Off-season carousel continues in CFL

The interesting thing comes when you look at the record of Jason Maas who walked the plank but had a record of 39-33 with no Grey Cups while Miloanovich had a record of 43-47 and one Grey Cup.

The Milanovich news follows the LaPolice hiring in Ottawa which was interesting because if I was inclined to bet before this week, I would have thought LaPolice in Edmonton made a lot of sense. The trick for LaPolice, who will apparently act as his own offensive coordinator, will be to find a quarterback who can execute a simple game plan.

Dominique Davis had impressive arms and of course, a great game against the Riders, but once teams had film on him, he sank below the waves like the lost continent of Atlantis. Jon Jennings was the other option but the way Jennings played actually made Ed Hervey look good when he said Jennings was not willing to put in the work to be a great quarterback – like film work and extra work with the receivers.

Jennings is another example of a quarterback who appeared with a bang with physical skills, but as teams got film on him and learned to adapt to beat him, Jennings by comparison never seemed to up his game. This is a category that Jame Franklin of Toronto may be slotted in by next February when free agency opens.

Those two were the higher profile coaching moves, but there were still some surprises that popped up her and there. In terms of head coaches, the status of Mike O’Shea is the most intriguing with two weeks away from Christmas and still no announcement on his status in Winnipeg.

Kyle Walters had said around Grey Cup there was a verbal understanding with O’Shea, but with LaPolice leaving and Toronto seemingly stuck in neutral with what to do with Cory Chamblin, O’ Shea was in a great position to make some good money next season, either in Winnipeg or Toronto.

The Toronto hiring of Ryan Dinwiddie came out of left field and was the curveball that Friday the 13^th apparently provides. With Mike Clemons doing what he refers to as due diligence, the Argos let Jacques Chapdelaine walk as offensive coordinator. The Argos could move the ball at times, but other than some gasps of respectability from McLeod Bethel Thompson, their offense was as effective as the Kelliher Komets in high school football.

The hiring of Dinwiddie suddenly makes stuff like the release of Pete Costanza from Calgary make sense. Dinwiddie will likely hire Costanza for the Toronto defense and I would expect DeVone Claybrooks to show up in Toronto as the defensive coordinator. Claybrooks might have struck out as a head coach in BC but I can’t argue with his abilities as a defensive coordinator.

Another guy who might have had an impact, Mark Kilam, Calgary special teams coach was interviewed for Ottawa and Edmonton but did not get either position although the experience would help in future interviews.

Calgary also promoted Pat DelMonaco to offensive coordinator although he will still coach the offensive line, which is what he did before. Calgary is letting staff go who want to aspire to bigger things and more credit to Calgary for not standing in their way, like Winnipeg or Ottawa. What will be interesting is to see if Calgary’s system for grooming coaches is as efficient as how they groom players.

In BC Campbell is still trying to figure out what the hell happened when Maas signed with the Riders for two years as offensive coordinator. While Maas would have expected to have paid out for the remaining year of his Eskimo contract, the initial feeling was that Maas and Mike Reilly would have been a natural combination in BC.

Having Maas in Saskatchewan, and hearing him say this was a bucket list of coaching opportunities, was a bit of head scratcher. However, while Maas had his growing pains as a head coach, as offensive coordinator in Ottawa and quarterback coach in Toronto, he showed imagination and flair, something that was sadly lacking from the Saskatchewan Roughrider offensive playbook against Winnipeg in the western final.

The Riders let Stephen McAdoo go and while McAdoo interviewed for Ottawa and I can’t recall if he was even in the waiting room in Edmonton, the Riders decision to move on shows a team that is not afraid to make changes to get better. One of the interesting questions will be if Steve Walsh is retained as quarterback coach.

Walsh did a great job working with Cody Fajardo last year, but one of the interesting questions I had heard was that maybe Ricky Ray could be convinced to come up and join his buddy Maas in helping to unlock more of Fajardo’s ability. It would be an interesting move, especially since Fajardo was an understudy to Ray two years ago and if Fajardo wants to move beyond being a one year wonder, Ray would be ideal to show him how.

Meanwhile in Miami, it was an all star CFL wqorkout for the Miami Dolphins led by Willie Jefferson who apparently impressed the Miami people and might be moving to a state with no income tax. Former Bombers Jonathon Kongbo and Marcus Sayles were also in attendance along with Rider linebacker Derrick Moncrief, Eskimo defensive linemen Mike Moore and Nick Usher and Calgary defensive back DaShaun Amos. Miami is looking all over talent and this workout should provide them with some potential players to join former Rider Sam Equavoen.

Which raises an interesting question or two about the NFL window the CFL has provided players after completing one year of say a two year contract. In the past the CFL has let players try their luck in the NFL after the regular season and if they failed to stick, they could come back to the CFL to their original teams.

However it seems the NFLPA is in no mood to let the NFL window continue, preferring if those players trying out for the NFL were true free agents and not compelled to return to the CFL following their tryouts.

I listened to an interesting podcast by Joey Alfieri of True North Football who mentioned the upcoming free agency in the CFL will also be changed in an interesting way. Apparently eight days before the February 11 free agency official starting date, players will be able to shop their services around and get offers from other teams.

However the day before free agency starts, teams can also pull those offers. In theory, this might allow say the Calgary Stampeders to match an offer to a player if they got an offer from another team, and then again, if a team is going after two free agents but can only fit one under the cap, they can drop the offer to the player least likely to accept.

It’s an interesting change to proceedings and maybe this will help players in being able to shop their services around better, and maybe it will help GMs who can make rational offers for free agents instead of overpaying for say, Mike Reilly, and then having to skimp on his surrounding cast.

It’s also interesting that following the end of the regular season, everyone on practice rosters are free agents and teams are currently trying to sign those players they believe are more likely to make it or perhaps firm up offers for players heading into free agency but who don’t have any workouts in Miami scheduled.

The Riders signed Canadian offensive lineman Logan Ferland, Canadian linebacker Jacob Janke, American running back Jamal Morrow, Canadian offensive lineman Vincent Roy and global receiver Max Zimmermann along with Canadian receiver Mitch Picton and defensive lineman Mathieu Breton. Picton was highly regarded as a receiver with the U of R Rams, but his build needed to get bigger to compete against the defensive backs in the CFL.

Breton was a practice squad player in 2018 and was in training camp in 2019. The Riders saw Charleston Hughes undergo surgery for a broken arm, but I would think Hughes would be back, and I suspect Micah Johnson would be back as well. He is still in Regina with his two sons as he waits for his oldest to finish up the first half of the school year.

Johnson wants to be back with the Riders and while he did not have the stats that he did with Calgary, an the Riders letting a defensive line coach go early in the season probably didn’t help, if the Riders can come up with stable of defensive linemen who can stop the run and put pressure on the quarterback, it would make for a fun group to watch.

In Montreal Ryan Rigmaiden, the Bombers director of US scouting, has apparently been offered the GM position there. Then he declined it because he said there were too many red flags and the weird thing is that former GM Jim Popp may be making a return. Why? Well consider this.

The murky Montreal ownership saga also took a strange twist when it seems the Wetenahall family, who walked away from the Alouettes and forced the CFL to finance the team, would be interested in coming back as a minority shareholder stake in a new ownership group led by Stephen Bronfman. The end game for this group would be to move the team to a proposed baseball stadium Bronfman is looking for in Montreal as part of an effort to bring Major League Baseball back to that city.

If the Wetenhall’s return as a minority owner, then Popp returning to Montreal, not to take the post of coach, would be more likely.

In Halifax the odds of a team playing got better as Halifax city council voted in favor of providing a $20 million contribution to a new stadium subject to various conditions. The Atlantic Schooners now have to find a stadium location with suitable public transportation links and the money will be paid out when the stadium is mostly complete.

Dave Naylor of TSN speculates this means the earliest the Schooners could hit the field would be 2023, but there is word the Schooners could play in Moncton in a setup like the BC Lions used for Tempire Stadium when BC Place was being rennovated in 2022 and then play in Halifax in a new stadium in 2023.

That kind of move might allow for a more regional ownership of the team by the fan base, but an interesting question would be if Maritimers would be willing to travel the same way, say, Rider fans travel to go to games. In western Canada distance is measured by time, like how long is it from PA to Regina? About three to three and a half hours. I don’t know if Maritimers would be the same way.

Anyway, the offseason is off and running and maybe the CFL got the memo to make sure there is stuff going on and accessible to the fans to build and keep interest going in the league. Let’s see if the CFL can keep it up.

by Greg Urbanoski

Off-season carousel continues in CFL

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