August 14, 2018

CFL Fantasy Podcast, Week 10: What now in Riderville?

Matt Smith/CFL.ca

TORONTO — It’s been three days since Duron Carter’s release, with very little clarity as to why or how one of the league’s brightest stars was handed his walking papers in the middle of the season.

For Pat Steinberg, the move makes little sense for a struggling offence that was already having trouble generating big plays. Carter, after all, had just scored a 41-yard touchdown in his first game back as a receiver.

On the other hand, Jeff Krever has a different take on Carter’s release, a topic that was the centre of attention on this week’s CFL Fantasy Podcast.

“I thought to myself, you’ve got an anemic offence to begin with,” said Steinberg. “We all know how strong they can be defensively, but on the offensive side of the ball, their top receiver is barely in the top-30 in Naaman Roosevelt. They’ve had all kinds of quarterback issues. And now you’re taking away the potential No. 1 target from these quarterbacks?

“That’s the fascinating angle to me — where do the Riders go from here?”

Steinberg, Jeff Krever and Hannah Nordman weigh in on that and much more in the latest from the CFL Fantasy Podcast:

You can listen to previous episodes and subscribe on iTunes, Google Play or Spotify.

For Krever, Carter’s release means the exact opposite. While still calling Carter one of the league’s most dominant receivers, he questions the fit in Saskatchewan, where the Riders are trying to play a ball possession game while letting the defence take care of the rest.

“The Riders have a philosophy here,” he said. “They know what they’re doing. Chris Jones knows how he’s going to win football games — he’s not going vertical, he’s even admitted as much. Duron Carter is an amazing player but Chris Jones isn’t sitting there going ‘what are we going to do now?’.

“The Riders have other receivers,” he added, “but they’re going to try to win football games with their amazing defence. They’re holding teams to a low number of points, they’re forcing turnovers and they’re running the ball — they’re playing a ball possession game. They’re trying to do what the Stamps have done to a degree.

“Maybe Duron Carter was a little bit miscast. Maybe this was a square peg in a round hole.”

Krever added that Carter’s release won’t change the offence much, instead only re-affirming the team’s reliance on the run game and the short passing game. That could mean big things, he says, for running backs Marcus Thigpen and Tre Mason.

Still, Carter’s release comes as a shock to many.

“This guy is as freakish an athletic talent as you’re going to find in the CFL,” said Steinberg. “From a football perspective, this one is really hard to wrap your head around.

“I’m not saying Duron Carter is going to sewer they’re season,” he added. “I’m saying OK, you just took another target away from an offence that doesn’t have a lot of big-time playmakers, so now what? Who’s going to step up and be that big-time playmaker?

The podcast crew also talked about Johnny Manziel’s progression, the emergence of McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Travis Lulay and the Lions’ win over Edmonton and more of this week’s news, bargain buys and locks of the week in the CFL Fantasy Podcast for Week 10.