The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ brass evaluated the team’s quarterbacks with a Fine-tooth comb.
Then came the decision to re-sign Mason Fine, whose contract extension was announced on Tuesday.
The first call to the 26-year-old quarterback was placed by Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O’Day, who informed Fine early last week that a contract offer would be forthcoming.
After a period of negotiations, an agreement was reached and he signed a two-year deal to play for the Corey Mace-coached Roughriders.
“Later that day, I got a call from Coach Mace,” Fine says from his off-season home in Pryor, Okla. “He explained the process that they went through of deciding who to give the contract extension to.
“I knew once J.O. called me that they were going to give me a contract offer. I knew they did their due diligence as an administration and as coaches.
“Coach Mace just reassured me that they had total confidence in me and that they had sat down and watched countless hours of film and decided that they wanted me to come back to camp and be a quarterback for the Riders.”
As a result, Fine — who had been eligible to test CFL free agency on Feb. 13 — is now preparing for his fourth season with the Roughriders.
“I talked to Coach Mace for 10 to 15 minutes and I got a little bit giddy and I got excited,” Fine says. “Along with the relief, I was getting excited.
“He was supporting me. He was talking me up. He gave me all the confidence in the world to come into training camp and continue to work hard in the off-season and to continue to get one year better and be the quarterback that they expect me to be.
“They’ve shown all that confidence by just giving me a contract extension, so I owe it to them to give it my best.”
The process of appraising the roster, quarterbacks included, was unavoidably delayed due to a general makeover of the coaching ranks.
Mace’s full staff was announced on Jan. 15, around the time that O’Day placed the aforementioned call to Fine.
Until then, there was uncertainty from the player’s standpoint.
“All you could do was wonder,” Fine says. “I talked at the end of the season with (Assistant GM) Kyle Carson about what they were thinking about doing and they said, ‘We’re going to focus on hiring a coaching staff and then we’ll sit down and evaluate.’
“Through that time of waiting, through December and for half of January, you know that they’re just doing their job and there’s nothing you can do.
“You can wonder about it but, at the end of the day, you just had to be patient, knowing that they were going to get back to you.
“During that time, you can’t control any of the stuff that’s going on. You just continue to stick to your routine.
“But, after being patient, it was good news.”
In the form of a second CFL contract. His rookie deal with the Roughriders was announced on Dec. 30, 2020.
Fine was used sparingly as a first-year CFLer before starting the Roughriders’ final two games of 2022. Then came four more starts last season.
Over the course of the 2023 campaign, Fine threw for 1,043 yards while registering a team-high completion percentage of 69.1. He threw three touchdown passes and was intercepted five times.
The first two TD tosses came within a span of 2:02 during the fourth quarter of a July 15 home game against the Calgary Stampeders.
Those were the Roughriders’ fastest back-to-back aerial scores since Nov. 11, 2012, when Darian Durant found Kory Sheets for majors that were separated by just 1:59 during the West Division semi-final in Calgary.
Fine entered last year’s July 15 game in place of Trevor Harris, who suffered a season-ending knee injury during the fourth quarter.
The second TD pass, a 69-yarder to Tevin Jones with 36 seconds left, helped Saskatchewan assume a 31-30 lead. The Stampeders went on to win 33-31, courtesy of a 50-yard field goal by Rene Paredes on the final play.
Fine started the Roughriders’ next four games before suffering a hamstring injury that cleared the way for Jake Dolegala to take over behind centre.
Fine attempted only four passes over the five games for which he dressed after returning to the lineup.
“I think I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you that last year was frustrating from a team-success perspective and also individually,” he says.
On a positive note, though, Fine appreciated the support he received from the coaching staff, the administration and his teammates.
He also marked a milestone by celebrating his first victory as a starter in the pro ranks — a 26-24 conquest of the visiting Ottawa REDBLACKS on Aug. 6.
In that game, Fine threw for 296 yards, 42 of which resulted from a precise touchdown toss to Shawn Bane Jr., who caught the ball deep down the left sideline.
“I just started feeling like I was getting in the groove of things and then I get injured,” Fine says. “It was just so frustrating because of the timing of that injury. I felt like I was really starting to figure things out with experience. It was frustrating, but those games that I have under my belt were great experience.
“As a quarterback, you can practise all you want, but game experience is game experience. Hopefully I’ve learned a lot from that and can translate that into training camp and show the coaches that I’ve gotten another off-season, another year, better.”
