The Saskatchewan Roughriders are ready to raise the curtain on the 2018 CFL season.
Saskatchewan is to open its regular-season schedule against the defending Grey Cup-champion Toronto Argonauts on Friday at Mosaic Stadium (7 p.m., CKRM, TSN).
Saskatchewan head coach-GM Chris Jones has said he likes the idea of opening the season against a well-coached team that got to where the Roughriders wanted to be in 2017. That, Jones believes, will give the Roughriders an idea of how they stack up against one of the CFL’s elite teams.
Here’s one man’s list of five things to watch during Friday’s game.
- A pivotal decision: It’s official: One of Zach Collaros or Brandon Bridge will start at quarterback for the Roughriders against Toronto. Jones has yet to name his No. 1 QB for the contest and admitted Thursday that he may not identify his starter all season. Collaros took the bulk of the snaps with the first-team offence in the week leading up to the game, but Bridge also could get the call. As well, Bridge proved last season — when he backed up then-starter Kevin Glenn — that he’s adept at coming in off the bench. That could end up being the strategy that Jones decides to use in 2018 as well.
- Tre Mason: Jones has used the word “dynamic” to describe Mason, who has won the job as the Roughriders’ international tailback — at least while Marcus Thigpen is out of the lineup. Mason has shown a quick burst while carrying the ball out of the backfield, but he also is a proven kickoff returner. What really impressed Jones, though, was Mason’s ability to deliver a blow as a blocker during Saskatchewan’s second pre-season game. The 5-foot-9, 210-pounder took on a blitzing linebacker and didn’t allow the defender to get close to the Riders’ QB.
- Jarvis Harrison: The rookie CFLer appears poised to open the season as the starting right guard; he’s listed on the depth chart ahead of national Dariusz Bladek. The 6-foot-4, 330-pound Harrison played collegiately at Texas A&M University — his quarterback was some guy named Johnny Manziel — and had NFL stops with the New York Jets and Tampa Bay Buccaneers before joining the Roughriders’ practice roster in September of last season. Bladek, who’s in his second CFL season, could get some action at the spot in Friday’s game and will back up other positions on the line as well.
- Eric Striker: The former University of Oklahoma Sooners star has made it from an off-season workout with the Roughriders to rookie camp to training camp to the roster. He played linebacker in college, but recorded 22.5 sacks from that position. Not surprisingly, then, the Roughriders deployed the 5-foot-11, 230-pounder as a speed rusher during training camp. The aptly named defender was working as a recruiting analyst for Oklahoma before deciding to attempt a comeback — and it appears to have been a good decision.
- Nick Marshall: Like Striker, the former Auburn University Tigers star has survived a number of camps to make it to this point. Marshall has been working with the starting defence since the start of training camp at boundary corner, but he also has been taking snaps at quarterback as part of a Wildcat package. The 6-foot-1, 207-pounder has displayed the man-to-man coverage skills that Jones likes from his DBs and, on offence, has showed the form that helped him rush for 1,866 yards over his two seasons at Auburn.
