January 16, 2017

Steinberg’s MMQB: Riders take the hard road

Walter Tychnowicz/CFL.ca

The Saskatchewan Roughriders rocked the CFL landscape when they traded quarterback Darian Durant to the Montreal Alouettes for a pair of draft picks on Friday morning. The Riders couldn’t agree to contract terms with Durant and decided instead to go in a different direction. Now there’s one big question: did the Riders make the right call here? As it stands right now, I’m really skeptical they did.

Huge void

It was my belief all along that signing Durant made the most sense for the Riders. He’s a bona fide number one quarterback with playoff wins and Grey Cup titles to his name and he’s also bled green for his entire career. On top of all that, and maybe most important of all, I didn’t see any alternatives out there better than Durant. Now that he’s gone, that becomes my biggest worry.

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Not only is Durant still an effective quarterback at the age of 34, he’s also continued to get better over the last number of years. I felt the 2016 version of Durant was the best he’s ever been and I think he’s poised to build on that in 2017. What will remain to be seen, and what I’m wary of, is whether whoever replaces him will be able to get the job done at the same level.

I don’t believe Durant’s replacement is currently on Saskatchewan’s roster. That’s not to say there isn’t a potential starter internally right now, but I don’t think any of the five pivots in the fold right now are ready to make the jump to a starting role this season. The Riders are looking to take a big step forward from last year’s 5-13 campaign and I don’t think the team will be eager to hand the ball to someone unproven.

So that turns the focus to external candidates, with a number of names out there. Three fairly established backups come to mind immediately in the form of Calgary’s Drew Tate, BC’s Travis Lulay, and James Franklin in Edmonton. All three of them certainly have intriguing potential, at the very least.

Tate hasn’t been in a starting role since the 2013 season and, while effective, has struggled to stay healthy his entire career. Franklin has never been in a starting role and is more unproven than the other two examples, but he’s shown some real potential in the spot starts we’ve seen. The most interesting option is Lulay because he was once an elite player in this league. That said, he’s reportedly very happy with his situation with the Lions, so there’s no guarantee he’d be interested in heading to Regina.

Regardless, it would be tough to convince me any of those three options would help the Riders take the step forward they want better than Durant.

» RELATED: Who will be the Riders’ next QB?

CFL.ca

Left to Right: James Franklin, Mitchell Gale and Kevin Glenn (CFL.ca)

So then what about established players like Henry Burris or Ricky Ray? While either one of those guys could step in right away and get the job done, neither player is long for this league. First off, Burris and Ray are contemplating their CFL futures with no guarantee to playing returns. Second, even if they do come back, we’d be talking about another year, maybe two whereas I believe Durant has at leas three more really productive seasons left in him.

Look, we could throw any number of additional names into the mix, from Drew Willy to Jeremiah Masoli. The fact of the matter is, I still firmly believe Durant was the best quarterback for Sasktachewan. That makes the rest of this off-season fascinating for this team.

Head Coach and General Manager Chris Jones is a smart football man and has a nice player personnel track record. This might be his most difficult task in his coaching career to date, but his reputation is a strong one. I think the Riders will be hard pressed to find an upgrade to replace Durant in 2017 but I’m not going to make a final judgment call until all the pieces have fallen into place.

Great addition

While things in Saskatchewan are shrouded with uncertainty, I sure do like what Montreal did with this transaction. Without giving up a ton (a fourth round pick in 2017, a conditional second round pick in 2018), the Alouettes addressed their most urgent offseason need: a legitimate starting quarterback.

We all know how pressing that need was going into 2017 but it wasn’t going to be easy for new GM Kavis Reed to fulfill it. Still just a few weeks into his tenure, Reed sure has done an impressive job to date in his new gig. It’ll be tough for Reed to top the Durant move, though, because it does two huge things for his club.

Durant immediately solidifies things offensively for the Als and gives them a true number one pivot for the first time since Anthony Calvillo. With a returning S.J. Green and a resurgent Nik Lewis, Durant has some really interesting targets to work with in Montreal and he gives them instant proven stability at the game’s most important position.

 

In the longer term, Durant’s addition also helps the future of the quarterback position for the Alouettes. Vernon Adams Jr. is a very promising player and I think he has the ability to make an impact in the CFL. Could he start this year? Sure, I think he could, but with some obvious growing pains. Instead, he’ll get to tutor under a veteran like Durant, which I think will only make him better.

For a team to address two key areas like Montreal did in the Durant acquisition is huge. When you factor in the relatively low price paid by the Alouettes, this move becomes even more of a no-brainer from their perspective.

No shortage

Speaking of Nik Lewis, he was pretty pumped on Twitter when he found out the Durant news, as can be expected. Lewis was going to be heavily counted on in a leadership role in 2017 and now he has some real help in that regard.

We wrote last week about Lewis’s deserving two-year contract extension and how much he’s grown as a player and a leader over his 13 years in the CFL. I remember Lewis glossing himself the “Terrell Owens of the CFL” early in his rookie season with the Stampeders in one of his many outspoken moments in Red and White. To see him grow from that brash, in-your-face player then to the confident leader he is now is pretty remarkable.

I’m not the only one who has noticed the change, though. Lewis joined me on my show last week and talked about how far he’s come.

“It’s funny how different you see the game,” Lewis told me. “You just love the opportunity to continue to play. You love the opportunity to continue to try and inspire people and other players.

“I remember calling out Ed Hervey, calling out a lot of people when I was younger, but that’s what I needed to inspire myself to play. That’s what I needed to get that fuel because I needed to be the underdog; I needed to be talked about. I needed those things to allow me to be where I needed to be. I needed to put pressure on myself because I always felt like I thrived in pressure.

“All of that was about what I needed, but as I got older I got more mature and the true confidence comes in, not just the fake bravado, and then you don’t need those things and I just enjoy playing the game.”

Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

Alouettes receiver Nik Lewis enjoyed one of his best seasons in 2016 (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)

And hey, let’s not forget about the type of guys Lewis mentored under in his early years in the league. Lewis learned the ropes from respected players like Jeremaine Copeland, Ken Yon Rambo and Ryan Thelwell, something he still points to today.

“Ultimately that changed who I was on the field,” Lewis said. “It made me a better teammate and person in the locker room and it’s evolved since then as far as taking on that leadership role.”

With players like Lewis, Durant and Green in the fold for 2017, Montreal’s leadership group seems to be shaping up pretty nicely.