JONES SPEAKS ON FREE AGENCY
Saskatchewan Roughriders Head coach & GM Chris Jones met with the media on Wednesday afternoon at New Mosaic Stadium regarding the team’s free agent moves, including the recent signings of S Marc-Olivier Brouillette and PR/REC Chad Owens
ON FREE AGENCY:
CJ: I thought our personnel department – John Murphy, Jeremy O’Day and Mike Davis – did an outstanding job. They get all the credit for the guys that we acquired. I think that we got some very good players to put into positions that will add depth and build our team.
We’ve got some other guys to wrap up but we got six players that we have listed at different positions. It depends on who’s available as to whether we’ll stay busy.
ON OT DEREK DENNIS
CJ: He’s a very good player. Voted-on awards are what they are. Again, he’s a very good football player and we fully expect he’ll come protect the backside of our QB. We needed to solidify our offensive line and protecting our quarterback has been a problem. We feel very good that Derek can do that job. I can assure that whether you’re a veteran or rookie QB, if you can’t protect the blindside, you’re going to be in trouble.
ON THE STATUS OF GUARDS BRENDON LABATTE AND CHRIS BEST
CJ: Labatte, we’re gonna see. There’ll be some information coming out on Best pretty soon but Labatte has got some positive prognosis but we’ll have to reserve judgment until we actually see it.
ON ADDING FREE AGENT CANADIANS
CJ: That’s how you win games in the CFL; quarterback play and Canadian depth. That’s one of the things we’ve been trying to achieve, try to get picks and acquire as many quality Canadians as we can. That’s been a priority.
ON STARTING A CANADIAN TAILBACK
CJ: It gives you some versatility and we also signed Aaron Milton who can play fullback and tailback which will give depth behind Spencer Moore. He catches the ball well and is a good special teamer so if we have to, we can go Canadian at tailback.
ON SIGNING CHAD OWENS
CJ: Owens’ name popped up a few days ago and we reached out to C.O. We wanted to target a solid returner so we don’t have to worry about catching the football. Chad’s averaged 11-yards per return in his career and his 13.1 last year led the league. If we get that out of him, that’s what we’re looking for.
He’s a dynamic player regardless of where you put him. He’s not the youngest guy in the world and we spoke to him about that. He keeps himself in great condition but his primary job here will be to flip the field.
