O’DAY’S TURN

Saskatchewan Roughriders Assistant GM Jeremy O’Day fielded reporters’ questions on Wednesday regarding the team’s interest in free agent running back Kory Sheets and the status of QB Darian Durant.  Here’s what he said:

ON THEIR INTEREST IN SHEETS

JO:  That’s a pretty big question.  There’s a lot of moving parts to answer that question.  One, we’re talking about a guy that’s not healthy enough to play football yet.  Two, what’s his current situation?  Is he planning on going through the process of seeing if there’s NFL interest, which we’ve been told by him that he’s going to go through the process of checking out his options in the NFL?  Then we’ll go from there.  There’s a lot of questions to be answered regarding Kory.  We’re under the impression that he’s starting running but that’s as far as we know about that.  Does he want to come back?  Does he fit into our salary cap?  Those are all questions that we need to have answered.

HOW LONG BEFORE HE’S READY TO PLAY?

JO:  I think in most cases achilles injuries are around 9-11 months.  Somewhere around there.  Obviously he’s a player that’s come off one on his other foot so he’s gone through the process before.  I’m sure he’s well aware of the process and the timing that it takes.  The timing of it, if you look at it from a medical standpoint, and I’m not a doctor, he probably is going to be ready to play for the season.

WHAT ABOUT HIS OFF-SEASON LEGAL ISSUES?

JO:  It’s definitely a factor.  You always want to do your homework on those situations.  Another question we’ll have to have answered is if there’s any immigration concerns.  Is he even allowed to come back into the country?  Those are some of the things we need to have answered before we get down to decision time of whether he’ll come back to Saskatchewan or the CFL.

ARE THOSE THE ISSUES COREY CHAMBLIN WAS ALLUDING TO?

JO:  I think that’s fair to say.  That came up after he signed with the Raiders, obviously.  We went through his first arrest when he was with us.  The second one happened when he was no longer with our team.  Any time you see that happen, sure it’s a concern.  Any organization would look at that.  We’ll have to have a conversation with him and figure out what happened.

WERE THERE OTHER ISSUES WITH HIM DURING HIS TIME HERE?

JO:  No, I think it’s been blown up a little bit in the media about character issues but I think his issues are in the legal part, that are concerning to us.  As far as in the locker room, we didn’t have any problem with Kory in the locker room.  He was a good teammate from all standpoints and was very motivated when he was here.

THE RIDERS HAD SAID HE’S DOWN TO HIS LAST STRIKE…

JO:  That’s definitely something that was said and those conversations haven’t taken place.  As far as we’re concerned, Kory just became a free agent on Tuesday.  So those conversations haven’t taken place between all of us in the same room where we’ve sat down and gone through all the moving parts because there’s a lot of moving parts.  It’s not as clearcut as he’s available and he wants to come back.  There’s a lot of questions that need to be answered before we make a decision.

ARE YOU COMFORTABLE WITH YOUR RUNNING BACKS?

JO:  I think Anthony Allen often gets overlooked.  You look at Anthony last year, he was second in the league in rushing and he missed a couple games because he had some fumbles.  He’s a very good running back and we’re comfortable with him.  Steven Miller’s a guy we didn’t get to see too much of but we feel he’s a pretty dynamic running back.  And Jerome Messam is a guy that played well for us too last year.  I think we’re in pretty good position there.  We’ll look to try to get better at every position and we’re trying to be the best team possible.



WILL DURANT PARTICIPATE IN THE FLORIDA CAMP?

JO:  He will throw at minicamp.  I can’t tell you exactly how many throws.  It won’t be like a pitch count in baseball or anything like that.  But he’ll be there.  How many passes he throws or how many practices he participates in will be up to Corey Chamblin and him but we fully anticipate, and Darian made it very clear, that he wants to throw in camp.  He doesn’t just want to come down and just observe and go through the meetings and stuff.  It’s good for all of us and it’s good for him to see where he’s at.

HOW CLOSELY WILL YOU BE WATCHING HIM?

JO:  Normally when you have a QB of his calibre on a practice day you’re just sort of watching because he’s out there but when he’s coming off an injury, sure you’re going to be anxious to see how he throws.  It’ll be nice for us to see him.