O’DAY ON CFL FREE AGENCY

The bell rings at 11:00 am Tuesday for the beginning of the 2015 Canadian Football League free agency period.  Saskatchewan Roughriders Assistant GM Jeremy O’Day appeared on 620 CKRM’s SportsCage on Monday afternoon and said his club is looking forward to the market coming open.

“It’s always an interesting time,” O’Day said.  “Even just seeing where guys end up and what teams are more active than others.  It’s exciting just to see what will go on.  It’s been going on for quite awhile with guys that have been going through contract negotiations and trying to get deals done.  It’s a little bit hectic but it’s normal for this time of the year.”

The Riders trimmed their list of pending free agents by two on Monday by signing veterans Tristan Jackson (CB/KR) and Kevin Regimbald (LB/ST) to new contracts.  O’Day said the deals came together rather quickly.

“Pretty similar in that when it came down to it, they both just wanted to get a deal done to stay in Saskatchewan,” O’Day reported.  “I think everyone going through free agency – or is about to – will always tell the team they’re dealing with that they want to be back but ultimately until they sign a contract, that doesn’t mean anything.

“I think for the most part anyone would go back to their team if the money was right.  Nine times out of ten it comes down to the dollar value but with these guys, they came in and said they were treated fairly enough to come back to Saskatchewan and obviously they like playing here.”

The Riders had mentioned over the past couple of weeks they’ll be on the lookout for some Canadian starters during the free agent period, notably at defensive tackle.

“To look into a little deeper, obviously that would be a spot on defense that to find another Canadian starter would be great for us,” O’Day admitted.  “To have flexibility for not only the defense, but for the offense as well, the more guys you can find that are able to step in and be starters, it allows flexibility.  Injuries happen all the time so if you’re just walking into camp with seven or eight Canadians that can be starters, you’re going to be in trouble.  We’re going to try to find as many guys that can be starters as possible.”

O’Day was asked how he would rate this year’s free agent class.

“I think it’s pretty similar to most years where you start off with a huge list of free agents and then as you get closer, you realize a lot of those guys are signing back with their teams,” O’Day continued.  “I guess it just depends on your philosophy as it pertains to free agents.  Are you a guy that wants to be more active in free agency?  There are some guys out there that will be difference-makers but you have to fit that in with your salary cap and the makeup of your roster.  There are guys you’d love to have but do they fit in what what you already have financially?  That’s what we have to figure out.”

As for the back-up quarterback position, the Riders have tabled an offer to veteran second-stringer Tino Sunseri but have not yet been presented with a counter-offer.  The club has also expressed mild interest in free agent pivot Kevin Glenn.  O’Day said the quarterback depth chart is a little thin at this point.

“Right now as we speak it’s very gray,” O’Day said.  “We don’t have a lot of quarterbacks on our roster as of right now.  Obviously that’s something we’ll address going into free agency.  It will get cleared up going through this process, obviously.  There are some guys we have an interest in but we have our negotiation list too that we feel pretty comfortable with some of those players.  It will get cleared up just like it does every year and we’ll have those answers real soon.”

We’ll have a complete Free Agent Frenzy wrap on the SportsCage Tuesday at 4:00 pm on 620 CKRM with analyst Luc Mullinder.

RP