Foley Traded!

Huge trade by CFL Standards.

The Riders have traded Foley to the Argos for LB Emry. Greg Quick's D just got what it wanted.

If this is a straight up trade this is a really good play for the Riders. National for National. Foley has been a huge Rider asset, and his time in Green can be applauded, but the Riders seem to manage to find pretty good Import depth on the DL of late, and SFA at LB, so this is a good move.

I for one, hate to see Foley gone!! Good trade.... time will tell. Rumor is Hurl may test the waters and we do need a good LB. On the fence on this move!

if it was straight player for player this was a pretty big win for the Riders IMO. The biggest hole on the team through the entirety of 2014 was MLB. Problem solved. Foley is a really good DE. I would put he and Emry on fairly equivalent grounds, except Emry has a few years on him. With Chick, the Riders can take an average DE and make him look great. If he can keep Majors in check it should pan out well. As for the Argos, I think they see Greenwood as a starter, so this is a huge +1 ratio move for them.

Wow..........

Feel terrible. Loved Foley. Great team guy, supportive of everything. National. I was really starting to really like Foley.

Shea............well the MLB situation is clearer.

Hurl..........sorry but his stock just shot up in Saskie...........we need a very good National MLB backup. I think we really need Hurl.

Hurl likely tests FA to look for a starter job. He's just not going to find a legitimate spot to play MLB.

Wow.........Overall, we get a guy 4 years younger. National for national

The big question..........who can tell me how long Shea is under contract for???? If its one year..............not good.

Thanks to Foley for his efforts here. In 2 short years he made a big impression. I wish him well.

Hurl has pretty much said he is shopping.
Brack still indicates Green is his hope.
With Ainsworth and Steinhauer around they needed to see that they had National depth on the line, NOT LB, so Hurl moving on is not as big of a hit as it looks on the surface if they can't re-sign him. I don't see him signing as he knows he will be a STer with the odd play here and there unless they move him outside...but unless they re-invent the D, that is unlikely. The also have National DE David Lee to work into the line more often, and he looked really good last season IMO. so they can actually still put Nationals on the line still and rotate Emry out if need be.

IMO this was a solid move for both clubs. The Riders got a few years younger and they are likely looking to a couple guys they have had in development to give a really good shot to.

He is under multi year contract so he’s here for a few years! he was also said to be excited to come here!! Foley was not happy can’t blame the guy!!

Emry's contract is through the 2016 season.

Foley loved the situation he was in. So much so that after pondering retirement he continued on, so yeah, I can't fault him for being upset. he did not want to be in Toronto when he signed with the Riders, so going back may sting even more, and it does make one wonder if it will motivate him into early retirement. Sports can be a fickle B sometimes.

How does Barker convince these GM's to trade away great players?? He did it to Edm with Ray and Foley had a pretty damn good year last year...it's just weird.

I don’t think it would have taken a pile of arm twisting…the biggest gap on the team was filled, and a position with redundancy was traded…for both teams. National for National, star player for star player, the Riders got younger. Sometimes in order to get proven talent in a role you need to give up proven talent, and the club was clearly not willing to have egg on their face with a bust a potential bust at LB again. As for Ray…that fell in his lap.

Wow didn’t see this coming. Sad to see Foley go as he really fit in well with the team. Tough decision no doubt to give up a team leader like Ricky was but it was obvious where this team was lacking on defense last year.
I think both teams should be happy about who they got but it still stings to lose Foley. I wish him the best in Toronto and thank him for all his contributions to the Riders.

From what I’ve heard, Ray didn’t fall in his lap, he went after him, And had been going after him quite aggressively. I think I saw that on one of those “behind the scenes” shows on TSN.

great trade for the riders

Je ne suis pas convaincu que les Roughriders auront eu le dessus dans l’échange. Mais ils ont probablement amélioré une position qui était importante pour leur gestion du ratio.

Emry est un très bon secondeur. Il joue avec intensité et fait de bons jeux. Cependant, il a la fâcheuse manie de parfois saboter son travail en écopant de punitions qu’il aurait pu éviter, et de les ramasser quand son équipe a absolument besoin que ça n’arrive pas. Il y a toujours du bon et du mauvais avec Emry, mais plus de bon que de mauvais en général.

Yup…penalties have been his demon at times. BT knew he was in a spot that if he didn’t make a solid move at LB that there would be heat on him…he couldn’t leave it to chance. It is unfortunate, because MLB is one of the easier places to get a serviceable player in. Might not be an all-star, but they will do enough that it is not exploited. DE on the other hand…much harder to fill generally.

So I guess here is the 10,000.00 dollar question. As you pointed out MLB are not a rare species and yet we had an issue at the position all of last year and going into the offseason we knew it was still an issue,so why wasn’t this addressed earlier and not have to lose Foley? I understand that sometimes to get a good player you have to give up one but as you say you don’t need an all star at the position just someone that is solid. So couldn’t we have traded someone or even a couple of players and still be solid at the position?

Just hate to lose Foley as the D line was our strength last year and Foley, Chick, George really worked well together.

I am not a fan of this trade. I think LBs in the CFL are quite easily findable, look at the run we had for a long time there with, Hunt, Lloyd, Williams, Simpson, Lobendahn, all the while having McCollough as a back up. We went years with having solid to great MLBs.

I honestly don't think Foley is the greatest player, I think he is as good as the team you put around him, but playing with Chick and George he is a great fit. He is a hard worked and a great person, and I liked having him and Lee as a ratio spot. Now we get who I consider to be a better player but a worse personality. Emery takes costly penalties and lets his head get the best of him far too often. I liken this to the acquiring of DA where we got a quality player, but a guy who I don't believe fits the Rider mentality.

I think we should have kept Foley and found a young guy to groom for the position. And I haven't given up on Kilgore or Burdette yet either. Yes Kilgore didn't play very well, but he was coming off an injury in his first season. Some of our best LBs took a year or two to get comfortable in the league. Lloyd, Williams, and Freeman all spent a year or two on ST before they became stars. Who's to say Kilgore still won't?
There are tons of good LBs who will fall through the cracks of the NFL and come to the CFL. I feel like giving up such a quality guy to get someone who has punched one of our players in the balls, at a position that like RB can be replaced fairly easily just isn't worth while.

As always if he plays great and keeps his penalties/ bone head plays to a minimum I will give him a break, but I don't think I will ever be overly happy having him on our team..

Well, this organization has not had a lot of luck finding their own ILBs for some time, Rey aside. Going into last season they thought they had the right guy…coaches, media and fans alike generally felt they had the right guy…he was a bust. BT is not an idiot and knows that if they busted again at ILB there are a lot of eyes on him.

Did the Riders come out a little behind on this…maybe…it is a close trade at minimum. This DID fill a hole though, and it covers BT’s arse (can’t blame him at all for that). The team has had glorious success finding DLmen, and has Nationals that can rotate in on the line.

They don’t need an all-star at MLB, but they also don’t need one at DE as long as Chick is on the other End.

Could they have got more out of this…probably. You know the Argos wanted to move a National LB, so yeah, maybe they could have got a 3rd or 4th rounder in this as well…but it is still a pretty even trade. Foley might be a tad better (just for argument sake) but the Riders also got younger.

I agree that he is a lot like DA in his fiery play and yes he like Anderson took a lot of penalties but I think DA after a few games got the message that being selfish or stupid wasn't going to fly here and even though he had a few outbursts throughout the season when it really counted he kept his composure and was very effective in coverage. That hopefully will be the same with Emery. I like a player that has a fire in his belly and other teams don't want to go there because they know what could happen. The key is to play with an edge but do it cleanly and smartly and yes sometimes it is a fine line to walk.

Hopefully Cory will keep him on a short leash as far as bone headed penalties go and Emery learns quickly that playing dirty or stupid could see him riding the pine. If this happens he could be very effective for the team and allow the D line more freedom to concentrate on the pass rush instead of holding back and trying to fill run gaps that the MLB should be filling.

Time will tell I guess like anything how this pans out.

Je crois que les Roughriders ne seront pas au dépourvu avec Alex Hall.

Oh, I agree. Hall is actually an upgrade IMO, but that passport is pretty valuable, especially when you have drafted and drafted for redundancy / backup behind him…that is a pretty big change in the long-term vision.