Roughriders’ GM details free agency strategy and focus on draft preparation

Riders GM Jeremy O’Day says losing key pieces after a Grey Cup is expected, with a focus now on internal growth during free agency.

In the thick of the offseason, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are focused on bringing back another Grey Cup to the province.

Since free agency opened on Monday, general manager Jeremy O’Day was available to the media to talk about off-season moves.

Towards the end of January, O’Day mentioned that free agency would be a quiet one for the club, with many highly coveted players expected to sign elsewhere for the 2026 season.

• Riders’ O’Day expects quiet free agency, again

“Free agency was pretty unique for us this year, where in pretty much every position that you looked across the board, our free agents were top targets. It was a challenge with managing who we would get back and who we’d be able to offer,” he said.

As arguably their biggest acquisition, the Roughriders brought in James Vaughters, a veteran defensive lineman who spent the 2025 season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

After the Grey Cup win, management focused on signing core players such as Trevor Harris and A.J. Ouellette. Harris signed in early December, and Ouellette towards the end of January.

“I think we had an abnormal number of free agents, just because we had a lot of guys on the roster at the end of the year,” O’Day said.

Of course, if the right player comes around, the Roughriders won’t be hesitant to strike. However, a big move doesn’t appear to be happening in the near future. The focus is now onto the CFL Combine on March 27-29 and the CFL draft on April 28.

“Most of the heavy lifting is done, and now we’re really focused on signing guys off our negotiation list,” he said. “We’re starting to work on draft prep and evaluations for the draft.”

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The kicker position will have some changes as well, parting ways with Brett Lauther, who had been a Rider since 2018.

“Aside from the fact that he’s a good football player, he’s excellent in the community and excellent in the locker room,” O’Day said. “We felt like we gave Brett opportunities and stuck by him for a long time. He made a lot of big kicks for us. When a player has a down year, people tend to forget about what he did for us in the past. With some of his challenges or his struggles, when he missed some, we remember that and give him the opportunity to kick out of it.”

The club also added two American kickers: Michael Hughes and Jonathan Kim.

“Obviously Hughes has been here before; he got to kick a little bit in our game,” O’Day said. “So, we’ll continue to look at that area, but even with the two we have, we feel very comfortable, they’re pretty darn good kickers.”

On the linebacker side, O’Day mentioned that he’s excited about the group on hand.

“We’re excited about the linebackers, I know everyone’s probably worried about it, but Antoine Brooks has earned his opportunity to be a starter in this league,” he said. “We’ve done a decent job with our ratios, so we have some flexibility with A.J. moving on. Aubrey Miller got an opportunity to play a little bit last year and did well, and then we’ve signed Josh Woods, who has experience and has a lot of length. We’re excited about those three.”

-With files from Donovan Maess