5 takeaways from Saskatchewan's winter meetings availability

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The 2025 CFL winter meetings are done and dusted, and now our attention turns to next steps for each of the league's nine teams, with an eye to free agency, the draft and before you know it, the opening of training camp.

Let's check in on the Saskatchewan Roughriders, with five takeaways from the team's winter meeting media availabilities with general manager Jeremy O'Day, and head coach Corey Mace.

IT'S JUST DIFFERENT THIS YEAR

Last off-season, the Roughriders were a blur of newness all the way around. A new and first-time head coach, new staff and lots of activity in free agency, with plenty of new faces looking to find their place and ways to assimilate.

They needed to pour the concrete, and get the walls and roof up in short order.

"I thought last year, that was a perfect kind of mantra for us to kind of, you know, set the foundation of what we’re trying to build here,"
said Mace, admitting that year two as a head coach finds him feeling a lot less rushed. With much of his staff residing in Regina, in fact, he's had the luxury of talking and planning, face to face, at his leisure.

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O'Day can feel the difference, too, and you get the impression that he's liking it.

"It's not exactly a situation you want to be in when you have to be super active in free agency," he said, hinting that he'll be zeroing in on familiar faces rather than new ones this winter.

"Different position (than) we've been in the last couple years for sure," O'Day said.

"Really focusing on trying to get our guys back and build that locker room camaraderie that usually pays dividends for the season."

Speaking of that locker room, Mace said he believes things will be a bit different for the Riders in 2025, with him not having to be so busy with setting and policing the disciplined culture he worked hard to establish during his first year.

"The room will be able to dictate that more now than specifically me having to to guide them," Mace explained. "They know exactly what it is that we want to look like."

"It’s going to be fun to have the players kind of dictate that and hold each other and the new guys accountable for how we like to do things, as opposed to just a coaching staff."

THE OFFENSIVE LINE IS A KEY OFF-SEASON PROJECT

It looks like the Roughriders will be looking to beef up with Nationals in free agency and/or the draft.

"If I had a position that we would be looking at to still do some work on (it) would be Canadian O-linemen," said O'Day, who was three times named a member of the All-CFL team when he was playing on the line back in the day.

"Usually you wanna have a good group of those guys," the GM added, "especially with the amount of injuries we've had on the offensive line the last number of years."

While O'Day said that those injuries did provide a silver lining of pressing the team into bulking up on front line Canadian troops, he admitted that "we've still got some work to do there."

So here's the question: Will the Riders go aggressively shopping for some established O-line talent when free agency opens?

NO PROMISES FOR JAKE

The Roughriders bolstered their quarterbacks room by trading for and then signing former Calgary Stampeders' starting pivot Jake Maier to an extension.

With two-plus seasons as a starter under his belt, the 27-year-old gives the Riders excellent insurance behind 38-year-old Trevor Harris.

But if you're looking a li'l bit ahead, and wondering if Saskatchewan has its QB1 replacement for Harris when retirement time comes, neither O'Day nor Mace would grant that is a scenario that is necessarily in place.

"We'll see," said O'Day. "It's a fresh start for him."

"You know," began Mace, "I’m very vocal about how much I love Trevor and as long as he feels like he could play there’s always going to be a kind of a spot (for him)."

"Having somebody of Jake’s calibre and the experience that he’s had, in his career to this point and being still a young quarterback, I just feel like it sets us up to have just more depth in that position and experience at that position."

It's apparent that the only commitment the Riders are making to Maier – at this time – is one where he gets a chance to re-set his career as an understudy.

BIGGER THINGS EXPECTED FROM MALIK

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Both O'Day and Mace indicated that they are expecting big things in 2025 from defensive lineman Malik Carney, who signed an extension with the Roughriders last week.

Carney's first year with the Roughriders saw him total 29 tackles and four sacks in 13 games played in a season where he was slowed down by injuries.

"I really do think that he’s kind of just scratching the surface," said Mace, who raved about Carney's talents, which the coach says make the 29-year-old a force from the edge or the interior and even in pass coverage.

But he needs to stay healthy and the Riders are aiming to help with that.

"Just working on things that maybe we can do to prevent injuries just to keep him more available for himself on the field to make those dynamic plays we know he can," said Mace.

"Big, big Malik Carney fan," added the coach. "Happy he’s wearing the green and white."

"Tremendous upside," said O'Day. "I still believe Malik's gonna be a top tier defensive end in our league and just needs to put it all together."

AJ's LIFTING TOO MUCH

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In joking about running back AJ Ouellette trying to squat-lift 700 pounds, Mace touched on something that perhaps the Roughriders would like Ouellette to do in order to stay healthy and in the line-up in 2025; Mind the body in all ways, including personal workout load management.

"At this point of his career he's gotta make sure that it's conducive to him being as healthy as possible and trying to avoid some things," said Mace while showing a high regard for Ouellette's desire to push himself.

It's true, though, that in 2024 Ouellette had trouble staying in the lineup during the regular season, playing in just eight games. O'Day says part of the problem was that the 29-year-old wrecking ball started the campaign already a bit hobbled.

"I do feel like he's gonna be healthier than he was coming into training camp last year," said O'Day, looking ahead to the upcoming season. "I think that he had some problems with his hips when he came into camp and tried to fight through it for most of the year."

"He brings a lot to the table, a lot of intangibles to our team," O'Day continued. "We're excited for him to be a part of our team."

When Ouellette was fully healthy – or at least close to it – he gave the Roughriders what they were hoping for from him all season when he turned in a dominating performance in the 2024 Western Semi-Final against the BC Lions.

The Riders would like more of that, more often.

"He's taking care of himself this off-season to make sure that he's gonna be available for us," said Mace.