‘It’s not a fun day’: Watford, Butler among Roughrider cuts

The Saskatchewan Roughriders revealed their final cuts heading into the 2019 CFL regular season, with quarterback David Watford and defensive back Crezdon Butler among them.

Teams across the league had until 8 p.m. Saturday to finalize their rosters.

“It’s not a fun day when you have to do it,” general manager Jeremy O’Day said at Mosaic Stadium Saturday. “By far the worst part of my job is to tell players that they’re not going to be with the team. Guys are buying in and they travel here, they had families at home, and then to break the (bad) news (to them). It’s never a good thing.”

He said there’s conversations to be had over every move and the team takes a gamble with each one.

“You have an older guy right now and you choose to go with the older guy and the (rookie) gets picked up and then three years from now you’re looking at an all-star you already had on your team,” O’Day said.

Watford, who signed with the Roughriders in October 2017, was one of the team’s backup quarterbacks for the entire 2018 season. He finished the year completing 15 of 22 passes for one touchdown and two interceptions. He also had 18 carries for 93 yards.

In his only 2019 pre-season action, the 25-year-old went eight for 12 for 65 yards with one interception in a 37-1 loss to the Calgary Stampeders. Watford didn’t play in the team’s final pre-season game on Thursday against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

Thank you Rider Nation for the opportunity 🙏🏾 on to the next now! pic.twitter.com/MTT0oQvDmf

— David Watford (@DWatford_) June 8, 2019

“I don’t want to discount the amount of time that we’ve had David here and the amount of development that he may or not have had with us,” O’Day said. “(I) sat down together with coach (Craig) Dickenson and the whole staff and went through the whole roster and got the coach’s input into that. Ultimately Craig and I sat down and made those decisions.”

With Watford and Ty Gangi’s release, the Roughriders now have three quarterbacks on their active roster: Zach Collaros, Cody Fajardo and Isaac Harker.

Defensive back Crezdon Butler was also among the cuts. Butler signed with the Riders in June 2017. The 32-year-old played in 26 games over two seasons. He recorded 70 tackles and two sacks during his time with the team.

He recorded two tackles in Thursday’s game. Butler didn’t play in the team’s first pre-season game.

“Crezdon was another one of those conversations over a younger player versus a guy that’s a little bit later in his career,” O’Day said. “You’re trying to predict where the ceilings at and my job is too look at the now and also look at the future as well.”

Defensive lineman Chad Geter was also among the cuts. He signed with the team last April. The 24-year-old played in 18 games in 2018 and registered 17 defensive tackles, 17 special teams tackles and three quarterback sacks. Geter appeared in both pre-season games, recording three tackles and one special teams tackle.

It’s been real Rider Nation. pic.twitter.com/jRBjDneMY6

— Chad Geter (@ChadGeter_38) June 8, 2019

O’Day said it was hard to move on from a young talent like Geter.

“Usually you don’t like to move on from those guys but we just felt right now that Lavar Edwards earned that spot right now through training camp, through the pre-season games. He has a little bit of flexibility and unfortunately the rosters aren’t big enough,” O’Day said.

While today means the end of some players’ time with the Roughriders, others have been told they are sticking around.

One of those players is wide receiver Paul McRoberts, who earned himself a practice roster spot. After only one catch for 19 yards in the first pre-season game, he exploded for four catches, 83 yards and a touchdown in the game against Winnipeg.

https://twitter.com/PtGoingPro/status/1137422109230141440

Another talent who impressed O’Day and the coaching staff was running back Jamal Morrow. Morrow finished the pre-season with 47 yards on eight carries. He also hauled in two catches for 24 yards.

“It was a pleasant surprise because we had saw him in mini-camp and to be quite honest, he was just OK in mini-camp,” O’Day said. “He’s a different guy even four weeks later than what we saw.”

The Roughriders will return to practice Sunday as they prepare to travel to Hamilton to take on the Tiger-Cats to kick off their 2019 CFL regular season.