Posts
Hopefully
you all had a good Christmas… or any other observance you may take part in such
as the Feast of Maximum Occupancy. By this point I’m sure you have eaten too
much, physically moved far too little and seen more than enough of your family
(except of course mine, they are wonderful). The holiday season will officially
start winding down after New Years but I thought we’d get an early start and
talk some football to help transition you back to things like working and a diet
not based on butter, chocolate or cheeses.
This
is the time of year that many start making resolutions, ones that they will
surely have given up on by week’s end. I personally don’t make resolutions but
it seemed like a pretty good holiday tie in for a blog post and so I present to
you 3 Resolutions I hope Chris Jones makes this year (spoiler alert, none
involve his wardrobe).
1 – Stop making acquisitions in
Free Agency that you immediately regret.
Shawn
Lemon, Justin Capicciotti, Kendial Lawrence, Travis Bond, Jerome Messam, Duron
Carter. All big name free agency acquisitions. All gone by the middle of the season
they were signed in (and this is not an exhaustive list). It honestly seems
like some times Jones goes on out on the town on a signing spree, wakes up the
next morning and has immediate remorse about what he sees lying next to him in
bed. Jones has done many good things to improve the talent on the Riders’ roster but
free agency is generally not one of them. Imagine if he had used the money
spent on these players on players that actually were a fit for what he wanted.
2 – Suck Less Early In the Year
If you look that Chris Jones’ record as Rider coach broken down in thirds of the
season a clear picture emerges
First
6 games: 6 and 12
Middle
6 games: 9 and 9
Last
6 games: 12 and 6
Jones
always seems to start slow and improve as the season goes on. Even if you
exclude 2016, the pattern holds:
First
6 games: 5 and 7
Middle
6 games: 8 and 4
Last
6 games: 9 and 3
While
I’m glad Jones generally has the Riders playing their best ball late in the season,
if he didn’t dig himself such a big early season hole the team would be way
farther ahead. Hopefully 2019 is the year we find early season success.
3 – Find a QB
Just
because it’s obvious doesn’t mean its not true. Jones has built a team with
talent and depth across the board… with the exception of most important
position. It’s the only place he hasn’t managed to recruit young talent and his
free agent forays have brought us old man Glenn (arguably the best of the
bunch), Zach “Buck Pierce in Training” Collaros and Brandon “My mother told me
if you don’t haven anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all” Bridge.
Jones has returned the Riders to the post season, brought payoff football back
to Mosaic. Taking that next step will require him to find a mildly competent
QB. It’s hard to see 2019 being any different than 2018 if he can’t.
NFL Watch
CFL
players will son be able to sign futures deals with NFL teams so here’s a
listing of all the NFL Workouts for CFL players. Reported workouts are courtesy
@HBalzer721 and @JDunk12 (you all know I’m far too lazy to do my own
investigative reporting).
For
context, last season every single player who had 4 or more tryouts got an NFL
contract. So Sam Eguavoen is most likely gone, as are guys like Singleton, Thurman,
Boateng and Bo Levi.
OL Dakota Shepley – tryouts with Denver, Cleveland, Tampa
Bay
LB Samuel Eguavoen (Ssk) – tryouts with Miami, LA Rams, New
England, Arizona, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, 3 more scheduled
DL Tobi Antigha (Ssk) – tryouts with Arizona, NY Giants, LA
Chargers
WR Jordan Williams (Ssk) – tryouts with Chicago, Detroit,
NY Giants, New England
QB Bo Levi Mitchell (Cal) – tryouts with Minnesota, Denver,
Jacksonville, Chicago, Buffalo, NY Giants, Indianapolis
DB Winston Rose (BC) – tryout with Minnesota
DB Chris Ackie (Ott) – tryout with Minnesota
WR Diontae Spencer (Ott) – tryouts with Minnesota, Buffalo
LB Jameer Thurman (Cal) – tryouts with Minnesota, Chicago,
NY Jets, Arizona, LA Chargers, Philadelphia, Cincinnati
DB Tevaughn Campbell (Mtl) – tryouts with Cleveland, Green
Bay, Houston, Tampa Bay, NY Jets
DL Kwaku Boateng (Edm) – tryouts with NY Jets, LA Chargers,
NY Giants, Washington
LB Alex Singleton (Cal) – tryouts with Cleveland,
Minnesota, Arizona, Philadelphia, LA Chargers
DL Avery Ellis (Ott) – tryouts with NY Jets, LA Chargers,
Philadelphia, Cincinnati
K Ty Long (BC) – tryout with NY Jets, Minnesota, Indianapolis,
Arizona, Cincinnati
OL Rykar Matthews (Ham) – tryouts with NY Jets, New England,
Arizona
WR Bryant Mitchell (Edm) – tryouts with NY Jets, Arizona,
Detroit, NY Giants
WR Duke Williams (Edm) – tryouts with NY Jets, Buffalo,
Detroit, Cincinnati
DL James Vaughters (Cal) - tryouts with Chicago, NY Jets
QB Mike Reilly (Edm) - tryout with Jacksonville
DB
Chris Edwards (Edm) – tryout with LA Chargers
WR
Marken Michel (Cal) – tryouts with Chicago, Philadelphia
LB
Dexter McCoil – tryout with Washington
DB
Mercy Maston (Edm) – tryout with Philadelphia
DL
Jake Ceresna (Edm) – tryout with NY Giants
RB
Terry Williams (Cal) – tryout with NY Giants
WR
Dominque Rhymes (Ott) – tryout with Pittsburgh
DL
Jackson Jeffcoat (Win) – tryout with Cincinnati
WR
Derel Walker (Edm) – tryout with Oakland
QB
Jonathan Jennings (BC) – tryout with Indianapolis
5 comments:
Totally agree, especially on #1. You spend a bundle on Capicciotti & Lemon out of the gate & you lose out on other guys in the early feeding frenzy. Could you not have asked Lemon if he wanted to play DE/LB/S before signing him? He likes to play DE - period. What happened with Dennis? OL of the year, dud in Regina, back to All-Star form with Stamps? Like Muamba, signed for 2 years, gone after 1. Muamba too, an All-Star. I would have liked him in the middle over Hurl but did alright without him. If Eguavoen is gone, that's a big loss as he covered a lot of territory. Judge should be good though. Lastly, Riders only have 4 beating the bushes currently in the US. Esks with 8, Stamps with 6 could lose some big names, none bigger than the 2 QB's. Will be an interesting year. As for the QB rumours, forget Reilly. He isn't coming here. Might be a good idea to go for a Jennings while the Reilly situation plays out. Once he's gone, others may be looking at JJ. All the best in 2019 Rider. Keep up the good work.
What is this diet not based on butter, cheese, and chocolate you speak of? All I can see you missing is meat.
Re. What happened to Dennis last year- his interview before his first game against the Riders last year did tick me off. He admitted to not coming to camp ready to go in 2017 after signing his big contract. That and perhaps Calgary's system may be more O tackle friendly? Just a guess.
Yeah I don't count Dennis as a miss by Jones. We needed OL help and he was the best available. I think it was a mixture of him not working as hard in the off-season after his pay day and him being a better fit in Calgary's system as you say
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