Monday Morning Sentimonies: Tuesday Afternoon Edition

After enduring 5 football-less months, we are but 8 days away from the opening of Rookie camp… and all I can say is thank god! This offseason has seemed like an eternity. The only plus was that, unlike most years, my hockey team managed to keep the playoffs interesting a lot longer than normal. That helped pass the time.

On that note, many people have been asking me how I feel about my beloved Habs being ousted from the playoffs. For me it’s a lot like the Riders’ 1997 Grey Cup run… yeah it’s disappointing to lose but in all honesty we had no business being there in the first place so it’s hard to be mad.

Not surprisingly many people have been beaking me and my fellow Hab fans since the loss and that’s fine I can take it. I just have one request… if you are going to beak me about the Canadiens performance you had better either be a Flyers or Blackhawks fan because if you say the Habs suck and cheer for any of the other 27 teams in the NHL who didn’t do as well this year then you just look like an idiot.

Wow, that was quite the side bar. Let’s get back to football and I’ll do my best to stay on topic this time.

With rookie camp just over a week away, the Riders are busy making final roster adjustments. They have added 3 receivers to the mix Dwayne Eley, Aaron Love and Aaron Waldie. Though I wish them the best, I’ll be honest… I’m expecting that these guys will become about as well renown in Saskatchewan as Toby Zeigler, Byron Ross and Bam Childress did last year. That said, Waldie has previously drawn some comparisons to Weston Dressler which is pretty high praise.

The Rider QB watch is entering its second month. Ever since the release of Graham Harrell (who has since been invited to camp with the Packers), Taman has been telling that they will soon be announcing the signing of 1 or 2 more QBs. Well that was a month ago and still no word. It’s pretty much a lock that it will be Ryan “Look Into My Eyes“ Dinwiddie and Todd Reesing… cripes Reesing was interviewed on Regina radio last week. I highly doubt that either side would bother with a public interview if this weren’t a done deal… “Coming up next an interview with a QB prospect who won’t be coming to Saskatchewan”… I don’t see it.

The battle to backup Durant should be very interesting to watch over the coming weeks. There is Cole Bergquist (who will have a leg up by virtue of spending time here last year), Reesing (who is an outstanding college prospect who has been compared to Doug Flutie), and Dinwiddie (whose presence I still don’t really understand). There is also Kent Smith but quite frankly I’ll be surprised to see him last too long here.

When was the last time that the Riders’ biggest concern at QB was who would be the back-up?

At last check our roster was at 75 players which is the maximum allowable so if we are going to sign more QBs we will have to free up a spot somehow… either by cutting somebody or placing some people on the injury list. Either way knowing my track record, by the time you read this the Riders will probably have made an announcement that will render most of what I’ve written irrelevant.

CFL Ins and Outs

BC

In: OL Bart Archdekin, OL Dane Randolph, OL Carlton Medder, DB John Richardson, LB Solomon Elimimian (free agent signing)

Edmonton

In: DL Marc-Antoine Beaudoin-Cloutier, DL Neil Puffer, DB Gary Albury (free agent signing)