O’DAY ON THE EXPANSION DRAFT

The number one topic in the CFL right now, aside from the ever-revolving coaching carousel, is the 2013 Ottawa expansion draft to be held on Monday, December 16 to stock the RedBlacks.

Roughriders Assistant GM Jeremy O’Day explained the process on Monday’s SportsCage, including the situation with the team’s 19 players facing free agency this February.  The list includes Kory Sheets, Taj Smith, Weston Dressler, Craig Butler and Chris Milo.

“If you look across across the league I think we’re right in the middle of the pack as far as the number of free agents,” O’Day explained.  “I think it’s larger than most years but I think there are two teams that have more than us, another team has the same amount and most of the teams are going by that philosophy.”

O’Day explained that this was by design, as it makes things very difficult for RedBlacks GM Marcel Desjardins in selecting players in two weeks’ time.

“The reason for that is if you have free agents, and if Ottawa’s not going to draft potential free agents for the fear of not being able to re-sign them, then you can end up protecting more guys than you would if you had them all under contract,” O’Day continued.  “That’s that something that each team will have to assess and is it worth the risk of losing a guy and Ottawa has a couple months to negotiate with him?  Those are things you have to consider when planning for this expansion draft.”

This means it’s a gamble for teams on both sides of the draft.  The Riders could leave their potential free agents unprotected, but face the risk of losing them in the draft.  Ottawa’s in a bind because if they take one of them, say Weston Dressler, he could re-sign with Saskatchewan once free agency hits on February 15.

“I would say it’s probably what you’re willing to risk and if you don’t protect a guy there’s always a potential they can draft him and they could ‘wow’ him,” O’Day said regarding a courtship by the RedBlacks.  “They don’t have anybody under contract so they can afford to pay guys more money than teams that are near the cap.  That’s a definite risk and something we’ll consider.  You don’t want to lose marquee guys whether they’re under contract or not but we’ll be prepared when we send in our list.”

That list will be provided to the CFL next Monday, and will not be made public.  However coming up with the list could be quite a headache for the CFL and the other seven teams.

“It is,” O’Day said.  “We’re coming off a year where we had nine all-stars and we had five or six more who we thought could have been all-stars.  We’re looking at having to lose a good couple of players regardless of their contractual status.  We know that we’ll lose some of our guys, but each team will have their strategy regarding age and salary.”

For many the draft itself is somewhat confusing, and it’s different from the 2003 expansion draft stage for the Ottawa Renegades.

“What’s gonna happen is they’ll have a draft where you can protect 10 import players and they get to draft one from each team in the first round,” O’Day explained.  “You can protect only one quarterback too.  In the second round you can protect six non-imports and they can then select one from each team.  The last round you can protect an additional six non-imports and they can protect one from each team.  Ultimately you can protect a quarterback, 10 imports and 12 Canadians.

“They can take a quarterback and if they do that, you’re able to protect two more Canadians so that’s another rule people don’t understand.  Obviously the more you can protect is good.  Again, they have to look at which QBs are under contract and which are free agents.  If they take a potential free agent QB, they run the risk of not being able to sign him in February once his contract expires.  They would basically lose a pick so there will be a lot of strategy involved with their side too.”

Since 2011 the Roughriders have painstakingly built their Canadian depth but in the end will be stung by their success.  Ottawa’s going to get some great players.

“We’ll definitely be confident once our list is done and we’ll all sit down and determine the best-case going forward and who we’re willing protect, and the potential of losing guys,”  O’Day admitted.  “The sad part is you know you’ll lose three guys who were just on your Grey Cup team.  We felt like we had very good depth in imports and non-imports so we know we’ll lose quality players and more than likely they are starters.  It’s not anything you’re excited for.  You don’t want to lose guys who’ve been here and just came away with a Grey Cup ring.  I know there will be some guys that will be disappointed.”

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Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

In some respects the draft is unfair to existing teams. While I understand it is important for the new team to be competitive, it allows a new team to cherry pick good players thereby weakening the league or put another way, brings the other teams down to their level. It does not raise the new team to a higher level.
Should be a difficult time for all teams who cannot protect all their bread and butter players.
This is where team management earns their bucks.

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Roughriders management were fully aware of the pending REDBLACKS draft since the announcement of Ottawa's return to the CFL but choose to go all out with other high priced free agent signings direction to appease a fanbase with a championship on home field neglecting/deferring to sign their prized team player's in the last year of service contract. (Kory Sheets, Weston Dressler, etc.) Will most likely lose some very valuable talent via the Ottawa RREDBLACKS draft and the free agency route, highly sought after Canadian team content will surely be gone after the Roughriders drafted, invested, developed. After it's all said… Read more »

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

The Riders wont be gutted like alot of people thinking. Rod, correct me if im wrong, in the 3 rounds of the draft, Ottawa can only choose one player from each team per round, correct?

And complaining about Winning the grey cup? *FACEPALM*

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Anon#2 – you're an idiot.

You don't even deserve an explanation as to why.

Tyler
11 years ago

Anonymous 2: what is the long term plan, other than win a cup? Why put off for tomorrow what you can accomplish today?

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Earth to the second Anon, we try to win the Grey Cup every single year. This isn't some Al Ford show where we hope to at least make the playoffs and be happy. This expansion draft will take THREE players from our roster and that's it. Big whoop. We'll be back strong in 2014 to repeat the double. Didn't take long to find you something to complain about now that Durant has won us the Cup hey? Gee whiz.

Gunderson's Yorkton

Gwils26
Gwils26
11 years ago

So… If I'm not mistaken we screwed ourselves by building a team to win the GC and now we are seeing the blunders of our inept head office.

I knew that GC win felt too good, there had to be something wrong with it!

#dariansfault

Ronbo the Riderfan
Ronbo the Riderfan
11 years ago

Yes, we'll lose a few (three) good players, but so will every other team in the league. We won't be better or worse off than anyone else. We'll lose a few more to free agency but that happens every year. Since there are more than the usual number of free agents we'll lose more than usual, but so will every other team. We have two big advantages in that the players love playing here, we are also strong contenders and the extra paycheques from playoff games is also a big incentive to sign here. So we could lose a couple… Read more »

RWAH
RWAH
11 years ago

As I understand it we have 19 (potential free agents) or high risk draft picks for the Red Blacks. We can like all the teams protect a total of 22 roster players (10 imports & 12 non) My math is a total of 41 roster player that are not available or a high risk to the Red Blacks. Yes we will lose three players and so will the other 7 teams in the league but the loss should be the 42 player and I call that good management.

MJ Mike
MJ Mike
11 years ago

Is that the first negative comment since the GC win?

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Must be the same guy that was hoping that we'd lose to BC just so management could be "taught a lesson". In the words of Lindy Ruff, "what a joke".

Dubya

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Anon #2 was probably a troll. Big whoop, in theory, we'll lose our 11th best import and our 7th and 14th best Canucks. And….so will every other team.

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Who the Riders protect is easy

Imports: Durant, Fulton, Brown, Brackenridge, Anderson, Rod Williams, Rey Williams, Chick, George, Simon and Ferri.

Non-imports: Best, Labatte, Heenan, Getz, Shologan and Foley (All the canadian starters who aren’t pending FA’s). The additional 6 after rnd 2 will be 6 of the 7 – b/c one will be selected (Bagg, Watman, Clark, Evans, Steinhauer, Hurl, McHenry)

freeze
11 years ago

It is really disappointing that the CFL is doing all of this in a hush-hush manner. They are usually so good at engaging their fans. I would love to follow or watch the draft online or TV. I also think they are going overboard by making the protected lists secret. It only delays when guys find out.

freeze
11 years ago

It is really disappointing that the CFL is doing all of this in a hush-hush manner. They are usually so good at engaging their fans. I would love to follow or watch the draft online or TV. I also think they are going overboard by making the protected lists secret. It only delays when guys find out.

Rafal
11 years ago

Here is a great thing for Rider fans to sit with Getzlaf in January and watch football with him and Chat.

https://www.airmiles.ca/arrow/RewardsProductList?a=true&selectedCategoryId=cat200003&filter=100002%3ACFL+Football+Experience__CFL+Football+Experience&changeLocale=en_CA

RDS

CM
CM
11 years ago

The first 2 comments are head scratching. a league is only as strong as its weakest link? who wants a sad sack team in the league to start? Think NFL = parity.

The 2nd anon. Dumb.

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

Anon #2 is a bonehead!We stand to lose one import and 2 Canadians….Taman and Co have done a wonderful job of managing the risk/exposure, going back 2 maybe 3 years, by signing players at that time so that they would be pending free agents now, making them less desirable for Ottawa to select. Then making deals like getting Hall from the bombers for a Canadian lineman that would not have been protected in the draft. So we got a piece to help acheive the grey cup for an asset we most certainly would have got nothing for in the draft.… Read more »

Anonymous
Anonymous
11 years ago

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to understand what the Riders are doing with their FA's. The reality is the "Red? . . Back in the League" would be foolish to select any pending free agents. Furthermore, I doubt any Rider FA's that get picked by Ottawa will not have had a conversation with the Rider's first with the Riders saying we're not protecting you because we'll sign you back on Feb 15, and this will be the message prior to the expansion draft.I know I would be having those conversations. Not worried, and the Riders will be… Read more »