TAMAN ON THE CUTS, PRACTICE ROSTER

Saskatchewan Roughriders GM Brendan Taman met with reporters Sunday morning to discuss the team’s final cuts from Saturday night.

It should be noted the team has not yet set its practice roster as we’ve been told no agreements with any players have been formalized at this time.

Day 1 of their practice week is Tuesday (the Riders host Winnipeg on Saturday) so we may have to wait until then to see which of the released players have elected to stay on the P.R.

Otherwise here are Taman’s comments:

ON THE RELEASE OF PAUL WOLDU

BT:  That was not a fun discussion to have.  I spent quite a bit of time with him Saturday.  His level of play was still what it was but our staff had determined that role just wasn’t going to make our team this year.  That’s never an easy thing and he’s such a quality guy.  Hopefully his career continues somewhere.

DID MATT WEBSTER TAKEOVER THAT ROLE?

BT:  Ya Matty’s a young guy who had a really good camp.  That’s a situation where we wanted him to make the team so all those dominoes sort of fall in certain directions.  In that case it didn’t work in Paul’s favour.

ON WOLDU’S PRESEASON PERFORMANCE

BT:  I don’t think we ever expected Paul to be a true defensive player for us.  We played him some on defense to see what he can do but his role was defined as a special teams player and a pretty big leader on our special teams.  No, I don’t think his defensive play led to this decision.

CANADIAN RECEIVER DEPTH, CUTTING ALEX PIERZCHALSKI

BT:  Those are always tough decisions.  You’d love to keep everybody but you have limited rosters and when you have a salary cap to put into play, it’s somewhat difficult.  Alex had a good camp, he had a good run, but we’ll be covered with our final roster.  And Alex Carroll isn’t a guy we should overlook.  We’ll see what comes out of the next few days.

ON OFFERING PIERZCHALSKI A ROSTER SPOT

BT:  Yes we had talked about that.  But he wanted to be on the field somewhere.  If the guy wanted to accept a roster spot and didn’t worry about playing, you’d start to wonder about him.  He proved in camp that if a team needed him, if that situation presented itself, he’d have that chance and it looks like he’ll be ending up somewhere.  I told him it’s the right decision and good luck.

ON THE INTERNATIONAL RECEIVERS

BT:  They’re good young guys and they all had a good run.  We’re just sifting through all the practice roster possibilities right now and I foresee one or two of them sticking around.  When it comes to the practice roster, a lot of it depends on what your schedule is.  We don’t practice until Tuesday.  Had we been practicing today we’d have a lot more firm decisions plus we’re going to check out what’s available around the league.

** Taman also stated that slotback Ryan Smith should be able to play Saturday against Winnipeg in the Riders’ Week 1 game.  Smith was hurt in Preseason Game 1 and it’s been reported he suffered a concussion.  Meanwhile Taman said he “hopes” safety Tyron Brackenridge will be able to play against the Blue Bombers.  He hasn’t participated in full drills since Day 2 of training camp.