Rod Pedersen ?@sportscage Have learned the Jaguars have relinquished the rights to DE John Chick. Riders have contacted his agent.Chick was in Saskatchewan with Tillman and Austin during the 2007 season. He was a monster in 2009, but is now 30 years old and has been out of the league for 3 years.
Do we take a run at him? I assume he’ll want very good money.
Area of extreme need for both team. He's one year away from an NFL pension...Interesting.
My caveat would be that it seems to me that more often than not, when a player returns to the CFL after being in the NFL, he's never as good as he was before he left. . .Kenton Keith, Casey Printers, Andy Fantuz. . .
Mike Pringle might be an exception to that and didn't Ricky Ray spend one year with the Jets after being in the CFL for a while?
Fantuz not as good ? His total yardage was around his career average and led all CDNs in touchdowns.
Remembering that players didn't come back as good as they were before is a confirmation bias. We want to believe that those that come back don't play as well, so we forget the ones that do. For every Kenton Keith and Casey Printers, there is a Henry Burris and a Ricky Ray and a Dave Dickenson and an Arland Bruce.
I also don't agree that Fantuz was worse. He didn't play up to his 2010 self, but if you look at his numbers, that season was an outlier and his numbers in 2012 were pretty much in line with his career averages.
As far as Chick goes, not sure if I'd make a play for him. Pretty sure he'd be looking for good coin and I think the Cats would do well to stick with the guys they have now. I want to see what Peguese can do with a full season and camp. I don't think he'd be worth the money.
The positions that seem to cause players difficulty transitioning are RB, DL and LB. I think the guys put a lot of effort in changing their mass or body types and it makes it difficult. Kind of like fighters who go up and down in weight class. A good example is K.Hebert who was underwhelming when he returned to the CFL with Hamilton in 2010 but Looked great in 2012 when he returned to the Als 15 pounds lighter.
Fantuz also suffered a concussion just as Burris and him were developing a connection. In the first few games after he came back from the concussion, things didn’t look right.
Overall I was pleased with the way Fantuz played, and I expect him to be even better (more consistent) this season.
Rod Pedersen in Regina reports "hearing that Chick will be signing with the Browns."
Doubt if the Browns would want him.