June 12, 2018

Notebook: Duron Carter cracks TSN’s top 10

The Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the Calgary Stampeders in pre-season CFL action on June 8th, 2018 at Mosaic Stadium in Regina, SK. Derek Mortensen/Electric Umbrella

Duron Carter feels that he has work to do.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ wide receiver-cornerback came in at No. 8 when TSN released its list of the top 50 players in the league on Tuesday.

Carter said he was happy with his ranking, but …

“I won’t stop until I’m No. 1,” he said after practice at Mosaic Stadium. “That’s my goal: To be No. 1.”

That spot this year went to Edmonton Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly, who was followed in the rankings by Calgary Stampeders pivot Bo Levi Mitchell and Winnipeg Blue Bombers tailback Andrew Harris.

A pair of linebackers — Solomon Elimimian of the B.C. Lions and Calgary’s Alex Singleton — were Nos. 4 and 5, respectively. Toronto Argonauts quarterback Ricky Ray was No. 6, Ottawa Redblacks receiver Greg Ellingston was No. 7 and Carter was No. 8.

Carter completely understood his placing in the balloting.

“Quarterbacks are the most valuable guys in the league,” he said. “Then they threw in some defensive guys to keep it kosher and then offensive guys come in.

“It’s cool. I’m happy with No. 8 … My next trick is to get a contract that’s worth (as much as that of) a quarterback.”

Seven current Roughriders made the list. In addition to Carter, the Saskatchewan players selected were defensive ends Willie Jefferson (No. 10) and Charleston Hughes (No. 13), defensive back Ed Gainey (No. 15), receiver Naaman Roosevelt (No. 25), tailback Jerome Messam (No. 29) and guard Brendon LaBatte (No. 33).

After Messam saw the list, he tweeted: “29 they say… we’ll see!” with a winking emoji.

Two players in the top 10 and three in the top 13 impressed Carter, but he wants more in the future.

“By the end of the year,” he said, “the whole top five is going to be all Riders.”

The top 50 was decided through voting of media members across the country as well as TSN commentators.

•••

Speaking of No. 1, Chris Jones has been keeping his cards close to his vest when it comes to his team’s starting quarterback.

On Tuesday, the Roughriders’ head coach-GM told the media he knows who’s going to be behind centre to start Friday’s regular-season opener against the visiting Argos — but he’s not going to share.

“I’ve known for two weeks how we’re going to play, but I ain’t telling y’all until we get ready to play,” Jones said. “Why would I give something like that up to our opponent where they can know exactly what we’re going to do? Doesn’t make good sense, right?

“I know how we’re going to play, our quarterbacks know how we’re going to play and you’ll find out when we play the game exactly how they play.”

Zach Collaros and Brandon Bridge remain the candidates for the starting job, although Collaros has taken most of the reps with the first-team offence this week.

Jones said he talked to the quarterbacks about his decision, but he won’t go any further than that.

“I don’t see what the big deal is,” said Jones, who noted he treats his QBs like any other players. “They know exactly how we’re going to play and they know what we’ve got to do to win football games. They’ve both been playing for a long time, so that’s just the way we’re going to do it.”

•••

The Roughriders are still trying to figure out who’s going to start at right guard in Friday’s contest.

Dariusz Bladek, who was slowed by an injury during training camp, was back on the field for Monday’s practice but took the majority of his snaps with the second-team offensive line. That allowed Jarvis Harrison to get most of the work with the first-team offence.

On Tuesday, however, Bladek and Harrison split the reps with the first team.

“We’ll see,” Jones said when asked who would man that spot Friday. “We’ve got a couple of good candidates. When we get to game day, we’ll figure out what we’re going to do.”

•••

The defence beat the offence 47-41 in Tuesday’s head-to-head competition.

As a defensive coach, Jones must like it when the defence wins the daily battle. But he’s also OK if the final score is close.

“That’s what you’d rather see,” Jones said. “If you look up there and see a 20-point disparity, then you’ve got one group with the ball that didn’t show up today.

“(On Tuesday) the defence jumped out, the offence came back and got a lead and then the defence finished up a little stronger.”

And how would he feel if the score was tied?

“That’d be great,” he replied. “If we had to play a tie(breaking) play, that’d be awesome.”