Monday Morning Sentimonies: Ins and Outs

Nothing unites CFL fans more than complaining. Refs, video review, Grey Cup halftime show. The specifics of the complaints may differ from person to person, but we are united in voicing displeasure. The most recent uniting force was the schedule. Essentially from the minute the Bombers finished their annual Grey Cup choke up until the schedule release late last week fans we’re united in their complaints about a lack of a schedule. And we enjoyed a brief moment of happiness before immediately starting to complain about the schedule itself. CFL fans… we’re only happy when we are miserable. 

Actually from a Rider perspective the schedule was great news and should not garner much in the way of complaints. Evenly spaced bye weeks, next to no short weeks. Clearly the CFL owed us one after all those Thursday road games against teams coming off byes. I give the schedule a thumbs up. 

Moving on to free agency… 

With less than a month to go before free agency opens, time is starting to run short to re-sign our pending FAs. With that in mind, today I present 5 Ins (guys I think we should be re-signing) and 5 outs (guys that either I wouldn’t re-sign, or I would not be surprised for us to let walk). 

Ins

1.     Peter Godber -  given how our OL fared without him it may be tempting to think we could let him walk. Wrong! O-line depth is paramount. Godber is a rock in the center of that OL I want him and Ferland locking down that interior longterm.

2.     Micah Johnson – Old man Micah still gets it done! Despite his age he his coming off his best season ever as a Rider. He’s a leader. He’s still an impact player. He hasn’t missed a game in 2 seasons.

3.     Miles Brown – As much as I love Micah, we need some youth at the D Tackle too. Brown is 27. Aside from that unfortunate run of bad luck that turned him into a notorious QB crippler, Brown has been doing really positive things over the past few seasons.

4.     Adam Auclair – Gotta have Canadians, especially ones that can start. I still think our preference to have him as a rotation guy but he is good enough to start if needed.

5.     Marcus Sayles – He was the only non-Milligan part of our secondary that wasn’t awful last season. After BC mysteriously deemed him expendable he came here and tied a career high with 4 INTs. Be nice not to have 4 question marks in our starting secondary heading into the season.

Outs

1.     Philip Blake - I’ll start with an easy one. At 39 years of age, Blake has managed to be on the field for 8 games over his 2 seasons in Saskatchewan. We desperately needed OL help when we signed him but we are in a much better place and if he plays another season (big if), it won’t be here.

2.     Anthony Lanier – This one hurts me a bit. I have always been a big Lanier fan. He can be among the most disruptive forces in the league. The issue is that we have been paying him accordingly but that force is very intermittent. He has never played more than 14 games in a season. With the rise of younger cheaper guys like Brown and Sanders, I just don’t see us being willing to pay him what it will take to retain him. I would love to keep him if he’s willing to take a big discount to do it. But if I am looking at places to save money, he’s at the top of the list.

3.     Mario Alford – Another one that hurts. I love Alford. He’s the best returner I’ve seen since Corey Holmes. And arguably one of the best ever in the franchise history. But how long do you continue to pay a 34 year old guy who does nothing but return?

4.     Nelson Lokombo – This one is me being wishful not me thinking its likely. I bet we keep him… but I cannot think of many reasons why we would want to. I have not seen a less impactful safety in my times watching the Riders and I lived through the Scott Gordon era.

5.     Amari Henderson – Henderson is a frustrating player. He makes enough plays that you don’t want to bench him. But he screws up enough plays that you regret starting him. Early on I was willing to give him more time to develop. But after 3 seasons I think we have seen his ceiling. I’ll give him this, if I ever needed a DB to shut down a WR screen that’s his jam. He just struggles when receivers run routes longer than 2 yards.