Riders deserve more bang for big bucks spent on Jones
In the CFL, a massive investment demands a return of comparable scale on the field
While loitering in the hockeycrazed burg of Toronto, one is reminded of a power play. The football version.
Not quite two years ago, the Saskatchewan Roughriders wielded their monetary might to woo Chris Jones away from the Edmonton Eskimos.
In Year 2 as the Eskimos’ head coach and defensive coordinator, Jones had just guided Edmonton to a Grey Cup championship.
Roughriders president-CEO Craig Reynolds promptly swooped in and enticed Jones to bolt for Regina.
Jones was soon named Saskatchewan’s head coach, defensive co-ordinator, general manager and vice-president of football operations, possibly establishing a CFL record for job descriptions.
How expensive was this pigskin power play?
There are assorted rumours as to Jones’ remuneration.
It can be safely stated that he is earning upwards of $500,000 per annum, plus tips.
Jones is the highest-salaried employee in Roughriders history.
And what did the team get for its money when Sunday’s East Division final against the host Toronto Argonauts was on the line?
Argonauts 25, Roughriders 21. Jones did a generally commendable job in 2017, doubling the Roughriders’ victory total and commanding the team’s return to the playoffs after a three-year absence.
The Saskatchewan defence, choreographed by Jones, performed at a high level for most of Sunday’s game at BMO Field.
The Argos’ offence, directed by future Hall of Fame quarterback Ricky Ray, eked out only one point when the wind was in its favour.
The Roughriders resiliently rallied from an 18-3 deficit and assumed a 21-18 lead with just under three minutes left in the fourth quarter — whereupon Ray calmly engineered a gamewinning touchdown drive.
Judging by the open-mouth shows and feedback received via email and social media, there is general contentedness regarding the Roughriders’ season.
It was undeniably a step forward. Perhaps a leap forward, considering Jones inherited a 3-15 team.
But the progress came to an abrupt halt (unlike the Argos’ offence) late in Sunday’s game, after Brandon Bridge hit Naaman Roosevelt for a two-point conversion to punctuate a 79-yard punt-return touchdown by Christion Jones. Christion Jones did his part. Chris Jones did not.
At a point in the game when the Roughriders and their fans could almost taste a berth in the 105th Grey Cup game, Jones’ defence could not seal the deal as effectively and emphatically as Reynolds had done two years ago.
Ray — with considerable assistance from Argonauts head coach Marc Trestman — outfoxed the Roughriders’ defence, not to mention their well-compensated co-ordinator.
Saskatchewan needed to make only one play, on third-and-five, to all but nail down a trip to Ottawa for the league final.
However, the Roughriders could not apply the knockout punch, and Ray is now presented with a chance to be part of a championship team for a fourth time — which would put the Boatmen’s pivot in the same boat as Jones.
Jones celebrated his fourth title in 2015, having previously earned Grey Cup rings as an assistant coach with the 2002 Montreal Alouettes, the 2008 Calgary Stampeders and the 2012 Argonauts.
He was brought to Saskatchewan with the expectation that he would deliver a fifth title, for himself and for the franchise. Still waiting ...
“I feel like we did some better things, but just like our football team, we fell a little short yesterday,” Jones told reporters Monday in Regina.
“We’re not quite good enough. We weren’t disciplined enough. We didn’t make enough football plays down the stretch when it mattered and that falls right to me. It doesn’t fall to anybody else.
“It starts at the top. We all have to look at ourselves and we have to self-evaluate very closely of how each one of us can be better, especially myself.”
Kudos to Jones for holding himself accountable.
And appropriately so. Ultimately, Jones could not emulate Corey Chamblin — the Argonauts’ current defensive co-ordinator — by delivering a title (or even a home playoff game) in Year 2.
Following a miserable 2011 season, then-Roughriders president-CEO Jim Hopson granted then-GM Brendan Taman the full autonomy that he had been lacking.
Taman’s first major move was to hire Chamblin as the head coach.
Chamblin and Taman memorably brought a championship to Saskatchewan on Nov. 24, 2013, when the confetti flew at Taylor Field.
En route to the Grey Cup game, the Roughriders defeated another 11-7 team, the B.C. Lions, 29-25 in the West Division semifinal at Taylor Field.
It was the signature game for quarterback Darian Durant, who Jones referred to one year ago as “moderately successful.”
In the 2013 West final, the Roughriders shocked the host Stampeders — a 14-4 powerhouse — at McMahon Stadium.
Saskatchewan then rolled over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 2013 Grey Cup game, winning 45-23.
The Roughriders of 2013 had one more regular-season victory than Hamilton. Saskatchewan won.
The Roughriders of 2017 had one more regular-season victory than Toronto. Saskatchewan lost.
Simply put, the Roughriders are not parking wheelbarrows full of money at Jones’ office door for him to be the losing coach in a playoff game against a team with an inferior record — an outfit Saskatchewan had twice beaten during the regular season.
A massive investment demands a return of comparable scale, such as the manner in which Trestman has delivered in Year 1 as the Argonauts’ high-salaried head coach.
But with the season at stake, Jones and his defence didn’t even come close to being “moderately successful.”