{"id":469211,"date":"2026-02-12T01:38:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/469211\/"},"modified":"2026-02-12T01:38:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-12T01:38:10","slug":"a-lot-of-moving-pieces-riders-gm-provides-free-agency-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/469211\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A lot of moving pieces\u2019: Riders\u2019 GM provides free agency update"},"content":{"rendered":"

It was a different kind of free agency<\/a> for Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager, Jeremy O\u2019Day.<\/a><\/p>\n

With the Riders claiming the Grey Cup for the fifth time in CFL history, other teams saw players to improve their own squads in Saskatchewan\u2019s championship team.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a lot of moving pieces. I think free agency was pretty unique for us this year where pretty much every position that you looked across the board, our free agents were top targets,\u201d O\u2019Day said. \u201cIt was a challenge with managing who we would get back and who we would be able to offer. We had to have a game plan going in and you don\u2019t really know how it\u2019s going to go until you start talking with the players\u2019 representatives.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Riders focused on bringing back a lot of potential free agents from last year\u2019s championship team. That included getting pieces of the team like quarterback, Trevor Harris<\/a>; running back, A.J. Ouellette<\/a>; wide receiver, Kian Schaffer-Baker;<\/a> and offensive lineman, Jermarcus Hardrick,<\/a> back under contract.<\/p>\n

But there are a number of players who will be wearing new colours next season, including defensive end, Malik Carney (Edmonton Elks); linebackers A.J. Allen<\/a> and C.J. Reavis<\/a> (both Ottawa Redblacks); and wide receiver, Tommy Nield<\/a> (Winnipeg Blue Bombers).<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this time of the year, your roster is kind of where it\u2019s at,\u201d O\u2019Day said. \u201cWe will continue to look and see if there are guys that will still fit in and if there\u2019s areas we can add too. Most of the heavy lifting is done and now we\u2019re really focused in on signing guys off our negotiation list and we\u2019ve really flipped over to the draft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe feel good with where we are at. We knew it was going to be a challenge but we\u2019re excited with where we ended up.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the first day of CFL free agency, the big name brought in by the Riders was defensive end, James Vaughters<\/a>. The CFL veteran has 27 sacks over five CFL seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tried to sign Vaughters a couple of years back \u2013 I think when he was coming back from the NFL \u00a0\u2013 so we\u2019ve had discussions with him in the past,\u201d O\u2019Day said. \u201cThat\u2019s an area where we lost some guys at the defensive end position. When we looked at the room, we wanted to add some veteran experience and someone who has played a number of years in the league and has experience working with (head coach Corey Mace), and he knows our defence.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the big moves the Riders made this off-season came before free agency and the CFL negotiation window as the team parted ways with long-time kicker, Brett Lauther.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been a very good player for us for a number of years \u2013 aside from the fact he\u2019s a good football player, he\u2019s excellent in the community and in the locker room,\u201d O\u2019Day said. \u201cIt\u2019s difficult decisions you have to make. They are not decisions we take for granted or make snap decisions on. We felt like we gave Brett opportunities and stuck by him for a long time. Ultimately at the end of the year, you have to evaluate and see where you feel as an organization. It was a tough decision.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Day continued, \u201cBrett\u2019s a pro and class act. He made a lot of big kicks for us \u2013 when a player has a down year, people tend to forget what he did for us in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Riders currently have two kickers signed to their roster ahead of training camp \u2013 Michael Hughes, who kicked in a game for the Riders last season, and the recently-signed Jonathan Kim.<\/p>\n

Long-time long snapper, Jorgen Hus, remains a free agent. He has been with the team since 2014.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s trying to evaluate whether he wants to play again or not. He\u2019s got off-field stuff that he does as well. Kind of ongoing with Jorgen,\u201d O\u2019Day said, summarizing the situation.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Day also added that they haven\u2019t spoken to wide receiver Mitch Picton too much this off-season.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy understanding is that Mitch is probably not going to play. We probably need to follow up on that, but the last we spoke with his agent, that was the plan for Mitch,\u201d O\u2019Day said.<\/p>\n

While the Riders will continue to evaluate and look at ways to improve their roster, it doesn\u2019t appear like a deal with current CFL free agents is on the cusp of being announced.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are no deals that are coming down right now,\u201d O\u2019Day stated. \u201cWe don\u2019t have any that are out, but it can change. We will still have conversations with some guys who are pending free agents and if it\u2019s something that fits for both of us, you just never know but we do that the whole season.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was a different kind of free agency for Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager, Jeremy O\u2019Day. With the Riders…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":469212,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-469211","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\/469211","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=469211"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/469211\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/469212"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=469211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=469211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=469211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}