O’Day doesn’t expect to be buying at CFL trade deadline

If TSN had a TradeCentre telecast planned for the CFL’s 2022 trade deadline, it likely wouldn’t be good television — especially in Saskatchewan.

The deadline arrives Wednesday at 3 p.m. Regina time, and Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager Jeremy O’Day told reporters he doesn’t expect there to be much action involving the Green and White.

“We don’t sit and wait for the trade deadline and then go, ‘OK, there’s a trade deadline. Let’s start making trades,’ ’’ O’Day said. “You always understand that, at a certain point, you’re not going to be able to make any trades anymore.

“We’ve had conversations and we’ve been in communications with other teams. I don’t think there’s going to be any trades that are happening for us before the deadline barring something that changes in the last minute.”

Some Roughriders fans have been looking west and wondering if the team might pull the trigger on a deal to get quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell out of the Calgary Stampeders, now that he has been relegated to backup duty behind Jake Maier.

O’Day threw cold water on that idea.

“We haven’t had any conversations with Calgary for Bo Levi,” O’Day said, “and to be honest, if we did, I wouldn’t be addressing it to the media.”

One area that has drawn a lot of criticism in Saskatchewan has been the pass protection, with the Roughriders surrendering a league-high 59 sacks through 15 games.

O’Day’s stated position on trades would suggest that’s not going to be addressed at the deadline, either.

“We felt pretty decent coming out of training camp (with the offensive line) and early in the season, we were having some success protecting the quarterback and also running the football,” he said. “Progressively, it started to get worse.

“We’re trying to get some continuity on the offensive line and sometimes you’re moving guys around and we were juggling some guys with injuries.”

O’Day admitted it’s tough to bring in good offensive linemen late in a season because many linemen cut from NFL camps often wait for another chance there before coming to the CFL.

In a nine-team league, dealing a player could mean facing him at least once down the stretch of the regular season or in the playoffs. O’Day admitted that’s not an ideal situation given the emotions that could be involved, but a trade still could happen if it makes sense for both teams.

That said, O’Day doesn’t expect a lot of deadline deals across the league.

“Our rosters are so small, so it’s not a norm for trades to happen a whole bunch just because it’s a small league and a lot of the teams are still in the playoff hunt,” he said.

“Unless you’re trading starters for starters or guys that are on the injured reserve, there’s not a lot of fluctuation that goes back and forth.”

— With files from 980 CJME’s Britton Gray