Hope everyone had a good Easter. You likely spent the day in a turkey coma while your children bounced off the walls to to sugar overload. The more I think about modern day Easter celebrations the more I think that a giant mutant rabbit who enters everyone's home and delivers children a huge dose of cavities and diabetes is something that we should find concerning not something we celebrate. Speaking of diabetes, that is a sufficiently awkward and poorly executed segue into my first sentimony.
- John Chick announced his retirement on Friday. There is so much about the man that is amazing. First and foremost he was an elite defensive end. His stats speak for themselves. He's a two time Grey Cup Champion, 3 time all-star and a defensive player of the year. But on top of being and immensely talented player, what's also amazing is that it did it all with diabetes, which is no small feat. In the process he became an inspiration to many. As if that wasn't enough, on top of all of that he is top notch guy. Active in the community, kind, humble. He's a rare combination of awesome. He also fathered a small army (and I somehow doubt his retirement extends to procreation).
- Chick is one of those once in a generation player that we were lucky to have for as long as we did. He was dominant in his first stint here. If not for a knee injury I honestly think he would have stuck in Jacksonville and never came back. but fate had other plans in mind as he returned to help propel us to a Grey Cup. In the process, he joined a very exclusive club of players who started in two Grey Cup wins for the Riders. I believe only Neal Hughes and Mike McCullough can boast the same feat (I don't really count guys like Getzlaf an Durant as they had zero role in their first ring). I can only assume that a man with that many mouths to feed has a solid post-football job lined up. All the best either way.
- The other big Rider news was the signing of John Ojo. Which is a big get both literally and figuratively. He's 6'3 and was a dominant DB last time we saw him in the CFL. Granted that was in 2015 and injury and NFL tryouts have left very little evidence that he's still the same guy. But he's 100% worth rolling the dice on. At only 28 he's got a lot of good football ahead of him. This definitely improves our secondary. A healthy Ojo is an upgrade over Kacy Rodgers (who was no slouch).
- Starting next week I will embark on my annual CFL Draft coverage, with Team by Team previews, a mock draft (aka Prophet's wild ass guesses) and other random opining and pontificating.
- The other big CFL news has been Johnny... well you know his last name but I honestly won't waste even a minute discussing him until he actually does something in this league. Good lord, Stefan LeFors has had an illustrious CFL career when compared to he who shall not be named. He's thrown as many CFL passes as me and no one seems to give a crap about my futile attempts to relaunch my football career (full disclosure, you technically need to replace 're-launch' with just 'launch' and 'attempts' with 'nothing' for that last statement to be accurate.
I look at Ojo as some other big names that are going through the same thing. On the other corner on the West All-Star team in 2015 - Johnny Adams. Like Ojo, injured for much of the next year, returned for 15 games with the Esks in 2017 & was solid. Didn't watch him much but saw he was one of the "must sign" FA's for Edmonton writers. Emmanuel Davis & Kanneh were Eastern All-Stars in 2016, injured in 2017. So lots of guys in same situation. I think, like Adams, all of these players can come back & play very good football, not necessarily All-Stars after taking time off, but solid. I don't think we can expect more. I put Collaros, the big question on the team, in the same boat - more HOPE there but less confidence. He's going into his 7th season, 5th as a starter & never lasted more than 13 games (14 in TO in 2013 but didn't start all of them). His starts have gone down in each of the last 4 years which isn't as concerning because he has really been recovering from the injury in 2015, aggravated by subsequent setbacks. Still who knows if Zach is ever going to be the same. My guess is he is unlikely to hit the MOP level of 2015 but there is hope he can be very good. They had an item on the QB situation on cfl.ca today which is informative. Steinberg placed part of Collaros' problems on his decision making last year, not all OL like many do. That's fair. Marshall Ferguson, a college QB himself, had previously mentioned his happy feet & that he wasn't throwing using his lower body much causing him to be off, especially on deep throws (he was the worst at completing long throws in the league at 25%). So there are issues. Still, I will iterate that I think he will bounce back & have a decent year should he get the protection he needs. Happy Easter.
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