Riders’ O’Day forges ahead, sets focus on 2021 season filled with uncertainty

Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager Jeremy O’Day can turn his attention away from a tumultuous 2020 to an uncertain 2021.

The CFL announced Monday there would not be a 2020 season, leading to disappointment from fans and teams alike.

“There’s a lot of time and effort that goes into a season,” O’Day said Tuesday. “It’s especially tough on the players that have worked all off-season and have sacrificed financially to try and prepare for a 2020 season.

“From a selfish standpoint, I also feel for our team. We were a team that was in a good position and we were so close last year to having success on the field that you feel bad (because) there was a lot of momentum coming into the season.”

Saskatchewan lost to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 2019 West Division final at Mosaic Stadium. The Bombers went on to win the Grey Cup.

O’Day said the Roughriders organization wants to try and support its players right now, but he admits it’s difficult to do that.

“What we’re going to try and do is reach out to them and try to help all we can,” O’Day said. “We will try to do as many appearances that we can do and get our guys in the community as much as possible.

“We’re also going to encourage the guys who have opportunities to work to help their family that they need to do so.”

But now O’Day also will need to focus on getting ready for the 2021 season. O’Day said the league and the CFL Players’ Association need to have a discussion about what happens to players’ contracts and if players can sign with NFL teams immediately.

“Until we get word on that, we don’t know how that’s going to work out,” O’Day said.

O’Day said the Roughriders have looked at many different scenarios about what their roster will look like in 2021.

“There’s going to be a lot of unknowns that we don’t have answers to, but I don’t think we can use that as an excuse to stop doing our job,” O’Day said. “We’re approaching it just like we would after a normal season.”

O’Day said the team has started to have conversations with its players but hasn’t talked to everyone about what their future plans are.

“We do have some guys who are towards the end of their career and we’ll need to have those answers if they’re going to continue on or not,” O’Day said.

He admitted the team will look different in 2021, much like it would after any season.

O’Day is encouraged by some of the conversations front office personnel have been able to have with players.

“Some of the players that we’ve spoken to feel real good about playing again; their bodies feel better than they have in a long time,” O’Day said. “Some of those guys who have played a number of years, they’re taking this as a year for their body to recover.

“I think there will be some players that may say it’s time to move forward without football and there will be others that will say they miss it.

“Ideally, we’d like to get a majority of our guys back. There’s nothing that has changed our opinion of our guys through this that makes us not want to bring them back.”