Dickenson busy during first full off-season as Riders head coach

The off-season is in full swing and that means there’s little downtime for Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson.

Dickenson and general manager Jeremy O’Day are at the CFL coaches and general manager meetings at the Blue Mountain Resort in Ontario.

Dickenson is coming off his first season as the bench boss for a CFL franchise and attending a slew of meetings isn’t the only thing Dickenson has noticed has changed during the off-season.

“I get a lot more e-mails than I used to, that’s the one thing I do know,” Dickenson told the Green Zone. “There’s really not a day where I turn off my computer and turn off my phone; I pretty much have to be connected (all the time). There isn’t many days where Jeremy and I don’t talk either via text or via phone conversation but that’s the biggest difference.”

Both Dickenson and O’Day were given their current jobs after former head coach and general manager Chris Jones left in January 2018 for an opportunity with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns.

In Dickenson’s first season at the helm, the Roughriders went 13-5-0 and played host to the West Division final. They ultimately lost that game to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers 20-13.

While his life has become a bit more hectic since assuming the job, Dickenson does note there haven’t been many major changes for him when it comes to comparing this off-season to the shortened one he had last year.

One of the top things on the list for the duo is nailing down a coaching staff for the 2020 season.

“We’re hoping to not make too many (changes). We’re still in the process of putting together our (coaching) staff,” Dickenson said. “We’ve got probably 90 per cent of that done but there’s one or two guys I’m still waiting on. When we sign those guys we’ll go ahead and announce the staff.”

One of the biggest changes on the staff will be the addition of offensive co-ordinator Jason Maas. He was introduced as the new voice on the offensive side of the ball on Dec. 6.

Maas had spent the previous four seasons as the head coach of the Edmonton Eskimos.

“The main thing I liked about Jason is he’s got great experience and expertise coaching quarterbacks,” Dickenson said. “That’s one thing, with the salary cap the way it is now, it’s difficult to have just a walk-around co-ordinator which is what (offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo) was.

“Anytime you can get a co-ordinator that has experience and expertise coaching a position group, I think it allows you to structure your staff in such a way you can reward your other coaches to pay them a little bit more and you have a little bit more efficient staff.”

The move meant that Dickenson and the team parted ways with McAdoo who, along with Dickenson, left the Eskimos in 2016 as members of Jones’ coaching staff and came to Saskatchewan.

“It wasn’t necessarily a difficult conversation but it’s a sensitive conversation because (McAdoo) did a great job and (McAdoo) and I, we go back quite a few years together,” Dickenson said.

“It’s one of those things that when you get involved in coaching, those conversations are a part of the deal. He’s a true pro all the way around. He understood that each year is a different year and he was very good about it.”

Maas will team up with quarterback Cody Fajardo to try and help at least repeat the success the team had in 2019.

Fajardo, who was in his first season as a starting quarterback in the CFL, threw for 4,302 yards, 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions. He also rushed for 611 yards and 10 touchdowns.

“Cody was very excited and (he and Maas) have visited on the phone a couple of times since then. I think Cody looks at this as an opportunity to take another step in his career,” Dickenson said.

“We didn’t make any decision necessarily based on one thing or the other but I talked with Cody. We did talk to him about the staff a little bit — not in terms of anything more than just how did he think we could get better, what did he like, what did he not like — and the reality is I think Cody’s excited to work with Jason.”

Dickenson and O’Day are also trying to whittle down their lengthy list of free agents before the market opens Feb. 11.

The Roughriders had 24 free agents according to the CFL’s list. That number was 26 before Wednesday, when the team announced it had re-signed cornerback Nick Marshall and had released linebacker Derrick Moncrief so he could explore NFL opportunities.

Dickenson said the hope is that a majority of the 2019 squad will be returning as the team amps up for the 2020 season, when the Grey Cup game will be played at Mosaic Stadium.

“We’re just visiting about our team, we’re trying to put some feelers out (to players) in terms of re-signing as many as we can,” Dickenson said. “We’re also trying to find out the guys on our team that are looking to take it to free agency.

“We’re trying to basically pinpoint the guys that we’re going to need to try to work harder to get re-signed and we’re trying to re-sign the guys that we can at this point.”

The pending free agents also include linebacker Cam Judge and wide receiver Shaq Evans. Dickenson says he believes Evans and Judge have had workouts with NFL teams.

The topic of players under CFL contracts participating in NFL tryouts became a hot-button issue this off-season due to the NFL not allowing players under contract with other leagues to attend tryouts.

Dickenson said he couldn’t comment much about the issue but pointed out it was different for Moncrief, Judge and Evans because all three are considered free agents.

“We certainly want to try and hang on to every player we can without infringing on their rights to give the NFL a shot. If they’ve got a shot to get there, we want to encourage them to do that,” Dickenson said.

As he heads into his second season as head coach, Dickenson said the biggest thing he learned from his first year as a head coach is that it’s important to just stay the course during the lengthy season.

“We didn’t start off necessarily all that good — I think we were 1-and-3 at one point — but we believed in what we’re doing and we believed that we were going to have better days ahead of us and the work was going to pay off and it did,” Dickenson said.

“The season is so long that you’re going to have some streaks where you really think everything’s going right and nothing can go wrong and then you’re going to have some moments where nothing can go right. I think the main thing is you just stay the course (and) trust that the work you put in is going to pay off eventually.”