Riders General Manager Jeremy O'Day sat down for an interview with Claire Hanna.
Q: How great is it to know your Riders have that ‘y x’ next to their name in the standings?
A: It’s awesome, I think because of my background and being here for a long time I know how hard it is to achieve that during the season. It is something that we talk about quite a bit about, trying to be a team who does that more consistently and puts us in a better position to win Grey Cups when we kind of evaluate everything. The teams that win Grey Cups are usually in a good position heading in. You definitely can’t let your foot off the gas or take any breaks. You can’t take much time to celebrate where you’re at.
Q: You already touched on it; he was named one of the West division all-stars. In your wildest dreams could you guess that Cody Fajardo would do this well under this kind of pressure?
A: I don’t think it was something I could have predicted by any means. I probably haven’t even shared this with anyone but the first couple days of training camp Cody was not having a very good camp in his first couple practices. He gradually got better and I think the moment where I thought we made the right decision with Cody was in our scrimmage, Zach (Collaros) was having a rough day of throwing and Cody came in a kind of looked really good in live action. He’s one of those guys, he’s kind of a gamer, so the short answer to your question is I had no idea it would turn out this way. It wasn’t something that just happened overnight, he got an opportunity and the first game he played okay in Hamilton but he wasn’t prepared as the starter that week. The next week we thought we kind of had something here with Cody what he was doing with the offense and how productive that he was. His natural abilities took over from there as far as his leadership and the type of character he is. It resonates with our community I think.
Q: In week one in Hamilton when he struggled a bit, were you shopping around?
A: Yeah I think maybe because it was so early into the season. I can tell you that Isaac (Harker) even got a chance to play in that game, people don’t remember that Cody was actually knocked out of that game too. We had a little bit of time to see if we made the right decision and if these guys can actually step up and make for very good players. The conversation was more around which one of the two was going to be the starter going into week two. We just felt more comfortable with Cody and little did we know we were going to have an all-star on our hands.
Q: Did you think you were taking a risk by signing some older players who had been let go or not re-signed, like Solomon Elimimian, Manny Arceneaux, William Powell even Micah Johnson, all over the age of 30?
A: Free agency is always a risk in my opinion. You’re talking about a player who wasn’t signed back to the team that they were on. On rare occasions it would be about money where the team just couldn’t afford to bring them back. Sometimes it’s really the other teams trying to judge the shelf life of the player and how long they’re going to be able to perform at a high level. As a GM you’re just trying to get that period right of, saying ‘okay I think we’ve got his best days out of the players and I think you’re going to see some decline in his level of play’. But lots of things come into play, he could have had a big salary with the team, they think he’s a good player but they can’t afford to pay him what he’s been making so they’re going to go younger. For us, we felt so strongly about the players and wanted to also have some more leadership on our team with some older guys. But you don’t want to be too old, you don’t want to have guys that are on the decline. There’s a fine balance between that and the leadership they bring. I wouldn’t see it as a risk, I was very happy to take all those guys when we got them.
Q: You’ve won two Grey Cups, one with the Toronto Argonauts and another almost 10 years later with the Riders. Do you go and talk to the players as you’re two wins away from a Grey Cup and just kind of give them some advice?
A: I try to share that with them in passing. I think it’s really important that Craig (Dickenson) is the main messenger to the team. He did ask me a few weeks ago to talk to the team, and I took the opportunity to share some of my experiences and some of the things that they can expect. I really just try to stay kind of hands off as far as addressing the team.
