Corey Mace on Maier, other moves as CFL winter meetings continue

Head coach Corey Mace is getting ready for his second season with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The CFL head coach is currently in attendance at winter meetings for the second time in the role after he accepted the job in November of 2023.

In his first season as a head coach, the Riders went 9-8-1 and hosted the West semifinal before losing the next week to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

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Mace said last offseason, he spent a lot of the time trying to get to know the players that were already in the building and how they could fit into their plans.

“Now just being a little bit more comfortable and having an understanding of everybody that is in the organization and specifically in the locker room, it’s probably a little bit easier from a personal standpoint in navigating through the offseason,” Mace said.

Corey Mace on roster moves

The Riders still continue to work on their pending free agents list.

Outstanding linebacker Jameer Thurman reached an agreement on a two-year extension with the club. That was announced Monday afternoon, after Mace’s media availability.

“Jameer’s a great player and I hope he plays for us but we will see what happens,” Mace said prior to the news becoming official. “We’re in talks. We definitely like him and I think he likes us. We just have to make sure we get that deal struck up.”

Another player who will be back with the Riders is defensive end Malik Carney. It was announced on Monday he signed a one-year extension.

“We wanted to have Scoop (Carney) back in the building. It was just a matter of getting a deal done,” Mace said. “He was going to be an intriguing player for anybody to have on their roster. For us, we made it a priority for us to go get him from another team last offseason. Now it was just about us keeping him in the building.”

While Trevor Reid locked down the left tackle spot for the Riders in 2024, they will need to find a replacement for him this season. He signed a future contract with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings.

“It was a gift to have a guy of Trevor’s calibre — being such a young guy coming out of college and he had a learning curve a little bit as far as getting comfortable with the CFL game. To this day I think he’s one of the most athletic offensive lineman I have been around since being up in the CFL,” Mace said

The head coach believes that due to the amount of injuries the offensive line group had last season, they had plenty of people practicing in different positions who they felt could step up.

Moving on Jake Maier

Mace said the Riders expected there would be a lot of interest in Jake Maier as a veteran quarterback, so they wanted to move quickly.

“We felt strongly about having him wear the Green and White so we took matters into our own hands to facilitate a trade and allow us the buffer time before free agency hit to strike a deal,” Mace said.

The deal was announced as done last week when the club said the 27-year-old signed a one-year extension.

“Luckily for us, all parties agreed upon a deal and we are all walking away happy,” Mace said.

Maier believes this move could help be a reset for his career after some struggles with the Calgary Stampeders.

Maier will be a backup to quarterback Trevor Harris this season after the veteran starter also agreed to a contract extension.

“I’m very vocal about how much I love Trevor and as long as he feels like he can play, there’s always going to be a spot (for him). Having someone of Jake’s calibre and the experience he has had in his career to this point and being a young quarterback, I just think it sets us up to have more depth at the position and experience at the position,” Mace said.

While Maier is expected to be the backup, Mace said the team hasn’t closed the door on bringing back Shea Patterson for another season.

Two-heading rushing attack

Mace said the Riders will have two premier backs at their disposal in the 2025 season.

Both A.J. Ouellette and Ryquell Armstead will be back with the Riders.

Ouellette dealt with a nagging hip injury last season that limited him to just eight games. He had 550 yards and three touchdowns in the regular season.

“(A.J) is such a hard worker. At this point in his career, he has to make sure it is conducive to him being as healthy as possible and trying to avoid some things,” Mace said. “Having him back in the playoffs helped us as well. He had a great game in the West semifinal.”

Armstead joined the Riders after playing 11 games with the Ottawa Redblacks before he was released by the team. He had 862 yards and three touchdowns in those games, including a 207-yard debut performance with the Riders against the Stampeders.

“We saw his ability. We went with the two-tailback system throughout the playoffs. Game-dependent, it’s tough to get them both involved,” Mace said. “To have him in the room it serves us good as far as trying to move the ball from the backfield.”