GLENN KEEN TO COMPETE
Veteran QB wants to return in 2018
Kevin Glenn didn’t pause. Didn’t waver. Didn’t hesitate.
The 38-year-old CFL warhorse didn’t even blink when asked if he should have an opportunity to reclaim his job as the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ starting quarterback next season.
“Most definitely,” Glenn said Monday as the players cleaned out their stalls at Mosaic Stadium. “I have confidence in myself. I know that I can still continue to play at a high level. When that day is done and I feel otherwise, then you’ll know because I’ll just take a seat.”
Glenn also made it clear that he doesn’t expect anything to be handed to him in 2018. The 17-year veteran understands that he must be prepared to compete for the No. 1 job.
“As a professional football player, a lot of times even if you’re awarded the starting position, you still know in the back of your mind that you’re going out there to compete,” he noted. “You can’t take a day off because there’s always somebody on your heels that’s trying to play too. The more competitiveness that we can get as far as individuals, it makes your team that much better. So I’m all about competition.”
Glenn had plenty of it this season from Brandon Bridge, who frequently replaced him as part of an evolving dual-quarterback system.
Bridge is scheduled to become a free agent this off-season but his agent is believed to have already approached the Riders about the possibility of re-signing.
Glenn is under contract next season and he said Monday that “from my understanding, it’s set in stone that I will be back for an 18th season.”
It remains to be seen whether Bridge or perhaps another viable starting option emerges in the offseason. If Glenn is ultimately supplanted, he hinted that he would accept whatever role the Riders chose for him.
“I don’t think anybody is ever satisfied with not playing but the most important thing is the team,” he said. “If you’ve covered my 17year career, you’ve understood that it didn’t matter where I was at — one, two or three (on the depth chart). I was always about the team.”
Glenn enjoyed one of his finest statistical campaigns in 2017, compiling a quarterback rating of 100.0 (67.9 completion percentage, 4,038 passing yards, 25 touchdowns and 14 interceptions). He was also durable, missing just one start with a hand injury that may have hampered him for an extended period.
Meanwhile, the quarterback hook became an even more popular weapon in the second half for head coach/GM Chris Jones, whose team benefited at times from a different look provided by the mobile and athletic Bridge.
That was the case again in Sunday’s East Division final when Glenn was replaced twice by Bridge, who led the Riders on a fourth-quarter comeback that fell just short, losing 25-21 to the host Toronto Argonauts.
Glenn ended up with his ugliest stat line of the season, completing just six of 13 passes for 87 yards and three interceptions.
“Everybody wants to point at Kevin about (Sunday’s) ball game,” said Jones. “But quite honestly if you don’t have Kevin the week prior there’s no guarantee you walk out of Ottawa with the win (in the East semifinal) because he was very sharp there. Even some of the games earlier in the year before he hurt his hand, he played some great football. He was playing as good as anybody in the entire league.”
Jones also suggested that Glenn’s contributions as a leader this season went beyond statistics, calling him a “genuine, genuine person.”
Jones also said he’s “glad that (Glenn) is on our football team.”
“Certainly we want Kevin back,” he added.
“Kevin was a big part of our success this year. He’s a tremendously high-character guy. Kevin and I will sit down and decide exactly what the path is soon.”
NOTE: Jones, whose contract runs through 2018, said he plans to meet Tuesday with Riders president/ CEO Craig Reynolds and talk further about a potential extension.
“I love it here,” Jones said. “I love the organization. It’s a great locker-room. (There’s) a lot of really good, supportive people around the organization, so I think it’s a good situation.”
From my understanding, it’s set in stone that I will be back for an 18th season.