The post-season may only be a couple of weeks old but it’s already time to look at, or at least talk free agency and what we might expect from it. Each of the nine teams each face a variety of different scenarios in the upcoming free agency with some like the Edmonton Eskimos facing a list bigger than your child’s Christmas list to Santa, while the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have perhaps the easiest job as they only have 17 players in total entering the free agency. Although Hamilton still face other problems with wanting to bring in the right blend of quality to improve for next season whilst trying to keep hold of lead receiver Brandon Banks, which is appearing to be problematic at the time of writing. Meanwhile, Eastern sides Ottawa and Montreal face other problems in terms of the amount of free agent Nationals they may have (12 and 15 respectively), meaning they need to focus on tying up the Canadian depth while bringing in quality needed to improve on this year. Ottawa will need to concentrate their attempts on building up their defense given the amount of points they conceded, while Montreal have a massive task as they need to improve in numerous areas. The other Eastern side and recent Grey Cup champions, Toronto Argonauts arguably have the easiest task going into the free agency where their main aim should be to tie up most of their stars from this year, including quarter-back Ricky Ray, star receivers SJ Green and DeVier Posey and National backs Matt Black and Jermaine Gabriel. The question facing the Argos will be how much of the budget they will be willing spend on retaining the players. Regarding the West, each of the five teams have different scenarios facing them with Edmonton facing potentially the most upheaval with a total of 37 free agents while Winnipeg face the least disruption with only a total of 19 free agents including only just 5 National players. The Blue Bombers free agency will be about tweaking here or there as their core is decent, while their main aim will be strengthening enough in order for them to get past the divisional semi’s. Edmonton will want to tie down their main core of free agents including key offensive players Brandon Zylstra, Derel Walker, Vidal Hazelton. Also, they will want to sign-up some of their Canadian talent which includes 17 players, whilst wanting to attract some talent from the other teams. Meanwhile the BC Lions have seen some changes in the background with Buono focusing solely on coaching duties with Ed Hervey taking on GM duties with his first task most likely being keeping hold of Emmanuel ‘The Manny Show’ Arceneaux. Saskatchewan face a similar issue in trying to re-sign a star receiver of their own with Duron Carter being one of the players of the season. Chris Jones is slowly building the Roughriders up, so I would expect that he’ll try to re-sign the majority in order to keep that cohesion. The other West side Calgary have a big task too with 27 free agents, including 12 Nationals with one being the highly talented and probably sought-after Jerome Messam which I’m sure Dave Dickenson will want to keep. Expect him to reshape in this free agency as he will need to reflect on two straight loses in the Grey Cup and can find a team to bring back success to Calgary. So, who do I think will be the main movers? Brandon Bridge Canadian quarterbacks are rare in the game especially talented ones and Brandon Bridge fits that description. He had some outstanding plays last season when called upon in Saskatchewan and I would expect that to continue, however Bridge will be looking for more exposure as a starter and with Kevin Glenn and Vernon Adams vying for that spot too it may be difficult to nail down. Since his Montreal days, Bridge’s stock has been growing. I think it could be time for him to come back to the East, specifically his native Ontario and test himself with the Toronto Argonauts. However, I believe this move hinges on a number of factor’s, the first one being what would happen to Ricky Ray (who is also a FA) as retirement is talked about but may play on for another year, in which case Bridge could play understudy for one year before taking on the starter role in 2019. The other factor is stability and whether Bridge feels he would benefit more sticking in Saskatchewan or twisting in Toronto. Jeremiah Masoli Another one of the 11 quarterbacks potentially up for grabs, Masoli leaving Hamilton could be fairly likely. Despite playing in the majority of the Ti-Cats games (12/18) in 2017, he is effectively back-up to Zack Collaros, who was injured for parts of last season and is under contract for 2018, so could be pushed back to the bench again. This could become even more apparent if Hamilton bring in Johnny Manziel which seems increasingly more likely as the days go, meaning Masoli would effectively become third choice which is something he would not want. So, the question is where next? Well I think BC Lions may come calling in order to offer support and competition for young starter Jonathon Jennings who had a mixed season in 2017. This move would look more likely too if back-up quarterback Travis Lulay announces his retirement, meaning more chance of game time for Masoli. Diontee Spencer
Impressive over his two years in Toronto and even more so during the last season in Ottawa where he recorded a total of over 900 yards and 6 touchdowns. The main talking point surrounding Spencer is which side of the boarder he might be playing with rumoured NFL interest shown in him. If he did get a move to the NFL this of course would rule the wide-receiver out of free agency, but if he were to stay in the CFL where would he go? I would say he has numerous options as no doubt the Redblacks will want to keep hold of him in their quest to bring the Grey Cup back to the capital in 2018. The only thing stopping him from staying would be salary as he would require an increase given his rising stock in the game. The majority of other CFL sides may be interested with the final decision coming down to stability of the team and how good their QB is.
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