Hardrick said on Wednesday<\/a>. \u201cThis off-season, I just want to make sure I\u2019m mobile, make sure I can bend, make sure I\u2019m not sore.<\/p>\n\u201cI still must get better. I\u2019ve still got to get stronger and maintain speed. But I want to go find the plays and get to the deeper problem \u2014\u00a0like the plays that I did mess up on \u2014\u00a0and try to get better on those.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know I won\u2019t be perfect next year. We\u2019ve got a lot of great guys (in the league), but I want to get as close to perfect as I can and get better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis off-season, I\u2019m just going to try to stay young and run around a lot more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hardrick is once again spending the off-season at home in Lincoln, Neb., with his wife (Samantha) and three children (Jermarcus Jr., Santana and Lyla).<\/p>\n
A year ago, the entire family was involved in the rehabilitation process, to the extent that the kids helped Dad with exercises geared toward flexibility and strength.<\/p>\n
All five Hardricks \u2014\u00a0and not just the Roughriders\u2019 No. 52 \u2014\u00a0played an integral role in the finest season to date for someone who turned 35 during training camp.<\/p>\n
He was named the CFL\u2019s top offensive lineman only three days before Saskatchewan defeated the Montreal Alouettes 25-17 in the 112th Grey Cup Game, played Nov. 16 at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n
The Manitoba capital was a fitting site from the perspective of Hardrick, who as a member of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers earned All-CFL honours in 2021 and 2023 before receiving that distinction as a Roughrider this past November.<\/p>\n
Given those credentials, he could have been a premium name on the free-agent market, but he opted to sign a new one-year deal two months before his previous pact was to expire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to be back,\u201d Hardrick said. \u201cI love the place. I love the fans. I love the organization. I love coming to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love where I\u2019m at. I love what we did last year and I want a chance to earn it again.\u201d<\/p>\n
All it took was \u201cone or two calls\u201d between Hardrick\u2019s agent and Roughriders Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O\u2019Day.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe next thing I knew, I was signing the contract,\u201d Hardrick said.<\/p>\n
His previous signing with Saskatchewan took place on Feb. 13, 2024, on Day 1 of free agency.<\/p>\n
The Roughriders began the season that followed with four consecutive victories. In the fifth game of 2024, Hardrick suffered the quad injury.<\/p>\n
He returned with a flourish, playing every snap for which he was available in 2025. The only game he missed was for precautionary reasons, with first place already secured for the Green and White.<\/p>\n
Hardrick was part of an offensive line that dominated the opposition during the Western Final and the Grey Cup. Quarterback Trevor Harris was not sacked in either game \u2014 a span in which running back A.J. Ouellette led a formidable ground attack \u2014 as the Roughriders capped a dream season with a championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guys showed up every day, no matter the score,\u201d Hardrick said. \u201cWe had each other\u2019s back. We had hard conversations. We had easy conversations. We talked about life. We talked about football.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes it didn\u2019t even feel like work. When I was in the meeting room, sometimes it felt like I was in high school with all my best friends and we were just hanging out and eventually we got our work done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt keeps me young. I\u2019m just excited to get better and I must get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
What could be better? Becoming the first repeat Grey Cup champion since the 2021 Blue Bombers \u2014\u00a0a team that included Hardrick.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen we won that first one in Winnipeg, we kind of talked about it during the celebration, but other than that we just came to work and worked every day,\u201d he recalled. \u201cEventually, we were at another Grey Cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know that right after the Grey Cup (in 2025), we all talked about repeating and wanting to do it again. I just want to make sure I\u2019m the guy in the locker room saying, \u2018We\u2019ve got to win this day. We\u2019ve got to win these meetings. We\u2019ve got to win in camp.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s not just think you\u2019re going to show up and repeat. There are eight other great teams and 450-some other great players. There\u2019s a lot of stuff we\u2019ve got to win before we get a chance to win another Grey Cup.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rehabilitation one year. Elation the next. Such is the pronounced contrast between off-seasons for offensive tackle Jermarcus Hardrick,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-337762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337762","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=337762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}