REGINA — Saskatchewan Roughriders’ strong-side linebacker C.J. Reavis has played so many games at the position\u00a0that\u00a0it might be easy to forget he\u2019s actually listed as a defensive back.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s expected fans will get a chance to re-acquaint themselves with Reavis in the defensive secondary on Friday night when the Roughriders travel to Ottawa to take on the Redblacks.<\/p>\n
Injuries and personnel decisions have resulted in Reavis making a move to safety during practice this week\u00a0and earned\u00a0him\u00a0the start at that\u00a0position on Friday.\u00a0It\u2019s nothing new for the fourth-year veteran, especially given the fact he\u2019s played as the last line of defence in the CFL before.<\/p>\n
\u201cI played safety my first year up here, so it’s not really that different for me,\u201d Reavis said. \u201cI think it’s gonna be good. I get to talk to my guys more because as [a strong-side linebacker], I’m a little limited because of where I’m at in the defence. Now I can get to both sides of the field easier, I can communicate with the boundary side and field side,\u00a0I think it’ll be better for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reavis will be stepping into a secondary that has had a bit of difficulty the last couple of games, especially when it comes to giving up deep passes at inopportune moments. One of Reavis\u2019 jobs will be to use his veteran acumen to help deal with that issue\u00a0and he\u2019s confident the team\u2019s preparation will take a positive step in that direction.<\/p>\n
\u201dI think we gotta\u00a0trust our keys and stay deepest to deepest,\u201d Reavis explained. \u201cI think it’s a really simple game and teams have\u00a0been throwing the deep ball on us because we’ve been stopping our feet a little bit with our eyes in the backfield.\u00a0We gotta\u00a0do the game plan,\u00a0stick to the game plan and do it right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Part of that is understanding the play and knowing where to focus and when. That\u2019s \u2018having good eyes\u2019 and Reavis expanded on that aspect of the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a saying in football, \u2018See a little, see a lot,\u201d Reavis said. \u201cSo if you see too much, you’re seeing too much, but if you see a little bit, then you’re actually seeing a lot. I think it’s\u00a0weird to say, but the less you see, the more you see. It can be boring for you, but the less you see, there\u2019s a lot of good it can do for you.”<\/p>\n
\u201cThen\u00a0knowing your keys or reading the right keys. Sometimes guys can get a little bit out of whack reading the wrong keys or\u00a0seeing too much stuff. It’s a lot because everybody is motioning and six guys are moving at one time. It’s not like down south, so it trains your eye a little bit more. But if you can read the quarterback and read the mesh\u00a0point, I think it’ll be easier.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Corey Mace is confident Reavis will have success when placed in the role and described him as an \u2018ultimate communicator\u2019 on the field when asked what will help him in his return to the safety position.<\/p>\n
\u201cC.J.\u00a0he probably talks too much, but you need to at that position,\u201d Mace said. \u201cFrom C.J.’s standpoint,\u00a0being in the defence for a couple years, being able to communicate and orchestrate back there [is very important].\u201d<\/p>\n
Reavis\u2019 move to safety comes due to both Jaxon Ford (knee) and Nelson Lokombo (ankle) currently sitting on the one-game injured list due to injuries. The Roughriders also released defensive back Kosi Onyeka\u00a0due to violating the team’s code of conduct<\/a>, a player Reavis had grown close to.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was down south, I think my rookie year I had 10 different locker mates, so I think I’m used to it at this point, but it never gets easier,\u201d he said of dealing with the realities of the pro game. \u201cEspecially when you build chemistry with a guy, a relationship with a guy. Me and Kosi have been together here for my whole four years I’ve been here, so it’s gonna be tough seeing him go.\u201d<\/p>\n The Rider\u00a0Broadcast Network has\u00a0the pre-game show at 2:30 p.m. on Friday\u00a0with Teagan Witko, Justin Dunk and Wes Cates. Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder have the game call at kickoff at 5:30 p.m. on 620 CKRM<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"REGINA — Saskatchewan Roughriders’ strong-side linebacker C.J. Reavis has played so many games at the position\u00a0that\u00a0it might be…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185005,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-185004","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185004"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185004\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}