Free agency opened today, I'll have my full thoughts on the goings on on Friday but for now here's a summary of what's happened so far.
- The Esks signed Ol Brian Ramsay and DL Jermaine Reid. Both part of Tillman's effort to rebuild the non-existent Canadian content of the Esks.
- The Argos signed Wes Lysack, re-signed Kevin Huntley and Lin-J Shell (both big re-signings for the Argos.)
- BC signed DL Eric Taylor and is poised to sign OL Ben Archibald
- Winnipeg re-signed Jonathan Hefney (despite a rocky start to their negotiations). They also signed DL Shawn Mayne
- Calgary signed DB Geoff Tisdale which will help replace the loss of both their all-star CBs. They also signed LB Tim St-Pierre
- Hamilton was very active poaching Riders. They got Daniel Francis, Wayne Smith (all 2.5 games of him) and Rey Williams.
- Hamilton also payed an insane amount of money ($135K per season for 3 years) to sign Avon Cobourne. I realize that Cobb isn't anything special but that seems like a lot to throw at an RB the wrong side of 30.
- Montreal was also busy, making Dwight Anderson the top paid CB in the league, picking up Tad Crawford (to replace the soon to retire Matthieux Proulx) and RB Yvenson Bernard, re-signing RB Brandon Whitaker and signing WR Rashaud Slaughter and former NFLer Jerry Porter.
All is quiet on the Rider front for now, though Sean Lucas is considering an offer from us as well as a few other teams.
Any word on Kitwana? I sure want to see him back in 2011.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big Kitwana fan myself but now word yet. I'm guessing we made a relatively small offer and Kitwana is looking around to see if anyone will give him more.
ReplyDeleteThing is, as much as I like him, at some point an aging special teams/backup guy will become expendable.
No doubt. Kitwana brings a level of enthusiasm, energy and loyalty to the team that you simply can't buy. When the team comes running onto the field, it is always Kitwana in the lead. Leadership is one of those things that has value. The team has millions in the bank and there are times when penny pinching and nickle and diming does NOT make sense. We risk losing guys sometimes because of that penny pinching crap. Never the less, I hope we sign him soon.
ReplyDeleteLove your site ..
'Riding the Rosemont Rider Express'
UncleJim
Consistent penny pinching, league-wide, is a major factor in keeping Saskatchewan competitive. Other teams used to spends millions more than us and buy up all the good players from our roster.
ReplyDeleteSo we loose a few good ones now and then. I'll live with it in exchange for a level playing field
For the first time in our history we have quite a lot of money in the team coffers. Everyone knows how successful our merchandise sales are. Even those Rider loonies gave us a royalty for the logo. And now that we have money ... the leagues salary cap keeps us from picking up talent that we can actually afford. But I guess I have to agree that a level playing field is good overall.
ReplyDeleteYeah its kinda ironic that when we were allowed to spend whatever we wanted to we were too broke to spend anything so we petitioned for a cap.
ReplyDeleteNow that we have a cap we have more money than we know what to do with and could throw crazy money at players if it were not for the cap.
Oh well as you say, the level playing filed that we now have is well worth it.