Vernon Adams Jr., gives the Roughriders more depth at QB
A player who first was discussed in trade talks in the off-season finally joined the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Tuesday.
The CFL team acquired international quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., and a fifth-round selection in the 2018 draft from the Montreal Alouettes in exchange for national defensive back Tevaughn Campbell and a third-round pick in each of the 2018 and 2019 drafts.
“(The deal) has been a conversation piece back and forth on more than a few occasions,” said John Murphy, the Roughriders’ assistant vice-president of football operations and personnel.
“We had a couple of internal discussions and once we went through the whole rigmarole of our training-camp quarterbacks, Jeremy (O’Day, the assistant vice-president of football operations and administration) brought up the idea of, ‘Hey, we’re one injury away from not having another guy in the building, so where are we at with that and what are our thoughts about trying to get another guy?’ So the conversation picked up again about Vernon.”
Murphy stressed that the Roughriders and Als didn’t talk about including Adams in the package that Montreal sent to Saskatchewan in January for quarterback Darian Durant. According to Murphy, that would have resulted in a comparison of the two pivots that for Adams “would have been a hard shadow to get out of.”
Instead, the trade completed Tuesday “was done at its own time and on its own merit half a season into things.”
Adams, a 24-year-old product of Pasadena, Calif., was on the B.C. Lions’ negotiation list before his rights were traded to the Alouettes in May of 2016. Montreal sent a first-round pick in the 2017 draft to the Lions for the rights to the former University of Oregon Ducks pivot.
The 5-foot-11, 200-pounder played in 15 regular-season games (with three starts) with the Alouettes last season. He completed 42 of 75 pass attempts for 575 yards and four touchdowns and rushed 29 times for 112 yards and a TD.
This season, he had eight carries for nine yards and a touchdown in seven games as a backup to Durant. But with Drew Willy returning to the lineup — and with three other young quarterbacks currently in the Als’ stable — Adams was deemed expendable.
The Roughriders then had to determine what price they’d be willing to pay.
Montreal has been dealing with injuries to their national depth at defensive back, so Campbell — a product of the University of Regina Rams — can compete for a job right away. The two third-rounders may not equal the first-rounder the Als sent to B.C., but they were deemed satisfactory.
“Here was a guy (in Adams) who was a pretty substantial cost the first time he got traded and he has done nothing but probably improve his status in terms of what people thought of him,” Murphy said.
“He gets traded the first time and it’s sight unseen in the CFL. If you’re trading for him now, it’s a little hard to say you don’t know what kind of player you’re getting when the kid won games last year the way that he did and flashed that hybrid style of skill level that is exactly what everybody in the CFL is looking for.”
“Excited to get to work in Saskatchewan in those great facilities & in front of the 13th man,” tweeted Adams, who made his first career start for Montreal against Saskatchewan on Oct. 22, 2016. “Thank you for the opportunity @sskroughriders”
In Saskatchewan, Adams will be reunited with two quarterbacks with whom he played in Montreal last season: Kevin Glenn and Brandon Bridge.
Glenn is the Roughriders’ starter and Bridge and Marquise Williams are his backups. In Murphy’s mind, the deal doesn’t affect the depth chart immediately since Adams has to learn the offence.
But the move gives Saskatchewan the kind of quarterbacking depth it hasn’t had in years, so those four players will have to sort out who fits where on the roster.
“It has to be, ‘Handle your business. This is business as usual moving forward. Next week, your job is not under duress in terms of anybody’s level of participation or standard of being here,’ ’’ Murphy said. “We’re fully committed to having four guys and if somebody takes a step up or gives themselves a better opportunity, that’s just what comes with competition.
“Your quarterback room is only as good as your starter and the guys behind him. The competition level has to be there. The 2 has to be trying to get better to chase the 1, the 3 has got to be chasing the 2 and the young guy has to be a real guy. It can’t just be four guys in the room with a clear and distinguishing mark between your starter and your third and fourth guys are just there to carry the bags. That’s bad for your organization.”
Campbell, a 24-year-old product of Scarborough, Ont., was selected by the Calgary Stampeders in the third round (22nd overall) of the 2015 CFL draft. He played five games with Calgary that season before being traded to the Roughriders in February of 2016 for a fourth-round pick in the 2017 draft.
He played 17 games for Saskatchewan last season, recording 12 defensive tackles, four special-teams stops, one sack, one fumble recovery and one interception. Ironically, that pick was against Adams during Montreal’s 19-14 victory in Regina last October.
Campbell has been on the Roughriders’ injured list for all seven of their games this season.
EXTRAS: Roughriders defensive back Ed Gainey and Glenn joined Edmonton Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly as the CFL’s top performers of the week. Gainey set a franchise single-game record with four interceptions and recovered a fumble in Sunday’s 41-8 victory over B.C., while Glenn completed 19 of 25 pass attempts for 320 yards with three touchdowns against the Lions.
