RIDERS PREVIEW
Today’s instalment looks at the quarterbacks.
With the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ training camp fast approaching, the Leader-Post’s Ian Hamilton is previewing each of the CFL team’s positional groups. Our eight-part series began Tuesday with a look at the special teams. The running backs (Wednesday) and offensive line (Thursday) followed. Today, we focus on the quarterbacks. In the days ahead, there will be previews of the receivers (Saturday), defensive line (Monday), linebackers (Tuesday) and defensive backs (Wednesday).
The most talked-about elbow in Saskatchewan this summer will not be the town that bears that name.
Fans of the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders will be watching the right elbow of quarterback Darian Durant, who missed the second half of the 2014 season with a torn tendon in that joint.
Durant already has thrown passes in front of the Roughriders’ brass — he participated in the club’s mini-camp in Bradenton, Fla. — but his work at training camp will be of great interest to the team’s fans.
Training camp opens May 31 in Saskatoon.
“The Florida camp put away any of the concerns that I may have had when it comes to the rehab process,” Roughriders offensive coordinator Jacques Chapdelaine says. “I know that his arm is good to go.
“Having said that, whether he had the surgery or not, I’m still not going to throw him out there without managing the use of his arm. That is part of any training-camp process, whether you’ve got a quarterback who’s totally uninjured or someone who’s coming off surgery like this.
“You want to make sure that you’re not going to put so much pressure on his arm that, at the end of training camp, he’s further back than he was coming in.”
Durant, 32, suffered the injury during Saskatchewan’s game Sept. 7 against the host Winnipeg Blue Bombers. After undergoing surgery, he missed the remainder of the regular season and the West Division semifinal.
In his absence, the Roughriders’ offence struggled under the guidance of youngsters Tino Sunseri and Seth Doege. Things were so tough that Saskatchewan lured Kerry Joseph out of retirement in hopes of sparking the offence.
It didn’ t work. The Roughriders finished the regular season with the fewest passing yards in the league (3,521).
Durant’s arm wasn’t an issue in Florida, where Chapdelaine saw everything he needed to see from the veteran pivot in terms of directing the offence.
“It was very, very positive,” Chapdelaine says of the Bradenton camp. “What we’re looking for now is obviously growth and improvement in our level of execution.
“There are some things in a three-day camp that you can certainly get better at and that’s what we’re shooting to do in training camp.”
Training camp also will provide new backup Kevin Glenn with his first extended repetitions in the Roughriders’ offence.
Glenn, who was signed as a free agent after a solid 2014 season with the B.C. Lions, wasn’t able to attend the Roughriders’ camp in Florida. That means he’ll be immersed in Chapdelaine’s offence during training camp.
“We’ve got to give Darian enough reps so that not only does he become comfortable but he keeps growing in what we’re doing,” Chapdelaine says. “Then we’ve got to manage the other men too so that they don’t go backwards as we’re moving through camp.
“You can only split the pie in so many pieces. I know that Kevin will not be overused because of that, but I’ve also got to make sure that he’s exposed to everything and gets enough reps so that he can be comfortable.”
Sunseri, newcomer Brett Smith and University of Regina Rams pivot Noah Picton — who’s attending camp as part of the CFL’s initiative to develop Canadian quarterbacks — also will be getting their share of snaps during training camp.
Chapdelaine was impressed with Sunseri’s efforts in Florida, where the third-year Roughrider easily learned the concepts the new O.C. was teaching and made good decisions with the football.
That convinced Chapdelaine that Sunseri could grow into the No. 1 role at some point in the future. But the immediate future will involve Durant, Chapdelaine and the evolution of their relationship.
The 2015 campaign will be their first working together — Chapdelaine replaced George Cortez in the offseason — and the coach will take steps to make sure the player is around past training camp.
“We’ll have to make sure that he can sustain the demands of practising so that we don’t get into a situation coming into the season where he has to take some time off here and there,” Chapdelaine says.
“At the end of the day, we want to make sure that Darian is leading us as much in practice as he is in games.”