Pre-Training Camp Report
Published: Sunday, May 28th 2017, 2:05pm
by Alex Dormuth (@RealAlexD)
Turns out I didn’t need you guys to tell me how wrong my predicted roster was, the Saskatchewan Roughriders did that for all of us on Saturday after a few announcements on the eve of Training Camp.
First, the big surprise. Marc-Olivier Brouillette announced his retirement, throwing a wrench into the plans of the defense. He has a business opportunity outside of football that he can’t pass up and that unfortunately comes at the Riders’ expense. Brouillette was slated to be the starting Safety and one of the key national pickups in this team, but it looks like that trade for Mike Edem looks better and better now. Edem and Jeff Hecht will now most likely battle it out for the starting Safety spot in the secondary.
That movement have a chain reaction as some, including myself had Edem slotted in at SAM Linebacker. Edem may move back to safety with Hecht backing him up and go with an American player at SAM, or the coaching staff may elect to start Hecht at Safety, back him up with Tevaughn Campbell and have Edem at SAM with Kevin Francis as backup. The one thing we know for sure is that our secondary, already a point of weakness got worse, but it creates more competition and opportunity.
Brouillette wasn’t the only player to retire, as Fullback Aaron Milton also retired. Milton, another Canadian depth pick up from Edmonton isn’t a huge loss, but it is depth that the team made a priority in the offseason. Spencer Moore remains the defacto FB on the team, but this opens up another Canadian spot on the 46 man roster.
The other shocker was the trade the Riders made with the Toronto Argonauts, sending International WR Armanti Edwards to Toronto for Canadian OL Peter Dyakowski. Edwards played very well for us in the few games he did play last year, but he was in tough to make the team with the additions of Duron Carter, Bakari Grant and Chad Owens to the team.
Dyakowski, an 11 year vet (and owner of the best Twitter profile pic @PeterDyakowski) will provide depth and should contend for a starting spot on an O-line that was hurt and just plain bad last season.
A couple bigger names were put on the Suspended List as Most Outstanding Lineman Offensive Tackle Derek Dennis (friend of the show) and Receiver Bakari Grant won’t be available for the first few days of Training Camp. They’ll be in Calgary tending to the Mylan Hicks preliminary trial. The only thing this means is that they can’t practice until they are taken off the list, and the team will full their spots at TC with a couple new players to evaluate.
More players were added to the TC roster as well. International WR Ahmad Dunwoody, International DBs Warren Gatewood and Cedric Hill, and International DL Ja’Boree Poole were all added.
Also added, but won’t count towards the allowed number of players at camp are Canadian Territorial Juniors OL Logan Ferland of the Regina Thunder and RB Logan Fischer of the Saskatoon Hilltops.
Plenty more moves will come in the next few days as the team adds and deletes players and you can bet we will have that all covered here and on the Piffles Podcast this week when we break it all down and discuss what it means for the team going forward.
Training Camp is underway and we are now LESS than 2 weeks away from the first preseason game at Mosaic Stadium! Time to get excited!
Go Riders!
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