Saskatchewan Roughriders’ head coach Corey Mace believes in a communicative approach when it comes to releasing players.
“I told everybody: ‘Fellas, nine all-stars, that’s last year. It’s a what-have-you-done-for-us-lately kind of business. There was some heavy competition, guys had to prove to solidify their spot,” Mace said.
CFL teams were mandated to cut rosters down entering the 2025 regular season by Saturday, May 31 at 10 p.m. local across the country. It’s not Mace’s favourite part of the job but one he realizes is part of professional football.
“For us it’s important that they get a conversation with [general manager Jeremy O’Day], (assistant general manager) Kyle (Carson), myself, (player personnel coordinator) Larry (Dean), whomever,” Mace explained. “It’s all hands on deck, I think, from a respect standpoint as well.”
The Riders let 17 players walk, assigned 11 to the practice roster, including rookie returner and receiver Drae McCray, and put five on the team’s retired list to retain player rights.
“It’s the unfortunate part of the business and you hate to see it. Certainly a lot of us as coaches and in the personnel side have been in those shoes. We want to make these guys understand how much we appreciate the effort,” Mace said.
“Make sure that you can look them in the eye, tell them that you appreciate all the work that they’ve put in physically and sacrificed to come up here and push for their dream. It’s unfortunate yet we all know what it is and we chose this game.”
The 39-year-old Mace tells players to put their “best foot forward” because it could lead to an opportunity with a different CFL team. Player personnel departments around the three-down league are constantly watching film and evaluating players as potential fits on their roster.
There’s another scenario that can unfold: an injury happens and a previously released player is called back to the same team. Canadian offensive lineman Noah Zerr is an example — he was released by Saskatchewan during rookie camp cutdowns and rejoined the team following injuries to Sean McEwen and Philippe Gagnon.
“We still think highly of the kid, it’s just the way that it shook out. We give those guys a heads up: ‘Hey, stay ready.’ We’ve seen it a ton, specifically here and certainly around the league, you’re one injury away from being on the roster,” Mace said.
“For Noah, it was easy for him because he was local. For us, we needed a good Canadian offensive lineman. We know what he is and we still believe he was that. The timing wasn’t the greatest for us and him at the time, but now the story’s changed and he came right in like he never left.”
The Roughriders currently have the Zerr on the team’s practice roster. Saskatchewan opens the 2025 CFL regular season on Thursday hosting the Ottawa Redblacks at 9 p.m. ET.
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