Defensive linemen and wide receivers driving the CFL free agent market through negotiating window – Toronto Sun

Last February, the B.C. Lions signed 11 free agents from other Canadian Football League teams and saw 18 of their own leave for greener and whiter, greener and golder, or double-blue pastures.

They also lost two players to retirement Travis Lulay and Marco Iannuzzi and released kicker Ty Long to pursue his National Football League aspirations.

It was a massive overhaul of their roster, and the daily comings and goings put them at the centre of the free agency periods many machinations. Their Day One signing of quarterback Mike Reilly kicked off proceedings, and the reverberations were felt most profoundly in Ottawa and Edmonton, as former Redblacks pivot Trevor Harris replaced Reilly with the Eskimos. The Redblacks were left to pick up the pieces, plugging in erstwhile Lion Jonathon Jennings to pair with incumbent Dominique Davis.

At the same time, the Saskatchewan and Toronto were making their plays for Bo Levi Mitchell, who eventually spurned a massive offer from the Argos and re-signed with the Stampeders. The Riders re-signed Zach Collaros and grabbed Cody Fajardo from B.C. while the Argos went with James Franklin and McLeod Bethel-Thompson.

There wont be a repeat of the QB derby this year. When Matt Nichols signed a three-year deal with Toronto on Thursday, all nine teams had their starters locked up.

Instead, it appears defensive linemen and wide receivers will move most of the market.

Those two positions have definitely been the most talked about, agent Rob Fry said of league-wide chatter provoked by the negotiating window that opened Feb. 2 and will close on Sunday. It seems the highest numbers being talked about with regards to those players. Youre definitely seeing teams looking to strengthen their D line and theres always a few upper end wide receivers who are difference makers who get higher numbers thrown their way as well.

Reigning defensive player of the year Willie Jefferson is likely at the top of the pyramid this time around. TSN was first to link Jefferson with Toronto, where he would essentially take over the $250,000-plus contract vacated by wide receiver Derel Walker, who could be on the move to the Lions.

The reverberations of a Jefferson signing would obviously be felt first in Winnipeg, as the Bombers would have cap space to replace Jefferson, and they might also lose defensive tackle Drake Nevis.

Elsewhere, Montreals new GM Danny Maciocia made it clear he wants to upgrade the Als D line, and a source said they were one of five teams that inquired early in the negotiating period about Saskatchewans Micah Johnson. The Als registered a league-low 27 sacks last year, so improvement is vital.

So too in B.C. and Ottawa, as they were tied for second low number of sacks at 28, half as many as the league leaders in Regina and Edmonton.

Luckily enough for anyone in the hunt, the free agent class of defensive linemen is deep and talented; Dylan Wynn in Hamilton, Torontos Cleyon Laing, Calgarys Chris Casher and Johnson are in the top echelon.

Walker might set the dominoes in motion at the wide receiver spot, and the Lions are apparently in hot pursuit. There should certainly be a secondary market for players like Dominique Rhymes, DaVaris Daniels and DeVier Posey. There is reasonably good depth at this position also, with the likes of Juwan Brescacin and Naaman Roosevelt available.

If its time to hand the ball to a different running back, how about C.J. Gable, Don Jackson and Terry Williams in Calgary, Cameron Marshall and Chris Rainey?

There are solid options at linebacker where Larry Dean should be first off the board, followed by Don Unamba, Patrick Levels, Justin Tuggle, Micah Awe and Marcus Ball. Headlining the defensive backs will be Ciante Evans, with Anthony Cioffi, Branden Dozier and Richard Leonard in a tightly packed group behind him.

And last but hardly least, a few offensive linemen will be prized commodities for some teams. The Lions, for instance, were a disaster up front at the beginning of last season. They fired line coach Bryan Chiu and his replacement, Kelly Bates, seemed to settle the big men down. Still, they could use an upgrade, and will be able to choose from the likes of Derek Dennis, Justin Renfrow and Ryker Mathews.

This isnt a real strong class of Canadian O linemen at their prime, which we have seen in past years, said Fry. You just dont have a big group of starting O linemen in their mid-20s. In past years, that has been a very highly discussed, higher-priced position.

Last year Sukh Chungh made a pricey move from the Bombers to the Lions, and SirVincent Rogers left the Redblacks to join the Eskimos.

Last year, and for all years prior, players and agents werent free to speak to teams prior to the first day of free agency, though it surely happened. The new CBA opened up the formal negotiating window, and will also offer GMs from each team a 48-hour exclusive negotiating period with their own pending free agents, a period that will expire two hours before free agency begins. Each team will be made aware of any formal offers made by other clubs, and will therefore be able to make informed decisions on contract offers for those players before the market opens on Feb. 11 at noon ET.

I dont think there has been a ton of formal offers throughout the league, but personally I have had a couple for my clients, Fry said on Friday afternoon. It doesnt feel like free agency quite yet. Its been slower communication, with everybody just feeling each other out. Its like a controlled chaos right now.

That said, he views the negotiating window as a league-wide experiment and there are parts of it that he sees as valuable.

I like that it gives my clients the ability if there is interest from a club to have productive conversations, not only with a management staff but also a variety of people on the coaching staff to really get a sense of what that fit will look like, especially if there is not a lot of familiarity in the building for that player. It gives them a chance for open communication about how they are going to be used as a player, what are the facilities like, what is the city like, what is the culture of the building like.

I like that because come February 11th, when things are happening quick, you run out of time to really get into those details. So I feel going into February 11th, my clients have a bit better sense of their priorities in making this decision.

Fry said some teams have approached the negotiating window as a chance to have many conversations with several players and agents, while others have hung back and are loathe to offer any sense of the kind of money they are willing to allocate to certain players.

I still feel like there is a bit of mystery going into February 11th just because it is such a small league and some teams want to be careful how much information they give out.

THE FREE AGENT MARKET

Heres a look at the most likely free agents to move, by position, excluding quarterbacks and kickers because there isnt a large enough sample size:

Defensive backs

Ciante Evans

Frankie Williams (extended by Hamilton)

Richard Leonard

Anthony Cioffi

Branden Dozier

Abdul Kanneh

Jonathan Rose

Garry Peters

Money Hunter

Chandler Fenner

Linebackers

Larry Dean

Don Unamba

Patrick Levels

Justin Tuggle

Micah Awe

Marcus Ball

Cory Greenwood

Solomon Elimimian

Chris Ackie

Sam Hurl

Defensive linemen

Willie Jefferson

Dylan Wynn

JaGared Davis (extended by Hamilton)

Micah Johnson

Cleyon Laing

Chris Casher

Tobi Antigha

Drake Nevis

Shawn Lemon

Odell Willis

Wide receivers

Derel Walker

Dominique Rhymes

Davaris Daniels

SJ Green

Darvin Adams (extended by Winnipeg)

Juwan Brescacin

Rodney Smith

DeVier Posey

Naaman Roosevelt

Nate Behar

Running backs

CJ Gable

Don Jackson

Terry Williams

Jeremiah Johnson

Cameron Marshall

Marcus Thigpen

Tyrell Sutton

Chris Rainey

Mossis Madu

Anthony Coombs

Offensive linemen

Sean McEwen (signed by Calgary)

Derek Dennis

Ryker Mathews

Dariusz Bladek

Philip Blake

Thaddeus Coleman

Michael Couture (extended by Winnipeg)

Tommie Draheim

Josiah St. John

Justin Renfrow

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Defensive linemen and wide receivers driving the CFL free agent market through negotiating window - Toronto Sun