The CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders will have a new starting receiver Saturday when they face the host B.C. Lions.
Right now, however, the Roughriders haven’t determined the identity of that receiver.
On Wednesday, Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones reported that starting slotback Caleb Holley has been placed on the six-game injured list with a lower-leg injury. Holley was hurt in the first quarter of Sunday’s 40-27 victory over the visiting Calgary Stampeders.
Jones said Holley’s injury shouldn’t end his season, but he will be out for some time. That means someone else will get his first start of the season Saturday in Vancouver.
“We’ve got a couple of different options,” Jones said after Wednesday’s closed practice at Mosaic Stadium. “We’ve got a Canadian option and an American option, so we’ll see.”
National Devon Bailey replaced Holley in Sunday’s game and caught one pass for 11 yards. He joined fellow Canadian Josh Stanford, a starting wide receiver, with the offence after Holley’s departure.
Rob Bagg (who was re-signed last week after being cut at the end of training camp), Mitch Picton (who has been on the practice roster all season) and Brian Jones (who was acquired Monday from the Toronto Argonauts) are the Roughriders’ other national receivers who could be considered for the job.
Kyran Moore (who attended the Roughriders’ training camp and has been on the practice roster all season), Kenny Shaw (who was signed to the practice roster on Wednesday) and Christion Jones (who is Saskatchewan’s main return man) currently comprise the team’s backup American receiving corps.
Holley had 12 catches for 207 yards in seven games this season.
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Shaw is looking to recapture his old form.
The Florida State University product had 77 catches for 1,004 yards and five touchdowns for Toronto in 2016 before signing with the Ottawa Redblacks as a free agent in 2017.
He played in only three games for Ottawa, catching six passes for 66 yards before his season ended with three torn ligaments in his right knee in a game on Aug. 26. He was released by Ottawa on April 3.
The 26-year-old product of Orlando, Fla., was rehabilitating the knee until getting a call from the Roughriders, who like his CFL experience.
“He was in Toronto, which basically runs our system and our terminology,” Chris Jones said. “He was in Ottawa, which runs our terminology. (Roughriders receivers coach Travis Moore) coached him and spoke highly of him, so we reached out about three weeks ago and he said he was back healthy.”
“I feel like I’m back.”
Jones noted that Shaw has good hands and runs good routes, so the hope is that he can return to the form he showed in Toronto. Shaw noted he’s getting his legs under him — and a team workout Tuesday and Wednesday’s practice helped his cause.
However, the 6-foot-0, 170-pound receiver isn’t looking to prove himself to the Roughriders or to the CFL as a whole.
“That’s where a lot of athletes go wrong,” he told the media. “They try to prove to people what they can do instead of just doing it for themselves. At the end of the day, you’re your own person.
“I had to deal with this all nine months of rehabbing, so I’m going to get through this again.”
Shaw said surgeons told him the injury would sideline him for nine months, so he has tried to be patient over the past year. Now the Roughriders have provided him with an opportunity to put the surgeons’ work to the test.
“At the beginning of the process with the knee injury, I was so caught up in trying to look at everybody else’s rough estimate of the time for coming back instead of just working hard and pushing myself,” Shaw said. “Then I got to the groove of getting that back.
“I feel like I’m back.”
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The Roughriders’ tailback tandem of Marcus Thigpen and Tre Mason was cut in half in the fourth quarter of Sunday’s game.
Thigpen didn’t return to the contest after appearing to suffer an injury on an eight-yard run early in the quarter. Mason then recorded Saskatchewan’s final nine carries of the game, covering 29 yards as the Roughriders tried to run out the clock.
On Wednesday, Jones suggested Thigpen’s status for Saturday’s contest isn’t known.
“We’re waiting to see whether he’s going to be able to play or not,” said Jones, who didn’t elaborate.
If Thigpen can’t go, Cameron Marshall — who returned to the Roughriders early last week — will be activated off the practice roster.
Marshall was cut on the eve of training camp after failing his physical due to the lingering effects of a knee injury he suffered last season.
“He’s in much better shape now, he’s catching the ball a lot cleaner and he looks more healthy now than what he looked like when he got here,” Jones said.
Quarterback Zach Collaros didn’t participate in Wednesday’s practice. Jones said Collaros’ grandfather was ill, so the quarterback was at home. He was to return to Regina on Wednesday afternoon.
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The Lions have handed the reins of the offence back to Travis Lulay, who supplanted Jonathon Jennings as the starting quarterback.
Lulay certainly has earned the respect of the long-time CFL coach.
“Travis has been in this league for a very long time and he’s a winner,” Jones said. “A couple of years ago, before he got his first injury, he was taking over this league.
“He’s a tremendous leader, he’s got a lot of what Bo Levi (Mitchell, Calgary’s quarterback) and our guy, Collaros, and (Edmonton Eskimos pivot) Mike Reilly have. They just have that leadership, that little ‘it’ factor. Lulay has got it, too.”
