A Busy Friday in Early February

A Busy Friday in Early February

Published: Saturday, Feb 3rd 2018, 12:02am

by: Stephen Safinuk (@Safimod)

A quiet Friday in what is normally a calm part of the CFL off-season turned out to be anything but in the CFL world today. In a matter of an hour, 1 player was charged with possession of marijuana, and 2 all-star defensive ends were traded twice (each) in a matter of an hour.

Duron Carter

Early this afternoon, news broke that the charismatic Rider wide receiver was arrested last night and charged with possession of a controlled substance. According to a tweet by the Saskatoon Police, they were called out to the Saskatoon airport after CBSA found an unknown quantity of marijuana in Carter’s bag. He goes to court in mid-march for this charge. After news broke, it was found that this is the 2^nd time this offseason that Duron Carter has been charged with an offense regarding a controlled substance. He faces a similar charge (court date later this month) stemming from an incident in Winnipeg in November. Some have wondered if the November charge might have been enough to keep the star wide receiver out of the NFL, prompting him to return to Saskatchewan for 2018.

Charleston Hughes

Charleston Hughes, the 34 year old all-star Defensive End, was traded from Calgary to Hamilton not long after the Duron Carter story broke. In return, Calgary moved up 6 spots and gained a 2019 4^th round pick from the Ticats, but were able to move the all-star out of the Western Division.

That is, until Vernon Adams hinted at a trade to Hamilton by tweeting only a Tiger emoji. New soon broke that Saskatchewan had traded Vernon Adams to Hamilton in exchange for Charleston Hughes.

In Hughes, the Riders are getting the Stampeders franchise leader (tied) in sacks with 99 career sacks in 147 games. Last season, Hughes had 6 sacks in 3 games versus the Riders, including a 3 sack performance in their first half of their first meeting in July.

Odell Willis

As the Hughes to Saskatchewan story was breaking, so to was news that Odell Willis had been traded out of Edmonton. Ottawa traded for the entertaining defensive end, giving up rookie defensive lineman Jake Ceresna in the process. With that breaking news came mention that Willis too would soon be flipped back to the Western Division for a 4^th round pick and a negotiation list player.

So to summarize today’s trades:

Hamilton gets: Vernon Adams
BC gets: Odell Willis
Saskatchewan gets: Charleston Hughes
Calgary gets: a 4^th round pick in 2019 and 6 spots up in the draft this year.
Edmonton gets: Jake Ceresna
Ottawa gets: a 4^th round pick and a Lions neg list player

Exciting day in the CFL for a random day in early February. Who do you think won the trades, Rider nation?