric Tillman said he would love to have him. I guess we’ll see if that is still the case now that Loescher is 2 years older and coming off a sub-par performance in ’08. Though given that his price tag is over $100K I highly doubt he’ll land here.

Winnipeg
In: DB Brandon Stewart, WR Kyle Smith, DL Dorian Smith, DL Keith Saunders, Nick Kordic (free agent signings)
Out: Timmy Chang, Michael Roberts (released)
Chang is still somewhat of a mystery to me… is he Asian or Hawaiian? I mean he’s from Hawaii but the name Chang is generally associated with kimonos and deliciously prepared alley cat as opposed to grass skirts and pineapples. Just saying is all.

Toronto
In: LB Nick Hannah, CB Alphonso Hodge, CB Reggie Lewis (free agent signings)
Out: Mike O’Shea (released), Chad Folk, Chris Hardy (retired)
So O’Shea was set to also retire to but changed his mind. In retrospect I think O’Shea will wish he had retired with Folk and Hardy. Given the current market for 38 year old linebackers, he’s going to look pretty foolish for saying he’s not retiring at one press conference only to call a separate one a month later to retire anyways.

Calgary
In: DE Alain Kashama, DL Ryan Riddle, DL Kelvin Morris (free agent signing)
Kashama may be best remembered for an incident in ’06 when he was with Montreal. Kashama alleged that Montreal police were racist after he and teammate Mark Estelle were pulled over for a traffic violation and briefly detained at the police station. At first I didn’t really believe Kashama as it is a well known fact that the only people Montreal Police are racist towards are Anglos. However, I changed my mind after reading a quote from the police where they said “the vehicle had Illinois license plates, all of which led the officers to believe a drug deal could have been in the works.” I’m not sure what the French have against people from Illinois but I fail to see how an out-of-state plate directly relates to drug dealing. Be warned Illinois residents, you have apparently been geographically profiled by Montreal police.