Chris Jones officially named GM and HC

In other news from Rod Pedersen on twitter, Ed Phillion new Defensive Line Coach - Mike Sinclair out.

Sinclair is a respectable position coach…he will get picked up I imagine

Starting to look like all or most of Jones’s staff coming over might have real legs…that’s 3

This is awesome news!!!
Having Both Murphy and O’Day in the fold should be a really good combo. These guys will take pressure off Jones and all his roles. It should actually help him free up time to focus on the HC/DC role, give him a chance to learn GM things, but still final say and control as boss.

The other nice thing is that there are now 2 future GM’s in the fold as well for succession planning should Jones eventually move on. Kudos to Craig Reynolds to have the marbles to hire Jones over any convenience hires. So far Jones is proving he is the man in charge by making some great personnel decisions.

I have no doubt that the Riders will be a competitive team in 2017 for the opening of the new stadium… And believe you me, these guys will all be excited to be a large part of the grand opening in that beautiful stadium!

Bring on 2016! My expectations won’t be for a Grey Cup win, but to at least be competitive and take the first big step towards “Sustained Success!”

Hey Depop… What about Emry’s 200k? I think the word out is that he is done. I would assume there would be some SMS savings there as well??

well…only 1 game counted…so not really including it in the total. that said…i think he did get a fair bit guaranteed last season…mind is a little fuzzy on that. I counted JR only because i know he got coin up front as a roster bonus…so expecting he will be released very soon. Interesting the see some of the names not on the protected list as the deadline approaches. Mccoil was on there.

I realize i'm joining the party late however I was SURE that Jones would accept the challenge and privilege of building up the Saskatchewan RoughRiders Franchise; I think anyone who didn't realize/see that wasn't paying attention.
Chris Jones is a competitor with an ego- centric personality and having this opportunity feeds that need.
I think Jones and his 'hard nosed' approach and winning record is the best thing for the Riders since Austin was Head Coach.
The only thing that worries me about the "Jones Approach" is his tendency/ leaning towards "international talent" rather then "nationals" within our own college system.... this could be an issue for many!
Just mho

So....why are the sad Eskie fans saying the riders "Screwed over Hervey" on the Jones hire and "painted him into a corner" ???

We are saying this because.

  1. you negotiate through the media without talking to Len Rhodes etc. You let Jones know you want him.

  2. You throw out Huge numbers no team would pay a Head Coach/DC and that we could not match.

You have us in an untenable situation where if we do not allow Jones to talk to your team and have a chance of losing him or having a very disgruntled employee.

Poppycock, Jones salary (500k + a potential 150k in performance bonuses) for HC/DC/GM is cheaper than what most teams pay their individual HC/DC/GM combined salary.

You can’t offer Jones what we could (GM/HC/DC), Hervey’s occupying the GM spot, so the whining ends there. You don’t have a comparable opportunity to offer, never mind the money.

“As far as this league, we know that tampering does happen. It does. We do it. Everyone does it. It’s just a part of the CFL,? Hervey said…HERVEY SAID!!!
End of story.

Great interview here…

http://www.rodpedersen.com/
Friday, January 29, 2016 MEET CHRIS JONES Thursday night in Estevan was the first public speaking appearance by new Saskatchewan Roughriders V.P of Football, General Manager & Head Coach Chris Jones. It was the annual Estevan Bruins fundraising dinner and the Voice of the Bruins, Jeromy Corrigan, was on hand and sent us the audio.

Jones did a Q & A with Rider Radio host Michael Ball, and here’s a transcript of what was said:

Q: What’s your approach to coaching and how did it come to be almost all of your staff from Edmonton joined you in Saskatchewan for 2016?

CJ: We don’t have staff meetings to have staff meetings. We have very few staff meetings. Our time is too valuable and we know what we gotta get done. Day 1, Day 2 , Day 3, everybody knows their job responsiblities and go out and get the job done. When we take the field, we hit the ground running. So basically I told them ‘the rumour on the street is there could be an opportunity for us so raise your hand if you’re interested in going’. And they all raised their hand and I said ‘okay let’s roll’.

Q: How will you balance being Defensive Coordinator and Head Coach?

CJ: It’s just a matter of balancing your time and having a clear vision of exactly what you expect out of your staff and your personnel people and players. You treat 'em with the utmost respect and you demand exactly what you want and you don’t settle.

Q: You’re going to live in a hotel?

CJ: I go to work at 3:00 am until 7:00 pm and I work seven days a week. There ain’t no real reason to have an apartment where you gotta play electrical and cable bills and stuff like that. All my towels are in my locker at work and I only got a few black shirts and a few pairs of jeans. The people (at the hotel) know you and I got two little girls. They stay down South at our place on the Tennessee/Alabama line and my wife’s a school teacher with only a few years left until retirement. They come up to visit and the hotel people get to know everything about them. That’s the way we do it.

Q: You’re based out of the South?

CJ: I stay down there in the off-season and then every single weekend but one, I’ll be travelling to the minicamps from Miami to Tampa, and go home. Tomorrow I got a 6:45 am flight to Houston and I’ve got three quarterbacks who we’ll meet with. Then a workout and then I’ll head to Dallas. So it’s a little bit of a busy schedule.

Q: How was Chris Jones as a football player?

CJ: Slow. Physical. I liked to fight. I enjoyed Alan May’s talk before me here actually! I was raised in an all-black project and my mama made $6000/year. I weighed 113 lbs in the ninth grade so I had to fight my way out of a lot of situations. That’s where I’m from, you know?

Q: How did you get to Canada?

CJ: It’s strange man. Paul Jones, who’s been in the league with Edmonton for years, would come by our school and I’d tell him ‘this guy’s pretty good’ or ‘that guy’s pretty good’. He saw that I had a decent eye for talent and I said ‘there’s not an internship for white guys in the NFL so Paul why don’t you get me an internshp in Edmonton?’ He did and I went up there in 1999 and there were guys like Rob Brown and Doug Pederson. They had no money to hire me so I had to run down to Mobile with $100 in my pocket. I was doing a home visit for Tennessee Tech and got a call from Paul Jones. Long story short, Don Mathews approached me and offered me a job. Told me to call Jim Popp.

I drove up to Montreal and stopped in a place called Watertown, New York. I was driving in the snow and never had before. I stopped for a pee and there was a sign over the urinal that said, “Life Is A Journey, Not A Destination”. I thought I’d better get back in the car and keep going! Ended up in Quebec where nobody told me all the signs are in French and you can tell I don’t speak French.

Q: What’s the key to finding good Canadian football players?

CJ: There’s two different ways to find them. I try to work them out as much as I possibly can. Speaking of the Americans first, basically I’m evaluating everything they do from the moment they sign those sheets. Do they look me in the eye? I ask for their email and see how many actually put it on there like I asked them to do. If he’s looking around talking and I can’t stand being around him for 2-3 hours, why would I bring him up for seven months? My house payment and car payment depend on this! My two girls’ college degrees depend on it. Some of our guys have unsavoury pasts but I can tell after I work 'em out whether or not they can play for us.

With the Canadians what we do is, of course we have the Canadian Draft and the Canadian players have come so far from when I first got up here in 2002. The first combine I went to was in Montreal and the players were like our high school players in the States. But the League has done such a great job of organizing the combine now. I wish I had a picture to show you how far they’ve come but there’s now a lot of 4.4 40’s and a lot of bench rep guys in the 20’s. It’s really fun to see how it continues to come along.

Q: What’s it take to win in the CFL?

CJ: You’ve gotta have a good quarterback and good Canadian content. If that’s the case and you have a little bit of defense, you’re gonna win. If you have a whole lotta defense, you’re gonna win a lot.

Q: What do you think of the Riders’ Canadians?

CJ: You always have to rebuild so you’re always looking where your players will come from and who’s going to back them up? We’re looking at centre, guard and a few receivers. Also the safety and nose tackle spots. That’s probably where we’ll target.

Q: What about Rob Bagg?

CJ: I’ve done a lot of investigating and I like guys that are good in the locker room and put the football team first. He’s a guy that does that, according to everybody I’ve talked to. I’ve asked players over the phone who the leaders are and his name kept coming up every time. Then when I met with Darian, and Jeremy O’Day who wants to win more than anybody in the organization, Bagg’s name came up there too.

Q: Dressler and Chick. They’re good guys in the locker room …

CJ: That’s one of the toughest things ever. I’ve had to cut some of the players closest to me over the years like Ed Philion and Tim Strickland, and actually all the best ones I’ve had I’ve eventually had to cut them. That’s never an easy thing. When you have an organization as proud as this one and you have those guys who’ve done so much, that was a very tough decision and it led to a lot of sleepless nights. Unfortunately with the ecomonics of the game, the numbers just didn’t fit.

Q: Did you try to negotiate with them?

CJ: About four or five guys were making a third of the salary. That’s the case. They give you so much money to work with and these people around here are working people like me. Just do the math. You can’t pay the electric bill and the water bill and not pay the cable bill. They’ll turn it off. You can’t put an entire football team together if you’re paying too much in one area. That’s just the facts of life. It doesn’t matter if it’s the quarterback or anyone else. We did what we could do and in today’s world, I tried to re-sign a Canadian kid the other day and talked to him on the phone and his agent called and said not to talk to the player until they get the contract. The agents are controlling this thing now, more than the kids know. And they shut doors, unfortunately.

Q: Have you spoken to Chick and Weston?

CJ: I talked to John at length the day prior. And then Weston, last night flying in he was sitting right next to me in the last row so we got to talk. He was in his street clothes so I didn’t recognize him at first but I recognized his voice. He said ‘Coach here’s your bag’, and I recognized his voice. We talked the whole way over from Calgary and we talked about his workout program. He’s welcome to work out with our guy. That’s how we operate. He’s got some years left in the tank so good luck. This was just a business decision.

Q: What was Don Mathews’ influence on you?

CJ: I owe a tremendous amount to Don. He’s forgotten more about football than I know. He and Bill Parcells are guys I bounce things off of. He’s not in very good health right now, by the way. That first year in Montreal he had me watching so much film. He asked me who I liked and I said honestly only #75 and this big old #78 who turned out to be Adriano Belli. We cut everybody else and the next year we won the Grey Cup.

Q: What’s the story with Bill Parcells?

CJ: Well, Paul Jones again, he said he knows Bill Parcells and I asked him to get me up with him. I happened to be doing a workout down in West Palm Beach, which is five minutes from Jupiter where he lives. We went to Hurricanes Bar & Grill and had breakfast of all things. We had breakfast, then drank coffee, drank coffee, drank coffee, and then ate lunch. We spent six hours together in all. I just wrote down tons of notes and a lot of the things we do are similar to what he and Don gave me. I’ve had the good fortune of being around all these good folks.

There is so much depth to this interview I don’t even know where to start…this is what an open and honest Q&A looks like…great piece.

I tried to re-sign a Canadian kid the other day and talked to him on the phone and his agent called and said not to talk to the player until they get the contract. The agents are controlling this thing now, more than the kids know. And they shut doors, unfortunately.
No way I woulda let my agent do this...to each their on I guess. Horrid way to develop positive energy...hated even having one, if they did this I woulda canned em.

I don’t know Jones…I have said a few words to him over the years, that is about it. I like his focus and grounding though…he clearly came up poor and values his money, and I totally respect that he is blunt about why he is here…he wants to make as much as he can and he want to win. If he will…he will be in the NFL…and I am fine with that because they signed Murphy to…so even if/when Jones goes the foundation is there. The hours this guy is putting in…that is intense. Most coaches are going a 70-80 hour week…Jones is pushing 100. I love that he has clear expectations…the point about meetings…love it.

THIS statement…

I'm evaluating everything they do from the moment they sign those sheets. Do they look me in the eye? I ask for their email and see how many actually put it on there like I asked them to do. If he's looking around talking and I can't stand being around him for 2-3 hours
This is where I personally go from still having a ton of reservations on Jones to liking the guy...this! I know I have supported a lot of his moves on here...because they make sense, but I have had piles of reservations on the guy for a lot of reasons...and there are still things I don't like about him...but this impresses me. This speaks to me on so many levels...I guess because I have always felt the same. This one comment...this will stick with me a long time. Jones has wanted no part of some all-star players (no I am not talking about Chick or Dressler at all here) and been open about not really wanting them on the team...now I understand why he said that about those players. The depth of what this comment says....

I have absolutely no doubt that Jones is inevitably looking NFL if at all possible. He is young and if Building/putting the RoughRider Franchise back to a Strong, powerful, Winning Franchise is successful; well I think the doors will swing open down south at some level. :cowboy:

I'm still not sold on this guy!! Time will tell.

Yah, I can understand that. I can’t recall a GM in Saskatchewan like Jones and his ‘seemingly’ callus approach to Player relations and public relations for quite some time. But as I said on the day of hiring, if he can build the Riders to a “Sustainable” Power Machine then many will probably “tolerate” this approach.
My only concern Personally is Jones obvious preference to looking south for talent rather then focus on Canadian/National talent development.
I would prefer he keep this pattern in check and focus more on Canadian Talent Development. :cowboy:

"Q: You're going to live in a hotel?

CJ: I go to work at 3:00 am until 7:00 pm and I work seven days a week. There ain't no real reason to have an apartment where you gotta play electrical and cable bills and stuff like that. All my towels are in my locker at work and I only got a few black shirts and a few pairs of jeans. The people (at the hotel) know you and I got two little girls. They stay down South at our place on the Tennessee/Alabama line and my wife's a school teacher with only a few years left until retirement. They come up to visit and the hotel people get to know everything about them. That's the way we do it.

Q: You're based out of the South?

CJ: I stay down there in the off-season and then every single weekend but one, I'll be travelling to the minicamps from Miami to Tampa, and go home. Tomorrow I got a 6:45 am flight to Houston and I've got three quarterbacks who we'll meet with. Then a workout and then I'll head to Dallas. So it's a little bit of a busy schedule."

This is another indication in my books he has no intentions of sticking around long. While I understand he has his family based down south IF you were making long term plans of hanging around why would you stay in a hotel? Way too easy to skip town and nothing left behind the way he is set up.

Yes I like his work ethic, no I do not like his personality. While he is a no nonsense type of guy you can still be that way and not be a jerk about it. Jones needs to work on that if he hopes to survive more then a season here.

Remember Cory when he first came here and he was all humble and aw shucks kind of guy. Last year he took the "Jones approach" to the media and fans of this is the way it is and if you don't like it too fricken bad. That went over real well didn't it. No it didn't help the riders sucked on defense and were losing but still even if they were above 500 I just don't think that kind of attitude flies well especially here. Call us a bit old fashioned or whatever but most fans just do not warm up to an in your face type personality.

Does this effect how he runs or how successful he is with the team? Probably not but it does effect his perception with the media and fans and like it or not if he does not get things going in the win column right out of the gate there will be plenty of both media and fans that will make it known he is not going to last. Enough pressure from the fans will leave management little other options then to turf him. Now if the team does good then it will be over looked some what but it still will be there in the back of peoples minds and it wouldn't take much to become an issue.

For both his and the teams sake I hope he can tone it down a notch or two and I hope the team does well especially at the start, otherwise this could be a long season for both Jones and the fans and one that could not be pleasant.

His players speak the world of him actually…not ones as of yet because they’ve most;y not met or worked for him…but most players from his past do. His public relations so far have actually been impressive. He has done a couple events off-season already…don’t recall a pile of GMs doing that before they had seen a down of football. That interview…it was at a Charity event. He was in the US doing camps and flew in for it…10 hours of commute each way to be there for it for 1 night. Losing 2 players like Chick and Dressler are obviously not great for PR, but he has put in a lot of other leg work already…and he was not alone in why those players are not here…neither side played it well.

The Canadian development aspect is not as easy as the international…no way around that…but they have made a couple moves already, and that is a part of freeing up all that cap space…they can afford Canadians now…they couldn’t before.

So far from what I have seen Jones is doing a good job of getting the team back on track as well as public appearances in Estevan.
I like his approach to building up our non-existent scouting system.
the only thing that still bothers me is that the previous regime that put the team into its current state are still getting paid for the next 2 years.