Alex’s CFL Tuesday Takes – January 8, 2019

Alex’s CFL Tuesday Takes – January 8, 2019

Published: Tuesday, Jan 8th 2019, 6:01pm

By Alex Dormuth (@RealAlexD)

 

The CFL offseason is barely underway and what a fun offseason it’s been so far! There is SO MUCH going on and there hasn’t been a day recently where the CFL hasn’t been in the news. Here’s some thoughts on the latest headlines in the CFL.

 

Another Year for the Boss

Chris Jones’ contract extension comes on the heels of the reports that NFL teams were looking into Chris Jones. First, let’s clear something up. NFL executives submit a list of 20-25 names that are NOT on the radar of any teams for coaching positions and then they vet names down from there. Chris Jones was on a couple of those lists. No interviews, no chance he was leaving Saskatchewan, no nothing. It was essentially clickbait, but welcome to Saskatchewan where we overreact on EVERYTHING.

That said, I LOVE the additional year added to Chris Jones’ contract here in Saskatchewan. Since taking over a junk 3-15 team, he’s taken the team to a Division Final (one yard/play away from a Grey Cup appearance) and a home playoff game for the first time since 2013. He’s far from perfect, but sorry Jones haters, he’s here to stay.

Adding 1 year at a time is smart because of the new CFL coaches salary cap, you don’t usually want your top guy to go into the final year of his contract with any questions surrounding it and let’s face it… he’s turned the team around into a legitimate contender and we NEED that in Saskatchewan.

 

See You Later, Everyone

Have a favourite CFL player? Well, he’s probably going to the NFL.

Deservedly so, stars like Sam Eguavoen, Jordan Williams-Lambert, Alex Singleton, Duke Williams, Bryant Mitchell, Jameer Thurman, Diontae Spencer have all signed NFL futures deals. It sucks to see these stars leave the league we love, but you have to wish them nothing but success in reaching their dream.

The downside, is that you lose the connection with players in the CFL. You get fewer guys who stick around long term and that turns a lot of people off, but ultimately, it’s better for the league as it shows we have major talent and it will keep that talent coming here in the first place.

 

CBA… What’s Going On??

As the calendar flipped to 2019 and free agency is only a month away, the real concern is the lack of negotiations and signatures on a new CBA between the CFL and the players. Many players like Derek Dennis of the Calgary Stampeders are vocally voicing their displeasure about the lack of a new deal, but this happens all the time. Both the CFL and the PA have to take their time to make their own presentations first, before taking them to the other party.

Relax, things WILL get done. They always do. I just hope it’s fair for the players this time. As much as I don’t want my ticket prices to increase, I want to see the players paid better, but most importantly the holding of bonuses by teams? IF that’s actually happening as Dennis suggests, that’s GARBAGE. The next few months are going to get heated and should be quite interesting.

 

With the First Overall Pick in the CFL 2.0 Draft…

Commissioner Randy Ambrosie’s CFL 2.0 experiment in Mexico is about to happen. It sounds like each team will be able to draft 4 players from Mexico to come up to the CFL. It’s a really interesting initiative and I have many more questions than we have answers right now. Why is this such a priority? Why not just add them to Negotiation Lists instead of drafting them? Will roster sizes be increased to accommodate the new players or will people have to lose their jobs for this to happen? Maybe next time we talk to Commissioner Ambrosie, he can shed some light on these. Hopefully we hear more about it soon.