Episode 257 - The Ed Hervey Window

Music.

Hello everyone welcome to the piffles podcast your new aj oolette stan podcast i mean your saskatchewan rough rider fan podcast but for the next oh that's what it was yeah okay i didn't think something sounded right there yeah for the next little while it's it's going to be an aj oolette stan podcast because i am pumped up about the rider news that's come out over the last couple days in the ed hervey memorial negotiation window whatever you want

to call it we're going to be talking all about that this week this is the pivils podcast your saskatchewan roughriders fan podcast thanks for joining us here on your favorite podcast platform watching on youtube and of course on sastel max on demand we appreciate that and lots of new listeners lots of comments going on lots of facebook interaction we're loving it thank you keep it up this is great it shows me that rider nation is pumped up just like we are so

keep going you can give us a follow on twitter x at piffles pod i'm of course at real alex d i'm at safa mod and as always i do not need nor want your pity follows at greg on sports give us a follow on facebook as well facebook.com slash piffles podcast piffles podcast brought to you by dairy queen on elfinstone street and and SAS drive in Regina. Check them out. And of course they're right next door to Mosaic stadium. We can go get your new AJ. Let plush Thor hammer.

I know Sheldon went and got one of those. I think it's like they knew they were going to do it. Furlan ordered one. And I think Steve's probably going to get one too. I had somebody tell me today that those hammers are proof that the riders were tampering because they came out earlier in the off season. No, they were going to sign. They came out at the end of the last season. But it was proof that we were tampering. Was that your favorite Calgary Stampeders fan that said that to you?

No, no. He's never said anything remotely that entertaining.

Well, hopefully what we say is a little bit more entertaining than what that Stamps fan says. Let's get things started here. Talking all rumors and free agency. It's the opening kickoff. Of course, presented by Kathy Festion of Royal LePage Regina Realty, the opening kickoff. Well, let's go back before we even talk about free agency.

Some signings re-signings of pending free agents for the riders happened last week but of course it was right after our show came out a big one for the riders re-signing receiver sean bain jr for a two-year deal gets a nice hefty raise well deserved but it just kind of solidifies that receiving group so let me get you guys's takes sean bain jr back i assume like me you you guys are enjoying that it's a great young core at receiver like you got emilis ksb bane

lenius hopefully can bounce back from his injury last year like we've got a good young core i think we still need another american receiver obviously we're very canadian heavy but maybe we get one through free agency maybe we sign one like maybe we already did geronimo's out there who knows what he's going to do but i i know that everyone had the riders in on shown but obviously he stayed in winnipeg but i still wouldn't mind another name in that receiving court that's for sure you

know i saw a lot of people talk about how 170 grand for him was an overpayment and i couldn't disagree with that more you look at the market right now for wide receivers we had lawler in the upper 200s shown now at 230 it's a guy that absolutely balled out last year led the team and led the league, sorry, in receptions, was dominant most of the season, damn. I have no problem with the value, and I think he's exactly the right kind of guy they need. They just need that speedster opposite him.

And we've talked about, you know, Coaksey out of Toronto, or perhaps it is somebody on the roster already. But I'm liking the way our receiving corps is looking. So the way that it looks, you guys mentioned MLS, KSB, probably the two starters for Canadians. Plus you have Picton Linnaeus rotating there. Jareth Stern, Sean Bain Jr. And then there's one more open spot.

Steve, you mentioned Amante Coaksey out of Toronto. I'm still hoping that we haven't heard anything about him at all in free agency here. I know Tim White's still available, but I can't imagine the riders are going to want to pay for that. The Argos have lost everyone else today. So just, they may as well just say, coach, he's leaving right now. Congrats on being 16 and two and winning a great cup the year before. Now everybody wants your players. That's just the way it is.

So the receiving core, I'm liking the receiving core. Hopefully we can get to one of these young guys, you know, like a Kendall Watson, who's coming back for a second year.

Someone that can step up and really grab a hold of that last starting spot so hopefully we see that we'll see what happens and when free agency actually opens next week but right now we're not hearing anything from the insiders about really any receivers anywhere so we'll see what happens typically the offensive skills positions and i hate that term that's where you get a lot of your buzz your receivers your running

backs your quarterbacks then again the quarterback back market is fairly limited this year.

Running backs, of course, it was everyone's big talk, but no one's talking about the receivers yet. Like it's like super quiet when it comes to receivers. It's a little weird. Usually there's a couple, it was Dalton shown and he's getting a good deal with, with Winnipeg, which I think is actually kind of a bargain for Winnipeg for what you get adult and shown.

Out of that you're not hearing other than that you're not hearing anything else so i think we're going to see exactly what we saw out of winnipeg with brady olivera where he signed and that was the domino that led everything else i think we're going to start hearing a lot more tomorrow on on some of these free agents because they were waiting for him he's the market setter so we'll see where where things shine after that he wasn't a free agent but given a brand new contract extending

him for one more year the riders keeping roland milligan around adding on to this year so we have him through 2025 and i can't say enough about that guy he's a stud you saw how that defense just absolutely crumbled after he went down to injury last year so excellent job by o'day adding a year on now instead of you know having everybody panic us included next year going into free agency like milligan since he came on this roster has been been a spark plug on that defense

he played was a one game in the pandemic short season and then was an absolute stud like and then he got injured last year like i am glad we're not going to be sweating this one out next year i'm glad we had an extra year and i can't wait to what a full season of a healthy milligan looks like he's obviously the key to that defensive backfield there's no real other words for it he was a must must sign for as long as possible if he's willing and to stick around for another year.

That's good news for Ryder Nation. And also defensive back, Canadian defensive back, was a pending free agent, Godfrey Onyeka, signing a one-year deal. Just good, solid Canadian depth. You need those guys around. And special teams contributor, always good to have those kind of players around. He was great on special teams. Depth aside, he was great on special teams coverage. Better of the two Onyekas. He's not the lesser of the Onyekas.

Okay, well, let's get to the all the rumors and reports that are coming out. We'll start with what we've kind of heard about almost confirmed and not confirmed yet. But from what we understand is probably the biggest impact player that the riders are going to get in free agency isn't one of those. And Greg, you hate the term skill players. It's not going to be from one of the sexy positions. It's going to be right tackle offensive lineman Jermarcus Hardrick.

We talked last year about the riders writing wrongs by bringing back philip blake well this is a way that they can write a wrong from like seven years ago jermarcus hardrick was with the riders at the end of the 2015 season started eight games got cut moved or was a free agent moved on to winnipeg and since then has two great cups has been most outstanding lineman nominee this year this past year two all-star appearances like this guy is it's a little worrisome that

he's might be at the end of his of his.

Playing career on the downhill but have you seen what the riders have trotted out at tackle the last couple years this is a big signing i'm going to play devil's advocate there because we've already seen it from bombers fans it's kind of of ranged from glad he's getting the money to we should have moved on from him last year i i think i saw someone saying the reason the fact that he was their nominee was a joke and blah blah like okay bomber fans but yeah you're

right we've been having trouble out at the tackle position so it.

Is good to see someone that can be solid at the minimum compared to what we what we had to do last year i had to bring up uh council today i kind of had a whiplash by bringing that name up today but it's uh yeah no i'm i'm glad to see yoshi back yeah my worry he's been on the my little concern that we have blake at 38 and hardrick what is he he's 38 too isn't he he's up there 33 33 he's only 33 blake's 38 and we're worried about hardrick at 33 yep like yeah

is he old for an offensive lineman sure but he's better than what we've been trotting out there that that's a simple way to put it we you look at the guys that have been basic pylons there for the past two seasons where i may have been a better option at offensive tackle and i'm 180 pounds like we just had nothing there they've tried a dozen players nothing was working even if he is on the downward part of his career at this point which i don't believe he is

he's still better Better than anything we have had in the last half a decade. I don't see the issue here. And to me, it screams of a lot of sour grapes coming out of Winnipeg with all of the talk after the fact. There were so many congratulations on his nomination out of Winnipeg when he was nominated. But now all of a sudden he's a bum. Yeah, that's not how it works. We can find the receipts if you really want us to.

You got time to take those words back. The deal makes him the highest paid offensive lineman, American offensive lineman, apparently. Did we overspend? Maybe. But at the same time, if you're going to overspend somewhere, do it where you have a massive hole and shore up that need. And the riders have needs at both tackles. Now he plays right tackle.

So left tackle still a bit of an issue right now but where does this leave the o-line the way that i look at it right now just penciled in right now i think we have four of the five spots in pretty much in stone the left tackle is a big question mark open competition there in camp whoever wins wins then you have logan furland peter godber philip blake on the interior and jamarcus hardrick at tackle or do you want to flip the ratio a little bit get four canadian offensive linemen there

play philip blake maybe even logan furland at left tackle the other one at guard god we're at center one of the young guys logan bandy or zach fry at right guard and hardrick at right tackle what do you guys think where does this leave the o-line i think they might try the four Canadiens on the offensive line I think they have to Especially when you assign Zerd this offseason You got Bandy, you got Fry.

We've got, and I'm assuming They're probably going to take at least another one or two Canadians in the draft You need to And that's also not including, Schill from the Thunder Who is probably going to make the practice roster Again this year. I think you're going to see them probably try the four Canadians because at this point, it's only going to help your ratio. And with Blake and Ferdinand that are multidimensional, I think you can at least give it an attempt.

And if you got to try an American out there, try an American out there, unless someone comes into camp and blows everyone out of the water, I think you got to try the four Canadians. Well, again, look at the past couple of seasons where they've tried to bring in tackle after tackle after tackle and nothing was working. I don't have faith in them being able to bring somebody in that doesn't have CFL experience. I would love to see them try Logan Furland out there. He got a little bit of

time out there. He does not look out of place. And if you can cement him as a long-term left tackle in this league, that is a huge ratio breaker for an already dominant player. I'm 100% on board with that. That should be the go-to plan. Plus, you can take a little bit off of Philip Blake that way. He is getting up there in age. Get him inside, get him a little bit more help. Maybe he gets a little bit more longevity out of his career.

I am concerned about what they've brought in for left tackle in terms of Americans and what they've done over the last couple of years, because everybody that they've tried out is a guard by nature. We haven't had a true left tackle even like make it to training camp.

Camp the last one that they had well last year we had one coming to training camp and the guy quit on the team and then decided to come back and then ended up getting hurt after not playing for like four years so i'm not surprised by that what was that gerald hawkins he's still on the roster for this year as i say he's on the roster like he's he still might make it to camp maybe i mean that was he was he was not penciled in he was like sharpie sharpied in as he was going to be

the a guy and then he just didn't report was on the suspended list and then finally came back up and then got hurt immediately in his first game but other than that everybody else that they've had. Are true american right guards that they're throwing at left tackle and i have no faith from what i've seen over the last couple years that they can find a left tackle so maybe it is maybe you guys are right you have to go with ferland or blake as option number one and see what happens.

I've said it a few times. I think the only way that O'Day can recognize a offensive lineman is by looking in the mirror. He seems to have the hardest time trying to find offensive linemen. And you think a guy that played the position would know it better than anyone else. And maybe he's just blind to it. I have no idea. Another huge splash for the Riders. Going to be replacing Larry Dean in the middle of the defense. You sure about that? I've heard Moncrief. I've heard Moncrief.

You know what he means, Greg. Oh, yes. The star power of Derek Moncrief. Yes. As opposed to Larry Dean. Yes. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. Sorry. My bad. Basically replacing Larry Dean in the middle of the defense. Middle linebacker is going to be Jameer Thurman, Thurman was with Hamilton last year at Calgary the years before. So familiar with Corey Mace from their Calgary days together.

We shouldn't be surprised by that. Thurman had a great year last year and has proven he can be an absolute stud in this league. And I don't see a downgrade here at all going from Larry Dean, who's been excellent the last couple of years for the riders, but going to Jameer Thurman, a little bit younger. And this guy knows how to tackle. He's a tackler. And to me, that's the biggest thing.

I, I, I love Larry Dean, like from when they brought him in to his unfortunate, like before season injury to coming back to how well he's played the last two seasons, he could have been a writer for the rest of his career. However, if you're going to replace him with anyone, I'm glad it's Jameer Thurman. Because you're right, the guy is an absolute beast when it comes to tackling, especially on a team that went to the Nick Marshall School of Tackling last year for the last seven games.

Like, I'm glad there's going to be a guy leading by example because you can't get by him. You legit cannot get by him. To me, it comes down to age and nothing else. They're basically similar players. Both quality middle linebackers. is Jermaine Thurman substantially younger and hasn't had that Achilles injury that unfortunately took a year out of Larry Dean's career.

I like it. And I think this is the first sign of many that we're going to see and some we've already seen about the Corey Mace effect, where he's bringing some of those guys that he's familiar with back into his own fold. And if he trusts him, I trust him. It's that simple. You name any player he signs on that defense,

and I've said this before, I'm 100% on board because nothing mace has done so far should tell us otherwise so if he thinks thurman is an upgrade over over larry dean i'm on board my only concern and this is not even a mace problem this is a an od issue you look at the hardrick contract you look at the thurman contract a guy we're about to talk about with the jaylon edwards cooper we are putting a lot of high dollars down right right now that and a our favorite calgary stampeters fan is already

like oh they're breaking the salary cap it doesn't count the offseason just move on and it's not about we're, i i understand it's a suggestion and legit spend until you until you can afford it is is my opinion on it but the numbers for aj well that haven't come in yet and i'm guessing he got a bit of a Quite a bit of a raise this year.

So like With these five players We're going to talk about four players we're talking about right now Like that's close to a million Dollars for four guys And that's not including our quarterback. But is $170,000 really that much of an overspend on a top-tier middle linebacker? You look back at last year's top linebacking salaries, and he's right there in there. The only difference is the passport, which you've got to pay.

You do pay a bit of an expense for that Canadian passport that Thurman doesn't have. But if you're going position by position, he's not overpaid at all. No, Thurman's contract is not the one I'm worried about.

He's one of the highest paid defensive players in this linebackers supposedly it's the hard draft the hard track contract is huge and jaylen edwards cooper that dan ralph is reporting on is going to be one of the highest paid dbs and i guarantee you you could put him in a lineup and not even bc line bc lions fans could identify him which is a if we if we got him and he's as as good as everyone is saying he's going to be like that's that's a steal for us the

fact that he wasn't wasn't on anyone's board is just wild so linebacking group looking like this with cj revis playing the sam linebacker the cover linebacker spot jameer thurman in the middle and who knows at the at the weak side spot in the micah tights position maybe it's if they keep with with the ratio go with canadian there it's tights his backup from last year aj allen and matt dean. I i still think they're gonna move donkey down and then

go with ford at safety and probably back ford up with onyeka nelson lacombo that kind of thing i think so i think i think i think the way donkey plays you put him closer to the line in my that's what i would do i'm by by no means i'm my cfl coach i i don't even coach flag football for obvious reasons because i i talk better than i coach and i don't talk well so that tells you how well i coach you said it not me yeah so i i would love

to see a donkey closer to the line but yeah alan i don't or dean i guess yeah i think they're going to keep the ratio the same but it just depends on who's there the only thing that concerns me when it comes to getting donkey close to the line he did seem to have some issues staying on the field last year. He was one of the guys that was constantly nicked up during games. It seemed like it was a very consistent thing.

And getting him closer into the action might not be the best thing for a guy who may not have the best. Two words for you, Dan Farthing. D-A-N-F-A-R-T-H-I-N-G, Dan Farthing! Yeah. I mean, Lord knows I'm on board. Big donkey energy. I want to see it. The guy loves to hit. Get him a chance to hit as many people as possible is not a bad thing. I just want to make sure he stays healthy.

And again, that's where Dan Farthing comes into play. And I think we're going to see a lot less of those little nicked up injuries with him him as the health and health or strength and conditioning coach going into this year another signing defensive back it wasn't the one that we were hoping for with jamal peters he's going to edmonton from this or sorry hamilton from the sounds of it a guy that i wish i knew more about but i don't jalen edwards cooper dan ralph of the canadian press reported

this he's going to be one One of the highest paid DBs, which makes you think, okay, well, who is this guy played for BC last couple of years, only had one interception last year, not making a lot of big, you know, flash plays. Of course that interception was against us. Cause of course it is. Didn't give up a touchdown last year. According to pro football focus that right there, it's like a long snapper. If you don't hear his name, that's a good thing. He's not getting beat.

And i'm liking it based off that i i love when they announce the signing and

i my first response was i have no idea who this guy is like exact words i've never i he was not on my board he was not somebody i even considered as an option for you know a day one or day two free agent signing, but the more you look at it he was sitting across an opposite a very flashy guy in gary peters So he was already outshined in that BC backfield.

Anybody you can get from a defensive team that was as good and as dominant as BC was for most of the last year, they're doing something right out in Vancouver. The more I looked at it, the more I looked at the stats and the football focus, no touchdowns. We could use a lot of that, especially if he's replacing Nick Marshall, who gave up a lot of touchdowns. I'll take no touchdowns versus the fewer interceptions.

Like long as we don't hit jalen effing edwards cooper territory we should be fine like i that like nick marshall we always said you live by the sword died by the sword and the reason why you talked about him he's either making interception or he was getting burnt bad so if we got a guy that plays steady defense that we don't have to talk about even better so with that signing where does that leave the defensive backfield well sounds like he'll take the the cornerback

spot You have Roland Milligan, you have Amari Henderson at the other halfback spot, Jackson Ford, Jaden Dahlke, whatever they decide to do at safety there. And then leaves the wide side corner position, which to me, probably don't need to go out and spend a lot. But Deontay Williams looked pretty good last year. He did. They also had Tremaine Washington at the end of the season, who's under contract again for this year. So there's guys who have played the corner spot, have looked good doing it.

I think we're kind of set in that defensive backfield now. What a change a couple of days makes to an overall roster. It's like we needed to wait for free agency before freaking out. No, this is Ryder Nation, Steve. No, come on. Where have you been? I had somebody give me crap for getting too excited about one of the next signings we're going to be talking about. And frankly, I won't say anything about that, my response, because I can't say anything nice.

If you can't get excited about some of these big name signings in free agency what the hell are we doing here there's two things there's only one position i'm concerned about right now we still need to shore up that defensive line hopefully that's coming up and also everyone also needs to, temper expectations these yes a contract has been tendered but technically speaking every team contender contract it just depends on what actually happens in those

two two days between between actual signing and or say the end of the ed hervey window and the actual free agency day so all this being excited might be all for not this temporary expectations who was i'm curious if any other players will will go the adarius picket route and try and get the team to release them so they can just get it over with that's it that's so far that's the only one that's done it which i thought that was weird why a team would give up negotiating rights

on a player even if if they don't think they're going to sign them. Keep a division rival in suspense until it's done. Seems like it'd be a better thing. Ottawa's not a division rival. Have you seen them? That's a valid point. Maybe we'll see a DeAndre. I think it was DeAndre Jordan, NBA, Dallas Mavericks situation. Locked in his house. Locked in his house. Couldn't get out until he signed a contract. Hopefully we see something wild like that because that'd be just fun.

Mark Cuban driving around his house on the cell phone saying, Hey, I'm outside. Yeah. Not happening in CFL. Okay. Okay, well, we have mentioned it in passing over the first 28 minutes of this show. Let's get to it. Why I'm here tonight. Why I'm excited for the 2024 season. The guy who, he needs a New Jersey number. He's not getting number 34 here. No, that one right back there that you can see. No one else is wearing that one.

Guy who looks good in green and white. And we know this from his time at Ohio. They wear a green and white. running back aj ulet who wasn't i mean i picked him as a need yes the riders needed a starting running back but at the same time typically i don't want the teams to overspend on american running backs roy shivers said it they're a dime a dozen we hear it all the time but i love this guy.

Everything about him he's just he's he's my bear woods this like i'm i'm gonna fanboy over this guy for a long time he's a great player he runs hard we haven't had a guy running back run hard in a long time probably since cory sheets left a guy who cory sheets wasn't a hard runner i'd say since west gates yeah but he's also a great blocker and that's going to be a very underrated thing and i don't i don't i don't know like our other riders gonna use a

run game this year we've seen over the last couple years it didn't matter who the running back was there's no run game we might use it for one game or for a quarter and then it gets abandoned they have to be consistent with that now with the questions you know still on the o-line how do you help the o-line you let them run block you let them be the aggressors mark mueller they used a lot of running backs last year in Calgary, a good rotation. Kadeem Carey, Peyton Logan, Mills as well, too.

I can see that happening here. And it's not going to be just AJU, let alone. It's going to be Frankie Hickson. It's going to be Thomas Bertrand Houdon. But if you can get him the ball constantly 15 times a game, up to 20 some games, but just always have that threat of a run game, that's going to be a big thing for Trevor Harris and this offense. One thing I really like about this signing is you look at that thunder and lightning

of AJ Ouellette and Frankie Hickson. We haven't really had that thunder and lightning style pairing in a long time. We've had good 1A, 1B, or 1-2 running backs. But this is the first time I can remember in a while where we've had a guy that can actually spell the starter off with a completely different style. AJ Ouellette's going to run through you.

Frankie Hickson's going to try and get around you. There's just a completely different skill style, and that can do nothing but good things for the offense. And then you just add on the fact, like you said, he just seems like an overall good dude, fun dude. High-impact wrestling is going to love this guy in town. I'm sure they've already reached out to him to get him on board.

Greek town wrestling has lost their marquee player now in Toronto, but also who in the betting records had me making the first wrestling reference?

On any episode ever because here we are just trying to refrain from repeating last week and talking about his hammer they're already marketing the heck out of aj's hammer right now at the at the rider store yeah and that's that's tampering we tampered yeah the nice thing for mark muller is if you can get a good running offense and we see this all the time you're going to stop that pass rush because if they got to think you're actually going to run the

ball that's going to help preserve your older quarterback that's not exactly the most mobile, so that's going to help us out because that's what winnipeg does let's be honest so yeah having aj roulette is going to be fun and they the riders need to market the hell out of them. This guy has a guy with personality. This is a guy that's going to be obviously recognized on the streets. There's no missing that Kentucky waterfall. He's got such a great mullet.

I, this, this guy is say what you want about him on the field. He's going to be a star in this market. And I hope the riders use them because I think it's going to be fun, especially on when you are going into year three of after two very down years.

Especially after collapsing after labor day again you need all of the positive you can because i we've talked about it the season tickets are probably gonna be down this year so they need all the help they can get this year what do you talk about marketing the writers the voice of the writers rob vanstone had a stealing my shit the other day first the first the wrestling references wrestling references now that but that he had an article

about the the first day of the ed hervey window and it was talking about a guy who was asking the team are there any marketing opportunities in Saskatchewan and the idea or the rumor is that that person asking was AJ Ouellette. I think he's already looking into it. The team's already on board. You're going to see his face. He's just like you said, he's got an easily recognizable face and personality.

You're going to see it all over town, all over the province. they need to get them everywhere because it can only do good things aj's apple well you can't call them apple jacks but some sort of apple based cereal get them in stores we saw the the winter classic for the rider foundation right in the front row someone brought their gets left, and fantoos flakes their two boxes of cereal had them there that's why you do it that's why you You put guys on cereal boxes.

Please Saskatchewan Roughriders. Do that. Do that with AJ. Let this is a guy you can market the crap out of and fans are going to love him. Absolutely love him. So. Home opener. Give everyone hammers. Like, yeah, like seriously.

And have fun with it instead of the thunder sticks, thunder hammers. Yeah, there's an easy marketing option there. Somebody will pay to have plastic hammers made up.

There's no way that ends horribly in saskatchewan no well you get the like yeah like make them like thunder sticks make them inflatable yeah yeah and my kids are still beating each other over the heads with them so of course none of these moves official but sounds like they're all gonna happen i mean wild stuff can happen i doubt it but more than likely i kind of want to see someone flory one of these one of

these not all right absolutely i i want to see a scott flory happen to some other their team. Yeah. It already happened to us. Yeah. Like Abe Simpson, it just completely in the door, out the door. Nope. This is not what I wanted. And one other name that we haven't really talked about, but apparently the riders are very interested in how interested they are after spending all this money, especially on defense.

I'm not sure, but Matthew Betts at defensive end, I'm not hearing a lot about him, which is really interesting considering the year that he had last year, you would think that nine out of nine teams would inquire about him and we'd hear something, but nothing yet. It's a little bit weird, just that teams are very interested. And he's a ratio breaker, which is even funnier. Yeah.

I'm shocked maybe some teams are worried he's still mulling NFL interest or maybe, but yeah it's all quite in the bets department I don't know why I wonder if some GMs aren't looking at his season as a whole and going okay he was super hot at the beginning of the season middle of the season he cooled right off and had nothing going on end of the season he lit it up again there was a long stretch where he had I think it was two sacks in seven games Which, by all accounts, is still decent numbers.

It's not 200k a year numbers, but two sacks in seven games is still six, seven sacks a year. That's not horrible. But there was not a consistency issue. The effort was still, the pressures were still there, the numbers were not. And I wonder how much that's factoring into the payday he wants versus the payday he's getting offered.

That's what i still expect him to be off the board on tuesday when free agency opens so i yeah like his passport alone someone's gonna roll a brinks truck up to his front door all you need is a guy currently on your roster like leg corte more as a backup that's all you need the riders have that, to make it work with the ratio but again how much money they're willing to spend on a defensive end And when the riders have never really had an issue of finding defensive ends,

if he shows a huge interest in coming here, great, bring him on. But otherwise, I think I'd pass.

Well, that's the opening kickoff presented by Kathy Festian of Royal LePage Regina Realty. Let's jump to our Churchill Brewing Company odds and end zones. First off, Super Bowl coming up this upcoming Sunday. Don't care who wins as long as it's not the Chiefs. But if you're looking for things to get for the Super Bowl, grab yourself some Churchill Brewing Company drinks and enjoy the game responsibly. I recommend the lawnmower. That's what I got going on tonight. That's what's in my cup too.

You know actually memorable bus trip last year that was the favorite amongst everybody that was the one that we got the most uh praise about was the lawnmower from churchill so just yes just yes and chase yep perfect all right that'll play well on on uh the audio format yeah the audio format yes we're all nodding our head yes good news for you steve chris trevler is back in the cfl, can i talk about how funny it was to me that they made a giant deal about signing a quarterback too.

But this is the thing it's the marketability of this guy massive market it's just funny like they teased tease it coming soon and the coming soon is five five minutes later like it was five minutes later they did that with all three of their bigs or their their two other big signing yeah and then they did it for the most overrated player i have ever seen in my life in the cfl i'm sorry i think i finally realized why i hate them and it happened

after the signing and i'm sorry chris strebler i'm sorry that i hate you it's It's not your fault. It is your fans fault. The amount of like over the top celebration about a running back at quarterback signing for your team. They paid $130,000 for a backup running back that can't throw. Yay, Winnipeg. Cult heroes, man. I'm telling you. I hope they sell fur coats everywhere. I wish him a healthy, long career in Winnipeg, full of misery and losses.

And I know we're about to touch on this, but Winnipeg's got a lot of money locked up in their quarterbacks, running back, and leading receiver. Like, no wonder Yoshi had to go somewhere else.

Like, I cannot believe the money they're throwing around. Like, everyone's going to the Riders, the writers writers for our money the bombers are worse than us right now just a final touch on jermarcus hardrick uh speaking of the bombers their replacement tackle who was waiting in the wings also just retired on them today on tuesday so that's fun i can actually see them going back to jermarcus hardrick and make an encounter offer i hope that doesn't happen but i can see it i can

see them definitely kicking the tires but like here's hoping he's like no i'm good but yeah like Like I said, that's why I tried saying earlier, like there, there's a good chance this could all get pear shaped in a hurry by the end of the week. Like, yeah, it's cool that we got all these names that have tender contracts, but this could all change before next week, especially for Jamarcus Hardrick, considering the bombers are probably like, oh crap.

Yeah. So yeah. But after they gave so much money to everybody, they ain't going to have the $230,000 we offered for a, a right tackle.

There's no way they have that in the conference. well you got claros making what five hundred thousand dollars you have olivera over 200k you have dalton shown 230 you have kenny lawler at almost three if not more than three i forget backups making 130 like that's it's a lot of money and nick demski is well over 200 000 as well too and that's three three receivers a running back a quarterback and a tasem hill no tasem hill

actually gets paid in the nfl okay well you can also throw the ball occasionally.

That that's a lot of money locked up and you got willie jay on on defense as well too adam big hill adam big hill like they're making a lot of money, in very few players like this might and this might be the year they come back down to earth and it's going to be great this is my new Calgary we all said Calgary is coming back to earth Winnipeg might be coming back to earth I said it a few days ago. We talked about it last year. First of all, they were an old team last year.

They're trying to bring back the same team that has lost in two straight great cups. But they're losing some of their quality to keep those other guys happy. Now, you have to assign a guy like Dalton Schoen and Brady Oliveira. You have to keep guys like that around. But some of these other signings, Chris Strebler, for instance, they were the last team that needed a running option at quarterback.

When you've got Brady Oliveira, whoever's behind him it's almost unnecessary they have Augustine too, Augustine's a hard runner as well.

I don't get it, I understand that's the only place where it makes sense for him to sign I get it, but I don't get it from Winnipeg's point of view I really don't, and I wish he would have gotten another NFL contract just so we didn't have to have this discussion, because I know it's going to be a long year, I'm sure he's going to somehow Somehow, Caleros will get hurt. He'll come in and he'll have learned everything from the NFL and throw for 4,000 yards and I'll look like an idiot.

And I will gladly eat an entire plate of crow if he has learned how to throw a football. You don't need Chris Dreveler to be a good quarterback to look like an idiot, Steve. Yeah, don't worry about it. I realize that. I do it naturally. But he'll just pile it on. Here's my favorite thing about Chris Dreveler, and this is kind of backing you up, Steve.

My favorite part about Chris Dreveler is The Bombers didn't trust him enough to go win them a Grey Cup They brought, Zach Kletters out of mothballs To play the best three games of his life And that got Zach paid, And Streveler A Grey Cup and a cowboy hat And a fur coat to go down to the NFL, If Matt Nichols never got hurt Strevelution wouldn't be a thing Zach Kletters might be in Argo still, The CFL would have a totally different landscape. And I would be much, much happier.

Going to some other teams, just some big time free agents looking like they're going elsewhere. We mentioned Jamal Peters, defensive back, number one rated cornerback on the free agent market. Sounds like he's going to Hamilton.

Also going to Hamilton from the Argos, defensive end Brandon Barlow.

Do you don't know who he is? he had one hell of a year last year as a rotational player played 14 games at defensive end nine sacks they're really well i was really hoping i was really hoping he was coming here yeah there were rumors the riders were kicking the tires on him and that would have been, i would have been quite happy with that especially with that kind of production nine sacks and 14 games as a rotational guy and you knew you know mace was probably that mason

knew him better than anyone so i guarantee you mace was like this guy low-key good we want him and hamilton also saw saw that with him too so and officially going to ottawa a darius pickett linebacker sam linebacker so it's the cover lineback position he was he was posting pictures of him in every single stadium and he was just getting every fan base riled up it was obvious he was going to be leaving toronto I'm really hoping it was

going to be here and they could, and the riders could have, you know, done something with CJ Revis and move them back. Or I don't know what they would have done if they would have got pick it as well too, but he's going to Ottawa. Good for them. Cause Ottawa always wins the off season. So this will be their big signing. And the good news for Pickett is after Halloween, he can go home because it's not like Ottawa's going to make the playoffs. So it's fine. It's fine for him.

Of course, I wanted to see him in Ryder Green, but if Ottawa's going to pay

him the money, it just blows me away that Toronto actually released him to let him go early. He probably just said, give me my release because I'm going there. And so good on Ottawa. I'm sorry, good on Toronto.

Know like teams don't have to do that no i'm not gonna lie i was kind of hoping they were going to release them and then you just would have signed with someone else because i don't know if that ottawa contract would actually held even though it was tendered to the league during the negotiation window i was very curious on how that was going to work well from what i understand it's the the contract that the players or sorry that the teams give out is a binding contract yeah or

it's a a binding offer it's yeah until the player signs it sends it back kind of thing right so they could have a handshake deal in place but until your scott flory name is on the on the contract no this is this is this would be more a sean lemon situation when he told ottawa he was going in the nfl and he signed with the riders like three days later oh it was on the nfl i was really hoping we were were going to get i don't know if we have any ted lasso fans but i

was really hoping we were going to get a zav impersonation here where you would come out in a press conference and announce he was signing with somebody else instead of ottawa that would have been absolutely brilliant i do know that's a lot of autofarm right you you love him you would have loved him here obviously we wanted him and at the money he signed for i'm surprised he signed that quick yeah because he He was right around the same money as Jameer Thurman, as a few others.

There were talks of him being into the 200s, and he didn't get there. But yet, he was announced pretty quickly after the window opened as going to Ottawa. So, I mean, good on him. He got a good gig out of there, and Ottawa got a free agency win. Who's going to wear number six in Ottawa, though? What's that? Who's going to wear number six in Ottawa?

Everybody. everybody yeah everyone apparently wears six there you got crummy you got ham there's another player they just announced recently they just signed there he was wearing number six doesn't doesn't drew brown wear six what drew brown sorry yeah.

Who's wearing everybody okay everywhere else everybody's leaving the sick so it's fun watching everybody leave toronto what happens when you're 16 and 2 everybody hopefully we have the same problem in a few years right that's the dream absolutely okay a couple more things to get to one really quick the cfl announced some dates of their major off-season events like the cfl draft and the global draft that's going to happen april 30th global draft will be at 9 a.m saskatchewan in time and i

can't wait to see what punters are taken then we cannot take three punters again that is i hope so we don't need it the joke is funny we we need to find our tiandre kinson like we need we need to find that special teamer i don't care if they're german french mexican like we need to find a guy that actually can play yeah i don't even know who are who is there going to be our global this year did not have a cacabal donato i forgot i forgot about good old abacus how could

you forget the glorious name of abacus baldonato just don't get his jersey steve i won't i'm already getting a roulette don't you dare don't you dare don't you dare no i haven't tested the curse in a while do not i know where you live do not i know where you live yeah do not do this to us okay steve please i'll let.

Him have his time in saskatchewan and then the cfl draft of course the same night six o'clock rookie camps open may 8th training camps officially open on may 12th and training camps end on june the 1st so that's official from the league for those dates and it says here so steve wanted us to remind him that he has nice words for genius i can only assume assume this is genius sports they got other stats but they fixed their stats randy ambrosie was on

this show talking about how genius has done great work and finally got stats page and everything going up, so steve you guys think you're a couple let's hear the nice words for genius sports we we are yeah so do you want to talk about that as somebody who has no history of autocorrect ever in his life i meant to say remind me to tell you about brayden lenny is and somehow that turned into remind me to to tell you about genius and they read so here we are so you're

saying he isn't smart yeah are you are you doubting the intelligence of uh braden lenius no especially if he listens to the show. Heck no. So you know how the teams send around players all off season. They'll go to schools. They'll go to whatever. They happen to be at my kid's school today. And it was today. It was Brayden Lenny. And he met my daughter, my son, and I think my youngest son met him as well. But Scarlett, I got to meet him and chatted with him for a minute.

And says, you play for the Ryder. My dad does a podcast about the Ryder. He goes, oh, what's that?

The Piffles podcast. Do you listen? and apparently Brayden Lennius is an avid listener to the Pimples podcast so I wanted to give Brayden a shout out why Brayden why, that's what I said now I'm hoping it wasn't just to make my daughter happy but if it was 100% it was he'll deserve the shout out but he knows how to play the game yeah thanks for tuning in and we all wish you a good 2024 season we're rooting for you, I'm not gonna lie I kind of hope that story would have been Brayden and going

wait a second is your dad the loud one the one who thinks he's funny or the guy that has tech problems all the time kind of all the same yeah yeah yeah.

Brayden if you are listening are watching slide into the pivils dms okay we got a chat, and that'll also prove to see whether you're actually listening thing 100 he lied you lied to scarlet i'm putting that out there right now i'm not i'm not faulting the guy you you make the kids day good but i guarantee he's lying nothing makes a kid's life better than knowing that they listen to their dad's podcast that's the way to bring our listenership up to eight and i i don't

think i don't think it's the case well i'll tell you what after free agency once things kind of die down on the on the pr side of things for ariel's their communications manager for the riders i'll reach out to her and see if we can get brayden on the show, And then we can grill them here. Did you lie to a little girl? Exactly. If his response is what show, then we know the truth. Yes, exactly. Actually, one thing we should probably mention, are we, are we wrapping up here? Pretty close.

Thank the listeners. A hundred thousand on pod bean. Like, like we joke about the six and seven and eight, whatever, but blown away. Yeah. A hundred thousand. 100,000 downloads just on Podbean alone doesn't count Sastel Max doesn't count.

SoundCloud in the early days we'd have to dig back and see what SoundCloud numbers are because I know we posted something when it hit a milestone number I don't remember what it was that was years ago but yeah it's the support we're getting is astonishing, to me I don't get it but we do appreciate it every single one of us and we're just we're fans just like you we pay for it i say this all the time yeah i say this all the time it's like i feel like sometimes it feels like we're just

shouting into the void because most of the time that and that that's the way writer nation is we're all just fans and we all have an opinion and my opinion is not better than yours my opinion is not better than steve while we pay my but yeah but we're here because we love the team and the passion that other fans have shown, for this team even to listen to us three meatballs like podcasting isn't for everybody so.

I i'm just glad i'm glad i can do with you too and i'm glad people listen i'm glad we're on sas tell max i'm glad we're on youtube it's it's fun and we as rider nation we suffer together i I guess. And hopefully we can celebrate together too. It's been a long time since we've had a season to really celebrate and to have the, the amount of listens that we do through what has been to God awful season, or at least God awful second half of the season.

And for the listeners to allow us to do what we do in the community and with our events, none of that happens. If people don't tune into this show, that's, that's the start of it. If we, if this doesn't exist, all the other stuff that we do doesn't happen. So thanks for listening. Thanks for commenting, tweeting, whatever it is, interacting in any way. We appreciate it. Haters too. You know what? You're part of what keeps us going.

I will not take your pity follows, but I'll gladly take your spike listens. Absolutely. All the spite listens, but like we're not, everybody's going to love what we do. That's that's fine with me too i want i want the haters it means that you're pushing boundaries you're doing it you're doing it right if everybody loves what you're saying and what you're doing you're holding back and i don't think we do i i feel all emotional now what do i do with this i think we just end the show there.

Next week we'll talk all free agency we'll have the first couple days of free agency under our belt when we do the show so we'll know for sure we'll give some some grades to cory mace and jeremy o'day with their their work and we'll see who else the riders sign it should be should be a fun week with the rest of the the ed hervey tampering window and the start of free agency next week so looking forward to it and just talking more rider football thanks

again for for joining us, watching on YouTube, SaskTel TV Max On Demand. Listening wherever you find your podcasts. Piffle's podcast is brought to you by our great friends at Dairy Queen on Elphinstone Street and Sask Drive in Regina. Special thanks always go out to Kathy Festian of Royal LePage Regina Realty and of course Churchill Brewing Company for their support making the show possible. This is Tyler Gibbert. You know how it ends. Ghost behind your mind. Music.