‘Every position we had pretty strong conversations’: Riders GM on making final cuts

Jeremy O’Day says many tough decisions had to be made following training camp.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders held their first CFL camp since 2019 due to the COVID-19 pandemic wiping out the 2020 season.

On Friday, the team announced who made the team and who would be sent home.

“It’s not a fun day. We’re spending a lot of time telling guys they didn’t make our team and you’re also spending a lot of time telling guys that good news is you made the team, the bad news is you’re going to be on (the practice roster),” the Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager said. “Pretty much every position we had pretty strong conversations.”

But after the tough decisions, and a bevy of injuries, O’Day is excited about what the 2021 team can do. The team has five players who suffered Achilles injuries — linebacker Larry Dean, defensive end Freddie Bishop III, running back Jonathan Femi-Cole, defensive back Nelson Lokombo and linebacker Tim Williams — and will not see the field this season.

“When injuries happen, you have to adjust and when that opportunity presents itself for another player, hopefully they can step up and take that opportunity,” O’Day said. “We think we have some good players who can fill those roles and hopefully become the next stars.”

While the Riders will only dress two quarterbacks during the season, there are three options for them on the main roster.

Incumbent starter Cody Fajardo, second-season CFLer Isaac Harker and former first-round NFL draft pick Paxton Lynch were kept on the roster. CFL rookie Mason Fine was added to the practice roster.

“We chose to keep four quarterbacks. We liked all of our quarterbacks and it was close coming down to the end but when we looked at it, we wanted to keep as many of them as we could,” O’Day said.

O’Day said it would be up to head coach Craig Dickenson as to how the quarterback depth chart will look.

The Riders could lean on a lot of Canadian talent this season. There are 25 spots on the main roster claimed by national players ahead of Week 1.

O’Day says the goal was to always give coaches flexibility when it comes to the ratio.

“We want to make sure that coaches have the ability to do that. How we’re going to set the ratio will be up to coach Dickenson and the coaching staff but we wanted to allow that flexibility so we’re happy that we have so many quality Canadians,” O’Day said.

This year there is an addition to the normal practice roster spots. The league has added a CFL practice roster, which added five spots to it.

“Other teams have the ability to claim them if they have injuries or a COVID outbreak, they can claim those players. To be quite honest, all of our players on the practice roster are able to be claimed so it’s not a whole lot different than any other year,” O’Day said. “There are some rules that if a player gets claimed and they do go to another team, they have to be activated and once they come off the active, if they are not staying on the roster, they will have to go back to the original team.”

One player back on the practice roster is wide receiver Paul McRoberts, who had another strong showing for his second straight CFL camp.

“He keeps making plays in practice and came in a little bit leaner than he did in 2019 and got himself in good shape. It took him a while to get his legs under him but when he did, he started playing like he did in the past,” O’Day said. “Just like the rest of the guys who are on the PR, they are all looking for an opportunity and I don’t know many positions that if you stuck around long enough, you didn’t get an opportunity. He’s certainly champing at the bit to play and that’s what you want.”

O’Day said that other than players already on the injured list, only defensive end Jordan Reaves could end up on the list ahead of Week 1 as of now.