Jeremy O'Day speaks on wins, losses and Riders' overall performance in 2024

Saskatchewan Roughriders General Manager Jeremy O'Day speaks to reporters during an end-of-season press conference on Nov. 21, 2024. (Brit Dort/CTV News)

The Grey Cup Champion has officially been crowned for the 2024 season and once again it did not go to the Saskatchewan Roughriders. On Thursday, General Manager, Jeremy O'Day, spoke to media to break down another year.

"There’s one goal when you go into every season, to win a championship. So, when you don’t reach that goal, it’s disappointing," O’Day opened his remarks with.

But he immediately tried to spin it in a positive direction.

“I thought we took a lot of positive steps as a football team. Some of the things we wanted to improve on, I thought we were successful in doing that,” he shared.

"To be honest, I was surprised we started so fast. When you have a new staff, new schemes, new coaches, it’s hard in a short training camp to get to a point where you’re going out and winning football games early."

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Fans are feeling the disappointment yet again of extending their Grey Cup drought to 11 years. However, O’Day wanted to acknowledge the difference of this season compared to the previous two where the team failed to make the playoffs.

"I want to be real careful not to lump this season with the past two season[s] because I don’t think it’s fair to the coach, staff, and players. It’s a completely different team," he explained.

"Some of the things we accomplished this year with a first-year head coach, first year coordinator, that’s an impressive feat especially when you’re going against teams that have veteran coaches that have been around awhile."

Perhaps the most stark question for O’Day was the future of 38-year-old quarterback, Trevor Harris, who will be 39 when training camp rolls around in May.

"We haven’t made the decisions on any one player yet. Trevor is everything that you see on a regular basis, he’s a true leader. We can’t put enough weight on what he has done for the organization [especially] someone that only came here two years ago," O’Day continued.

"I thought it was awesome how he persevered going through an injury this year and coming back playing at the level he did is very impressive. So, we love Trevor and those are obviously discussions that we’ll have moving forward but nothing to report right now."

But that did not stop the follow up of one of the biggest quarterback names that will be a free agent, Vernon Adams Jr., who has been with the B.C Lions since partway through the ’22 season.

On Wednesday the newly promoted Lion’s GM, Ryan Rigmaiden, told reporters that Adams Jr. will be traded this offseason.

"We’re going to start those conversations tonight. I’ll start reaching out to some teams," Rigmaiden shared.

However, the Riders claim they have yet to have any conversations surrounding Adams Jr.

"If you want to know if I’ve talked to B.C, I have not. We’ll see what happens there whether they reach out or not. I haven’t had any conversations with them up until this point. I don’t want to talk about players that are under contract with other teams," said O’Day.

It was not just the quarterback position that was questioned as the team saw plenty of injuries this season along their offensive line.

That meant a number of signings during the season and O’Day was questioned whether that could have caused the team to go over the salary cap.

"It’ll be close. This challenges with the salary cap is trying to predict how many players you’re going to have injured, more so short term injured," O’Day explained.

He added that this year’s exit interviews were all very positive in regards to every player.

There was plenty of positive feedback regarding this year’s staff.

"We’re excited. It was more uplifting than anything. It’s tough, there’s an empty feeling when the year ends. Everyone’s going full speed, then all of a sudden it stops," he shared.

"Everyone’s upset by how the season ends. You’re trying to turn the page and reflect on the year but also get some momentum going for the next year."