O’Day’s Desperation Prompts St. John Signing
Published: Thursday, Feb 13th 2020, 1:02pm
By Alex Dormuth (@RealAlexD)
The Riders move to sign Offensive Lineman Josiah St. John is a truly desperate act from General Manager Jeremy O’Day.
After losing O-Lineman Dariusz Bladek and Philip Blake to the Argos (and who could blame them, in Saskatchewan, they were backups, in Toronto, they get to be starters), O’Day panicked and brought back St. John on a 1 year deal.
Sure, O-Line depth is ALWAYS a good thing in the CFL, buty quality depth is more important. St. John, as nice as I hear he is, isn’t quality depth. When Chris Jones drafted him #1 overall in 2016, 8 other General Managers LAUGHED. St. John lost his starting job in his senior year in college to a younger guy. That alone should have shown Jones and the rest of the scouting department that he wasn’t good enough. Meanwhile, Alex Singleton slipped down the draft to #6. Good one, Jones.
With the likely starting O-Line looking like Vaughn-LaBatte-Clark-Shepley-Cofield and Schram as the 6th, the Riders starting unit is looking pretty solid. Jake Bennett is likely #7 and St. John is behind him. I still think Logan Ferland needs a few years, so for the sake of argument, I’ll leave him out of this for now.
I sure hope O’Day plans on using his first round pick on an O-Lineman in this upcoming draft. Without a 2nd or a 3rd round pick, he’s gotta nail this one. And, going back to my rankings, I’d still put that rookie ahead of St. John.
It’s not a good move for O’Day, even though it’s a no risk, all reward move to bring back St. John. It just shows that he thought he could get Bladek/Blake back for cheap and got caught. Oh well, at least St. John isn’t quite the bust that Faith Ekakitie ended up being for the Bombers…
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