Dickenson warns Riders’ veterans to be ready for competition

Craig Dickenson expects the Saskatchewan Roughriders to have an extra-competitive training camp in July.

And the CFL team’s head coach admits some players might not have put in enough work during the year off created by the cancellation of the 2020 season due to COVID-19.

“I do believe we will have some guys show up that didn’t do what they needed to do in the off-season,” Dickenson told reporters Thursday. “Does that make me nervous? No, not a lot because what is going to happen is a good young player is going to beat them out and that’s just the way it is.”

Dickenson pointed out this year’s camp will have two CFL draft classes and two batches of negotiation-list players all coming in and fighting for spots on the roster.

“This is going to be one of those years where if you come in out of shape and not tuned into your playbook and not ready to go, you’re not going to last,” Dickenson said.

“You’re going to see some surprise cuts, I believe, this year in the CFL just because there will be guys that have worked hard and have trained these past two years and there will be guys that didn’t do as much as they could’ve and it’s going to show really fast.”

Dickenson also said there have been conversations with players who are on the fence on if they will continue with their football careers.

“We know for the most part who is coming and who’s not. There will be a couple guys that will decide to retire or say they are not interested in coming out,” Dickenson said.

It will be a different type of year for all CFL teams, with some COVID-related restrictions to be in place for teams throughout the season.

Dickenson said one of the changes will be that meeting rooms made for 100 people will only be able to hold 40 to keep players and staff socially distanced.

He said he was at Mosaic Stadium last year and protocols were in place in terms of mandatory mask use and temperature checks.

“I think the main thing is it’s just going to be a little more time-intensive, like guys aren’t going to be able to roll in and hop in and sit at the meeting,” Dickenson said. “They’re going to have to come in a little earlier, do the testing (and) do the protocols.

“We’re just going to have to be patient. There’s going to have to be a sense of patience that coaches don’t have that we will have to work on and say, ‘Hey, we’ve got to be a bit more patient. Everything is going to take a little longer and we will figure it out as we go along.’ ”

He said that as of now, all players will follow the same protocols, no matter if they are vaccinated or not.

Players will spend a week in quarantine at home before coming to Regina, where they will stay at the University of Regina for another week of quarantine. Training camp is set to start July 10, with the Roughriders’ regular season to start Aug. 6 against the B.C. Lions.