Riders – the Lourdes of Professional Football?

In addition, the free agent signings and perhaps even a trade or two involved injured players who came cheapish because they were coming off an injury, or in the case of Eric Norwood, rehabbing until they can get healthy enough to get on the field, whenever that may be.

In keeping with the spirit of a place that injured football players can find a second chance, the Riders announced the signing of Jonathan Williams: a former defensive lineman with the Ottawa Redblacks who is coming off a groin injury. Jones is rolling the dice with injured players, including using a third draft pick next year to select Kevin Francis, a receiver from North Carolina A&T who is 6’5” 210 lbs who missed most of last season due to a knee injury.

Now the Riders fourth round draft pick, David Onyemata signed a four year contract with the NFL New Orleans Saints who drafted him this year with Elie Bouka, a defensive back, in the Arizona Cardinal Camp. To add to the fun, Josiah St. John, the Riders first overall draft pick, has not yet signed a contract and is looking for a one year and an option deal while the Riders may be looking at a two years and an option deal.

The reason for the shorter contract is that even though St. John played at Oklahoma, a top football university, he lost his job as a starter to a freshman and judging from some of his comments, feels the CFL is too small for him and he needs to be in the NFL right now, or as soon as possible.

Add to this the debacle of the Riders trading Mo Price, who took $30 K in a bonus payment and promptly retired; Bruce Campbell, an offensive lineman the Riders traded for who also retired and John Kelly, a wide receiver who retired, albeit for medical reasons, and you get an interesting picture of a management team swinging and missing in an effort to bring in players they thought they knew from previous stops, but apparently not well enough.

Then when you look at the depth chart and see Curtis Steele as a running back that did well with Toronto, but again is coming off an injury, my Lourdes analogy seems more and more apt by the moment.

These are all interesting questions one would think would have been asked of Jones in his conference call Tuesday, but the local media seemed interested in asking why he wore black. It would have been interesting to hear the rationale for some the moves Jones and Murphy have made, although I would not include Weston Dressler and John Chick in that category. I can understand why they were released, the manner of which left a lot to be desired.

Jones should be confident in his ability to pick talent, even those coming off of injury. In Edmonton Jones found out Adarious Bowman, a former Rider wide receiver, needed contact lenses. He got those two years ago and the quality of his play has gone up since then.
That was a great call; the result of an attention to detail that is what Rider fans like myself are hoping will pay off this year. However, in the wild world of professional football, not all gambles pay off, and the question is what the Riders batting average will be?

The Riders have attempted to bounce back from the retirements by signing players like former Bomber Clarence Denmark, who in my mind was better than Mo Price, and yesterday announcing Xavier Fulton. The rumor circuit was hot with talk that Canadian linebacker Henoc Muamba, released by Montreal in a salary cap move, could be coming to the Riders. The problem is Muamba’s agent is the same as St. John’s and this agent wants his guys to hit the NFL, never mind if they can stick in there or not, but if that gamble pays off, the agents cut goes up accordingly.

While Muamba would be a great addition, the problem is if the Riders sign him, who would back him up? If you have a starting Canadian, you better have a good Canadian backup, otherwise you will have to go down your roster and find where you can pick and choose your Canadians.

Quite frankly, I could give a rat’s nether regions if St. John ever puts on a Rider jersey. His lack of playing time in US college makes him a back up to start off and his desire to show he is a NFL practice roster player (where to be fair, he would make more than as a starter here) makes him nothing more than a placeholder. I would not be surprised if the Riders traded St. John to say Toronto, and got a draft pick and a negotiation list player in return.

I would rather get someone here who wants to play and if they play well, then if they want, let them try the NFL. Of course by the time I hit send, he may sign, but trust me Rider fans, St. John won’t be here for long, if he ever gets here.

So here is what our depth chart looks like heading into Sunday.

QB- Darian Durant, Brett Smith, BJ Coleman
RB- Curtis Steele, Kendial Lawrence, Matt Walter, Malcolm Cyrus, Terrance Cobb, Devrin Young
FB- Spencer Moore
WR- John Chiles, Marcus Davis, Ryan Lankford, Bud Sasser
SB- Namman Roosevelt, Alec Lemon, Armanti Edwards
SB- Clarence Denmark, Nic Demski, Kevin Francis, SJ Haidara
SB- Shamawd Chambers, Jordan Reeves, Joshua Stanford
WR- Rob Bagg, Shay Hoge, Etauj Allen, Victor Dean Jr.
LT- Xavier Fulton, Thaddeus Coleman, TreVon Armstread, Darryl Johnson
LG- Brendan Labatte
OC- Dan Clark
RG- Chris Best, Andrew Jones, Matt Vonk, Aaron Picton
RT- Jarriel King, Josiah St. John, Kamalie Matthews, Alex McKay
DE- Shawn Lemon, Eric Norwood, Marcus White
DT- Caesar Rayford, Jonathan Williams,Hasan Hazime, Rory Connop, Tim Agbaje
DT- Corvey Irvin
DE- Justin Capicciotti, Dylan Ainsworth, Levi Steinhauer
LB- Jeff Knox, Nehemie Kankolongo, Alex Ogbongbemiga
MLB- Greg Jones
LB- Otha Foster, Samuel Eguavoen
CB- Curtis Brown, Tevaughn Campbell
HB- Derrius Brooks, Kwame Adjei
S- Graig Newman, Johnathan Shuler, Matt Webster, Dan West
HB- Tyree Hollins, David Barks
CB- Ed Gainey, Marte Sears, Qudarius Ford
K- Tyler Crapinga, Quinn Van Gylswyk
P- Josh Bartell
LS- Jorgen Hus
KR/PR- Kendial Lawrence, Nick Demski

Of, as far as Raheem Cato, the QB from Montreal becoming available as Montreal traded a first round draft pick to BC for former Oregon QB Vernon Adams Jr., I would humbly submit that while Cato looked good at times, and he was once upon a time on the Rider negotiation list, his erratic personal behaviour makes him a gamble to bring in while the Riders were auditioning other quarterbacks.

Let someone else go with Cato, I’m really curious how the Riders 2016 training camp is going to turn out with the first exhibition game June 11 here against the BC Lions.

by Riderville

Riders – the Lourdes of Professional Football?

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