‘Time to get to work:’ Robertson focused on 2023 Riders season

Pete Robertson has already turned the page on 2022.

“It didn’t take me long. I’m a guy that can handle adversity very well. The biggest thing with me is about moving on and with life, you’ve got to move on from things because the longer you hang on to it, the more it’s going to be on your mind and distract you from other things within life,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ defensive end told Jamie Nye on the Green Zone on Thursday. “We’re on to 2023 and it’s time to get to work.”

The 30-year-old product of Longview, Texas was one of the latest re-signings by the Roughriders as CFL free agency approaches on Tuesday. Robertson was set to become a free agent.

“It took a minute because at the end of the day it’s a business on both ends and it’s never anything personal. I was just waiting for the right moment to make me feel comfortable coming back and have (the Riders) also comfortable having me come back,” Robertson said.

Part of that comfortable feeling was who would also be back on the Riders’ defence. Along with Robertson, the team has re-signed defensive backs Nick Marshall and Jeremy Clark, defensive lineman Anthony Lanier II and linebacker Larry Dean.

“We’ve got a good group of guys and it starts with the guys we re-signed but also the guys behind us as well. We’ve got Miles Brown and DeMarcus Christmas and other guys willing to play and are really good when they are,” Robertson said.

“It feels good to have a majority of the leaders back in the house. Hopefully we can turn the defence up and have more production than we did last year.”

Robertson got off to a torrid start last season, recording seven sacks in the team’s first five games of the season.

But he suffered a foot injury in Week 5 against the Ottawa Redblacks and that kept him out of action until Week 11.

While he recorded a sack in his first game back from injury, he only had one more sack the rest of the season, finishing with nine.

“With me coming back, I wasn’t 100 per cent healthy but I couldn’t keep letting my team go out there and just watching them, it was eating me up on the inside. I just knew at the end of the day I had to get back out there and prove we are the same Riders,” Robertson said.

“I didn’t see a lot of one-on-ones anymore, I was getting double-teamed and triple-teamed by a lot of offensive schemes that tried to take me out of the pass-rushing game.”

While there are many of the same faces back on defence, the offence appears set to get a remodel.

There are reports that once players are able to sign a contract on Tuesday, quarterback Trevor Harris will ink a deal with the Riders.

“He’s a good quarterback. I’ve faced him more than once and I know he can play some ball,” Robertson said. “He has some size on him and is a guy that has good feet. From the looks of it, if you give him time in the pocket, he can pick you apart.”

While there remains a number of positions left to be filled by the Riders in free agency, Robertson said his focus is solely on 2023 and getting to work at training camp.

“I’m locked in with the guys we know we’re getting and when we get down there, we’re going to make it clear from camp that there’s no going back,” Robertson said. “We’re not trying to backtrack at all.

“Even the guys that aren’t the starters – we don’t know who the starters are right now – they have to understand their role at the end of the day and their role is to step up when it’s their time to step up.”