JONES JOINS THE SPORTSCAGE

Photo: CFL.ca

Fresh off the announcement of his contract extension which will keep him as Head Coach and General Manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders through 2020, Chris Jones took time out of the CFL’s Winter Meetings in Mont Tremblant, PQ on Tuesday to join 620 CKRM’s SportsCage.

Here are his comments:


HOW DOES THE NEW DEAL FEEL?

CJ: “It’s great. We got a real good organization. Craig (Reynolds) does a real nice job with the timing of these things. He doesn’t try to get in the way during the season. It’s something we’ve been discussing for quite some time. He made it very clear that he wanted me back and wanted to continue the continuity that we have.

“That’s kind of the biggest thing; you look at teams that have had success, from Ottawa to Calgary, they’ve had great continuity in their organizations. It just makes good business sense to do that. I’m glad to have that behind us and have our staff back. We’ve got our operations people back for the most part, except one, so I mean we’re looking forward to getting started.”


WAS THERE EVER A THREAT OF YOU LEAVING FOR THE NFL?

CJ: “I’ve not spoken to any of the NFL teams. Nobody’s reached out to me personally. I’ve never had representation and have never been in a position where I felt I needed that type of thing. People would call over the last month and say ‘So and so is asking some pretty candid questions’. 3 or 4 teams were asking things about me and that’s about the extent of it, quite honestly. We’ll see if anything ever comes of it.

“Again, I got work to do with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. We’ve got some unfinished business to attend to and we’ve got a group of very dedicated coaches that are back. We’ve got a group of players that are excited get this thing started.”


WHAT DOES THE ADDITION OF PAUL JONES MEAN TO YOUR PERSONNEL DEPT.?

“You’ve gotta have great players. If you go around the league and ask who some of the top personnel guys are, his name is always brought up. And it has been for years. He’s been in Edmonton a long time and he and I have a great relationship. When it became evident that we weren’t going to be able to work things out with Murph, we called and got permission to talk to Paul. Paul was interested in talking, and coming to join us. I think it’s a good fit on both sides.”


WHERE DOES YOUR QB POSITION STAND RIGHT NOW?

“I can just tell you this: there are gonna be a lot of guys on the street that’ve played that position. We’re gonna look at every single one of them. I can tell you that.”