BALANCING ACT
New Argos coach Chamblin finding it more difficult to assemble staff because of coaching salary cap ... Hufnagel: Players bolting for NFL a ‘positive for the league’
MONT-TREMBLANT, Que. — When Corey Chamblin was last a head coach in the CFL, things weren’t this complicated.
Chamblin, the new coach of the Toronto Argonauts, is trying to build his staff under the constraints of the CFL’s new coaching salary cap, and it’s not easy.
“It’s definitely a lot harder,” said Chamblin, who coached the Saskatchewan Roughriders from 2012 to 2105, winning a Grey Cup in 2013.
“I don’t think the coaches have a thorough enough understanding of why this is in place, from the guys I’ve been talking to. You spend a lot of time going through it with guys and educating them.”
Under the new cap, head coaches across the CFL now have a fixed amount of money to offer to co-ordinators, assistant coaches, equipment managers and members of the video department.
It’ s not easy to try to lure a big-name coach when you can’t offer more money than anyone else.
“Because now, if you adjust one guy’s number up, you are actually taking away from someone else,” Chamblin said Tuesday during a media day at the CFL winter meetings. “It’s more having a budget and being meticulous in what you are doing with it and understanding how to go through the process. You go through and talk to the all the coaches and you say ‘This is what the position pays.’
Clearly some coaches have questioned why they can’t get more money and some may have to take less than they’ve made in the past just to gain employment.
“If you’re dealing with new coaches it’s OK but if you’re dealing with coaches who have been in the league they have to understand that there may be a step back somewhere,” Chamblin said. “You’re not arguing with the Argonauts, you’re not arguing with MLSE. This is what the league is now.”
Some teams haven’t had as much of a problem. In fact, Winnipeg Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Walters said nothing much has changed with his team.
Teams like the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who had more coaches on their staff than most organizations, have had to make considerable cuts.
Even the Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders are having some difficulty filling out their staff.
“I’ve just got to find one more coach, and I feel it’s tougher with the salary cap,” Stamps head coach Dave
Dickenson said. “But you’ve got to fit that guy in at a very low salary so it’s tough to find guys with experience, so that’s why it’s taken as long as it is.”
EXPLAINING NFL EXODUS
Calgary Stampeders president and general manager John Hufnagel has already lost four players to the NFL this off-season and is likely to lose another — star quarterback and league most outstanding player Bo Levi Mitchell.
It’s not going to be easy for him to replace that kind of talent — especially since upcoming labour negotiations threaten to disrupt the free agency season — and yet Hufnagel can’t help but be happy for the players, including linebackers Alex
Singleton and Jameer Thurman, defensive lineman James Vaughters and receiver Marken Michel.
“Losing the four people that we have and potentially another one or two does definitely put a dent in the armour,” Hufnagel said Tuesday. “But it’s positive for the league in my mind. When the NFL comes up and has bona fide interest in our players, we’re probably doing something right as a league.”
So far, 11 CFL players have been released early from their expiring contracts to sign with NFL teams. Mitchell has worked out with four NFL teams and is expected to sign with one of them soon.
Dickenson has a theory as to why.
“Part of the reason so many guys are going is because we don’t have a CBA, because we don’t have a real plan,” Dickenson said. “They’re like ‘Well, we can’t get the money anyway so let’s just go test out the NFL. I don’t think guys are getting a lot of up-front money to go down there, but they feel like, with the indecision here, now is a good time to try.”
HUFNAGEL HOPEFUL
Like everyone else, Hufnagel doesn’t know what to expect when free agency opens next month.
It’s difficult to predict what will happen given that the league and the players association need to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement and things are in a bit of limbo until then.
The league ordered teams to not pay off-season signing bonuses and the many players have vowed to not sign contracts until the CBA is ratified. No one knows exactly when that might happen and that could make life tricky for general managers when free agency begins on Feb. 12.
“I think players will sign, I really do,” Hufnagel said.
How disruptive is (the CBA negotiation)? I’m being optimistic that it’s not as much as it has been made out to be. I might be wrong.”
Hufnagel said players will get signing bonuses eventually, once the CBA is signed, sealed and delivered.
“Once the ratification is done … If there is off-season money, he’s gonna get paid a second after the signature is down,” Hufnagel said. “It’s an element at a time.”
UNDERSTANDING PLAYERS
Several of the current CFL head coaches have interesting perspectives on the upcoming labour negotiations between the players and owners.
At least four of the head coaches in the league right now were heavily involved in the Players Association when they were players.
Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea was a vice-president of the PA while Hamilton coach
Orlondo Steinauer, Calgary Dickenson and Edmonton coach Jason Maas were all active participants as well.
“That’s interesting … we all helped build that thing,” Steinauer said. “We really do understand the perspective the players have.
“We’re all here because of the league and obviously there’s got to be a business model that works for everybody. There’s always going to be differing of opinions but at the end of the day it’s a great league, we all feed our families because of it, and we all hope we can co-exist.”