New GM Ryan Rigmaiden says he’s ready to make hard calls on roster and putting together team is well underway, with CFL free agency opening Feb. 11
New B.C. Lions general manager Ryan Rigmaiden looks at Wally Buono as a mentor, which suggests that Rigmaiden will be willing to make tough calls on veteran players.
It was Buono’s forté during his time building up the Calgary Stampeders and then the Lions. As much as anyone running a CFL team in recent memory, Buono cut ties with older, established players. They were routinely fan favourites, but Buono was rarely wrong with his decisions.
Buono traded Geroy Simon out of B.C., and he cut Allen Pitts in Calgary. They were No. 1 and No. 3 in all-time receiving yardage in CFL history. Buono released Jason Clermont in B.C., despite the receiver being a two-time winner of the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian award. There are other similar stories.
This is Rigmaiden’s second tour of duty with B.C., with the first coming from 2013-2018 when he was director of U.S. scouting. Buono was the Lions’ GM from 2003-17, and he was also head coach for much of that tenure.
“I come from the Wally school. He taught me a lot of things,” Rigmaiden said of Buono, who’s the CFL’s all-time most winning coach and led the way to Grey Cup wins with the Lions in 2006 and 2011. “One of the things he was almost always right on was ‘I’d rather be a year early than a year late on a player.’ And so sometimes you have to make a move that’s not popular with the fan base or even popular in your locker room, but you have to do that if you believe that a change is a necessity in moving forward.
“I promise you that in our building we’ve got the courage to do those things and we’re going to.
“It’s a tough part of our business. Most of what we do is challenging and exciting and you love being a part of pro football. One of the downsides is that you have to say goodbye to some really good people, whether that’s coaching staff or whether that’s players. It’s tough but you have to have the courage to follow your instincts. You have to have the courage to call up a player or bring him into your office and say: ‘This isn’t going to work out anymore and it doesn’t mean that I don’t love you because I do, but we have to do this to get better as a football team.’”
The Lions parted ways with a veteran return specialist Terry Williams, 28, last week after two and a half seasons with the club. He had signed a two-year extension in January that had him staying with B.C. through the 2025 season at the time.
B.C. finished sixth in punt return average and third in kickoff return average last season. They were one of just three teams that didn’t score a kick or a punt return touchdown.
Rigmaiden says he’s speaking with the McInnis’ camp and “I hope we get something done before free agency starts but you just never know how these things are going to go.
“Justin obviously had a tremendous year. If he’s not the best receiver in the league he’s certainly in the top three or four. He’s a playmaker, he’s a Canadian and he’s also a leader and a great guy,” Rigmaiden continued.
Defensive lineman Mathieu Betts, 29, was No. 9 on that free agent list but he’s off the market now, too, after inking a two-year extension with the Lions on Dec. 19.
B.C. quarterback Nathan Rourke, 26, is set to be the CFL’s highest paid player overall next season, too. He’s going to make $749,000 according to various reports, although $200,000 of that comes in marketing money that doesn’t count against the league’s salary cap of $5.76 million per team.
Having all that cash tied up in two players obviously presents challenges for Rigmaiden in building the squad. He did say that “I think we’ll have some things that will surprise some people in a positive way.”
Neil McEvoy, who had shared GM duties with Campbell, was named president of football operations in the front office reshuffle.
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