DURANT #1?

Roughriders GM Brendan Taman reported on Monday that contract extension talks with quarterback Darian Durant are coming along nicely but they’re nowhere near complete.

The word in the CFL is that when the new deal is reached, the nine-year veteran quarterback will be the highest-paid player in the CFL in the $500,000 per season range.  Durant has switched agents through this process and is now represented by Vancouver-based Dan Vertlieb.  SportsCage CFL Insider Arash Madani of Rogers Sportsnet doesn’t disagree with the notion that Durant should get top dollar, but at what price?

“He’s likely going to be right in and around there,” Madani said on Tuesday.  “However I think it would be great if Darian Durant wasn’t, from a cap standpoint.  I haven’t seen the Henry Burris contract but if the reports are accurate that he’s in the $425,000-$450,000 range, you hope Darian Durant isn’t getting those kind of dollars because you’re trying to work and win within a cap system.”

Madani figures throwing huge dollars at Durant could throw the Riders’ salary structure out of whack.

“Around $400,000 has to be the going rate for a quarterback, especially when you’ve just led your team to a Grey Cup, especially when Burris is making that kind of money and especially when Travis Lulay is making what he makes,” Madani continued.  “That’s market value.  What you want is for Durant to be paid among the top quarterbacks but from a cap standpoint, you hope he isn’t the highest-paid quarterback in the league.”

That’s not to say Durant doesn’t deserve to be the top dog however.

“Durant’s worth it.  Durant’s absolutely worth it,” Arash said.  “The top two guys right now, with Calvillo out of the mix, are Durant and Lulay.  Durant absolutely belongs in that conversation.  What I’m saying is if you’re a fan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, if you’re the Roughriders football club, what you’re hoping for is Darian Durant is not going to be the highest-paid player in the league.

“You want to give him what he deserves, but at the same time you want somebody to block and catch for Durant.  We’re in a scenario now where a line has been drawn between the league and the players and we don’t know what the salary cap will be.”

On the flipside, should star running back Kory Sheets find his way back to the Riders from the NFL’s Oakland Raiders this summer, you know he’ll do so with his hand out.  Sheets will be a free agent as CFL teams go but is coming off a record-breaking campaign in 2013.  Madani figures the Riders need to be careful with what they offer Sheets in the event he does come back.

“At some point you have to make up your mind as to what your priorities are going to be and unless your name is Adrian Peterson, and this is not an NFL/CFL thing – this is a once-in-a-generation-talent sort of thing – then you’re replaceable,” Madani said.  “To me, what you want to do is allocate your dollars in the right areas and that’s Canadian offensive linemen, Canadian starters, quarterback and then the impact players.  Running backs in pro football, on both sides of the border, are incredibly expendable and spending in the neighbourhood of $150,000 on an import running back in a ratio league makes absolutely no financial sense.”

Of course we’re talking about a salary cap that, to date, no one is actually sure what it is.  CFL teams have been told the cap would go up following the 2013 season but so far no increase has been announced.  That’s a part of what the CFL and CFL Players Association are currently fighting over and according to Arash, there’s no end in sight.

“Twice meetings have been cancelled but I believe the league thought at some point the players would cave and maybe they will but I don’t get the sense, when you get a feel of what’s coming out of these meetings, the players are going to give and cave this time,” Madani reported.  “The Americans are often the players that want to play the most but I quoted new CFLPA President Scott Flory on Twitter yesterday and it was retweeted by Alex Suber, Keon Raymond and Nik Lewis.  All Americans.

“I don’t think the CFL was quite aware how much of a fight the players were going to bring.  I think we’re in for a real contentious couple of months coming up.”