Analyzing Free Agency So Far

After remaining relatively quiet on the opening day of free agency, the Riders started making some deals as the week wore on. One of which was signing Calgary DE Tearrius George to a deal. The first thing that popped into my head when that happened was to open my post with "Riders sign Tearrius George... I love that monkey". Then I realized that there was a good chance that people would take that the wrong way and I would be accused of being an even bigger racist than normal. So I decided instead to go with "Riders sign Tearrius George... Man in the Yellow Hat added to negotiation list.

The Riders also sign another former Stamp, CB John Eubanks. While historically any Calgary DB not named Anderson or Browner has been brutal, we do currently have the worst CBs in the league so I'm willing to give pretty much anything a try.


We also signed Hamilton OL George Hudson who helps keep the average age of our O-line somewhere between senior citizen and a landmark of historical value. Seriously though , Hudson was needed. With the loss of Wayne Smith we were thin on Canadian OL who could fill in for Gauthier if need be. Do I like the fact that we won't consider anyone born after 1980? No. But this one was a necessary evil.

As for the rest of the league it was pretty much Hamilton snapping up as many former Riders as they could and Montreal signing virtually everything else. Other than the odd deal here or there that was pretty much it. After losing the majority of their secondary, the Stamps pretty much had to sign Tisdale (who was the only other talented DB to test free agency). Toronto did next to nothing (which was a dramatic change of philosophies from previous years). Tillman snapped up some Canadians for his Esks and then went idle. The Bombers were idle. BC made 2 big moves (Archibald and Wilson).

Joel Bell, Kitwana and Sean Lucas remain on the market, Lucas being the highest profile of the group. Not sure how long this will draw out but nobody seems to be in a rush.