Chris Jones’ first mini-camp with the Saskatchewan Roughriders is no small undertaking.
Jones, who was hired as the CFL team’s general manager, head coach and vice-president of football operations on Dec. 7, expects approximately 80 players to take part in the mini-camp. The mini-camp runs Sunday through Tuesday at Historic Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla.
“It’s a really busy weekend and there are a lot of moving parts,” Jones said Friday while en route to Vero Beach. “We look forward to it and it’s like Christmas Day for us.”
The mini-camp is limited to first-year CFLers, rookies, negotiation-list players, quarterbacks, and free agents from the Riders’ tryout camps. The only Riders veterans expected to take part are quarterbacks Darian Durant and Brett Smith.
Jones said Friday that seven other quarterbacks are expected at the mini-camp. The large contingent of quarterbacks is partially a response to the number of quarterbacks who have missed playing time over the previous two seasons due to injury.
“You look at the last two seasons, the teams that didn’t have quarterbacks didn’t win,” said Jones, who joined the Riders during the off-season after spending two seasons as the Edmonton Eskimos’ head coach.
An aspect of the 2015 mini-camp that has carried over from 2014 is another edition of the Durant watch. Durant will be under scrutiny as he takes to the field for the first time since suffering a ruptured left Achilles tendon in the 2015 regular-season opener. In 2014, Durant missed eight regular-season games and the playoffs after tearing a tendon in his right elbow.
Durant eased most concerns about his recovery from the elbow injury with a strong showing in the mini-camp. Unfortunately, Durant’s comeback lasted less than 30 minutes. How Durant bounces back from his latest injury is among the five things to watch at the Riders’ mini-camp:
DURANT WATCH
Durant exhibited some of the mobility that made him one of the league’s elite quarterbacks during a recent video that was posted on his website. The three-day mini-camp will be more of a test than what was shown on the 15-second video. The mini-camp will also allow Durant to become more familiar with offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo and quarterbacks coach Jarious Jackson.
QUARTERBACKS
Durant and Smith are the only two quarterbacks on the Riders’ roster with CFL experience. So after a busy off-season, questions still remain about the Riders’ backup quarterback. Bringing seven other quarterbacks to the mini-camp will provide a larger pool for Jones to evaluate. All of the quarterbacks will be kept busy while operating in two different groups to maximize their repetitions while not wearing them out. An interesting prospect is Armanti Edwards, who hasn’t played quarterback since 2009. Edwards was turned into a receiver at the NFL level after playing quarterback at Appalachian State.
WELCOME, COACH
The mini-camp is an opportunity for Jones to put his on-field stamp on the Riders, who are coming off a 3-15 season. Jones favours bigger and faster athletes at all positions and has worked on filling out the roster with that type of players through trades and free-agent signings. Who will fill in for receivers like Weston Dressler, Chris Getzlaf and Ryan Smith is among the many questions facing Jones. There are also similar questions facing Jones among the defensive backs.
THE NEWCOMERS
Jones has been aggressive in rebuilding the Riders’ roster. Of the 82 players listed on the team’s website, 51 weren’t with the team in 2015. The mini-camp will provide an opportunity for most of the new faces to showcase themselves before the entire football operations staff. It’s also a new staff with the majority of them having followed Jones from the Eskimos. The mini-camp provides an opportunity for the new players and coaches to bond before heading to the main training camp in Saskatoon on May 29.
HISTORIC DODGERTOWN
Historic Dodgertown sounds like quite the venue. Until the Los Angeles Dodgers moved to Arizona in 2008, Dodgertown had served as their spring-training home since 1948. The 80-acre facility was the forerunner to the all-inclusive spring-training facilities that are the norm in major-league baseball. The Montreal Alouettes used the same facilities to conduct mini-camps in 2014 and 2015. Holding camp at Dodgertown in 2015 paid off for the Eskimos with a victory in the Grey Cup game. Whether the Riders’ 2016 season ends with a similar accomplishment remains to be seen.
mmccormick@postmedia.com
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