Time to call their plays
December expansion draft a crucial step
The Ottawa REDBLACKS will soon begin the serious business of drafting players, hiring a coach,
If they could talk, the Three Stooges football bobbleheads overlooking Marcel Desjardins’ work station might reveal the Ottawa REDBLACKS general manager’s plans for the Canadian Football League expansion draft.
Since the bobbleheads are mute, though, observers are left to sort through written and verbal chatter from every Larry, Moe and Curly.
Desjardins calls some of it “get a grip” speculation, more fancy than fact.
“It’s comical. You have to laugh about it,” he said Wednesday. “But there are some smart people out there, too, and they know what they’re looking at.”
The Dec. 16 expansion draft will provide the REDBLACKS with three players from each of eight other CFL teams. It’s the most crucial step in building the team for 2014, but not the only one involved in laying its foundation.
Already underway, scouting of Canadian and U.S. college and university players will lead into next spring’s CFL draft, where the REDBLACKS have eight picks to add to four players selected in 2013.
Late-October tryout camps for free-agent pros not on 2013 CFL rosters attracted 117 (Texas) and 97 (Florida) players, and Desjardins said the first signings could be announced within days of the Nov. 24 Grey Cup Game at Regina.
The other important piece of the puzzle is hiring the first head coach, Desjardins said in an interview at the team’s temporary home in an Industrial Road office complex.
Some interviews have already been conducted, and others have been arranged. Additional candidates may come from the four teams still in the CFL playoffs.
The goal is to make a hiring before the expansion draft.
“That would be a perfect scenario for us,” Desjardins said. “However, we are not going to compromise that process just to meet a deadline. We are going to make sure we find the right person. If that means the coach decision rolls into late December or early January, then that will have to be the case.”
One point Desjardins made firmly was that the first REDBLACKS head coach would have CFL experience as at least an offensive or defensive co-ordinator.
Presumably the successful candidate will be familiar with CFL rules, stipulations of the collective agreement between the league and players’ association and what’s involved in setting up training camp.
‘Here we are going into our inaugural season, and there are going to be so many different elements that need to be addressed.’ MARCEL DESJARDINS General manager, Ottawa REDBLACKS
“Here we are going into our inaugural season, and there are going to be so many different elements that need to be addressed,” said Desjardins, who was hired as the new team’s first general manager in January after stints as Montreal Alouettes assistant GM and, before that, GM of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
“The last thing I should have to do is babysit a head coach relative to educating them on a lot of those elements.”
It would also be nice to have the coach’s input for the expansion draft, rules for which are both better and more restrictive than they were for the Ottawa Renegades franchise in 2002.
Upside: Each current team can only protect one quarterback on its roster; that was a maximum two in 2002.
Downside: REDBLACKS can only draft two quarterbacks from current rosters; Renegades could take eight, including those on negotiation lists.
Upside: Current teams can initially protect six non-imports; it was seven in 2002.
Downside: The number of protected imports is 10, one higher than in 2002.
Downside: In the final round in 2002, Renegades could select either a non-import or a team’s second-round pick in the college draft; REDBLACKS can’t do that.
Protected lists from current teams are to be submitted to the CFL head office and forwarded to the REDBLACKS on Dec. 9. A roster freeze will be in place until draft day.
Complicating this expansion draft is looming free agency for dozens of CFLers.
Last February, each team had between 11 and 17 free agents from its roster of 46. While Desjardins expects a similar number this winter, various reports have pegged the number of pending Winnipeg Blue Bombers free agents, for example, at a mind-bending 22.
Widely accepted thinking is that the REDBLACKS will shy away from drafting players who can become free agents on Feb. 15, and Desjardins concedes that will be so unless there are no other options.
The highlight picks of the first round will be the two quarterbacks, and Desjardins has a couple of unnamed current CFLers in mind.
“It doesn’t mean it won’t change between now and then, but there are very few variables at that position in terms of who is available and factoring in who is not going to be a free agent,” he said.
“If there is one position where we are not going to pick a (free agent), it’s the quarterback position because we need that certainty for sure.”
Whoever they are, REDBLACKS players can expect a three-day U.S. mini-camp in April. Training camp will open in Ottawa in late May, with the first regular season contest a month later.
The REDBLACKS hope CFL schedule-makers will start them with two or three road games, allowing extra time to complete construction of the new Lansdowne Park stadium and to train event staff.