Taylor Shire, Regina Leader-Post
This time last year, Corey Mace was just getting his feet wet as head coach of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Now with a full season under his belt, Mace is drawing on all that experience as he navigates through his second off-season with the club.
While Mace and general manager Jeremy O’Day and the rest of the Roughriders football operations staff continue to sign priority free agents this off-season ahead of free agency opening on Feb. 11, the duo are also attending the CFL winter meetings this week in Charlotte, N.C.
Head coaches and general managers from across the league are taking part in a series of presentations and meetings, while also holding virtual media availabilities.
On Monday, Mace met with reporters to discuss several topics:
Maier trade
One of the biggest questions this off-season for the Green and White was how their quarterback room would look in 2025.
After signing starter Trevor Harris to a one-year extension, the Roughriders then traded for Jake Maier from the Calgary Stampeders before signing him to a new contract.
The acquisition of the 27-year-old Maier gives Saskatchewan one of the top quarterback tandems in the CFL, which is something that excites Mace.
“We just had a feeling that there was going to be a few teams that would be interested,” Mace said when asked how the trade came together. “We felt strongly about having him wear the green and white so we kind of took matters into our own hands to facilitate a trade and allow us that buffer time before free agency hit to strike a deal.
“Having somebody of Jake’s calibre and the experience that he’s had in his career to this point, and being a young 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.
“I know he’s going to learn a tremendous amount from Trevor and obviously (offensive coordinator Marc) Mueller, who he’s familiar with. But also I know vice versa, Trevor is a student of the game, and I’m sure there’s things that he’s going to ask Jake about.”
Patterson’s future
The acquisition of Maier puts some doubt into Shea Patterson’s future with the Roughriders.
Last season, the 27-year-old QB made his first six CFL starts while filling in for an injured Harris. He guided the Riders to a 2-3-1 record over that span but is set to become a free agent on Feb. 11 if Saskatchewan doesn’t offer him an extension.
“Decision yet to be made,” said Mace. “Shea has proven to be a very serviceable quarterback, won games for us and certainly, I think there’s going to be value in that.
“Could obviously for us, as he has been, but if it gets to the point where he gets to a window for free agency, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of teams lined up as well.
“No decision has been made from that standpoint. There’s still some time here.”
Along with Harris and Maier, the Riders also have Jack Coan and Michael Hiers under contract.
Running backs
The Roughriders also appear to have a good running back tandem heading into next season as both A.J. Ouellette and Ryquell Armstead are under contract.
After being limited to eight regular season games last year due to injury, Mace is hoping Ouellette, a key free agent signing in 2023, has a bounce back season, which starts with potentially changing his off-field workouts.
“I’m extremely confident,” said Mace. “It’s kind of crazy when you have to ask your running back to stop squatting 700 pounds.
“He’s just such a hard worker, but you know at this point of his career, he’s got to make sure that it’s conducive to him being as healthy as possible and trying to avoid some things.
“He’s taking care of himself this off-season to make sure that he’s going to be available for us.”
Carney extended
Just before Mace met with the media on Monday, the Roughriders announced the re-signing of defensive end Malik Carney, who was another player Saskatchewan targeted during free agency last year.
After Carney was limited to four sacks to 13 regular season games last year, Mace is expecting a bigger year from Carney in 2025.
“I really do think that he’s kind of just scratching the surface,” said Mace. “Unfortunately, (he) had to deal with a little bit of injury last season.
“I know he’s going to be pushing himself, and we’ve challenged him to push himself even further in the off-season, not as only as it pertains to just working out, because he’s always in pretty dang good shape, 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.”
Reid released
The Roughriders will be searching for a new starting left tackle this off-season after Trevor Reid landed an NFL deal with the Minnesota Vikings.
“Really happy for Trevor (and) excited for somebody else to go ahead and take that spot,” said Mace. “We’ve got a multitude of guys who we believe that could play at that left tackle position.
“And certainly, knowing our personnel department … we’re always going to be identifying the offensive line, specifically the tackle positions for bringing guys to camp as well to compete.”
Free agency
While the Green and White have been able to re-sign nine pending free agents, there are still 22 players who are on expiring contracts as of Feb. 11.
And while Mace knows all of them won’t be back, there are still a few priority deals to get done over the next month.
“Obviously, we made a huge splash in free agency at a multitude of spots last year,” said Mace. “If you like the product that you have and guys want to be there, and you feel like you can win with certain people, you try to retain obviously as many as you can.
“You don’t necessarily have to make big splashes in a free agency because you know that you have the ingredients of who you sourced out in the first place, on top of people who are already under contract.”
Note: Middle linebacker Jameer Thurman signed a two-year extension on Monday afternoon.
Second season
After putting together a 9-8-1 regular season record last year, the Roughriders beat the B.C. Lions in the Western semifinal before losing to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the West final.
While Mace said the team fell short of the ultimate goal, he also understands the club took a step forward last season after back-to-back years of missing the playoffs before he joined the team.
“I felt like people thought we kind of maybe exceeded an expectation, but the reality of it is the expectation of what we wanted in the building we fell short — period,” said Mace. “So for us, we’re just excited to be a better version of us.
“You look at how our season went, even the record what it was, there’s just so much for us to improve on everywhere; myself obviously included in that.
“I was very pleased for us to take the step in not only attaining the home playoff game and winning one get to the West final, but now we understand we have the experience of being in a big game like that, we want to push forward, obviously to the to the next one, to the biggest one, and find a way to win that.”
