The hard, or at least the most essential, part of the B.C. Lions’ roster construction is done as they retained their biggest pending FAs.
It got its name when Hervey, then-Edmonton’s general manager, filed a contract for defensive end O’Dell Willis just minutes into free agency in 2013, a clear violation of the policy. He claimed innocence, claiming he had received a call from Willis that very morning after the deadline, but the league didn’t believe him and fined Edmonton $10,000.
The CFL changed its policy in 2020 to allow contact with pending free agents in the week before free agency, but not allow contracts to be filed until it officially begins.
Hervey, now back with Edmonton, got commitments from eight players on Sunday — Day 1 of the EHW — a big splash to start off the CFL’s silly season.
So will there ever be a “Ryan Rigmaiden Window?”
“You know what? I hope our roster is never bad enough to where we need to do that,” the B.C. Lions’ GM said with a laugh.
“Kudos to him. They’re obviously the big first day and rebuilding big key positions and everything else, but we’re happy with where we’re at.”
Betts is at $260,000 for this season, while McInnis — the CFL’s leading receiver last season — will make $250,000. Rourke is on $624,000, plus $200,000 in marketing money.
Wideout Alexander Hollins was the collateral damage in the moves, as the former all-star, who made $223,000 in 2024, was released.
They also retained defensive back Garry Peters, another league leader at his position.
Add in the trade with Toronto for all-star offensive lineman Dejon Allen, bringing back running back James Butler and adding two more depth defensive linemen, and the Leos are feeling bullish before free agency, which officially opens Feb. 11 at 9 a.m. PT.
“We’re always going to place priority on our own guys if they’re worthy, and they certainly were,” said Rigmaiden. “I think we all had hoped to get it done, but hope’s not a plan. You have to be able to move stuff around and make that work, and we did.
“Philosophically, I think we all believe that you win upfront, but sometimes in the past, we haven’t reflected that with where we spend our money.
“We wanted to do that this year with Betts and making the trade for Dejon — obviously, McInnis is the exception to that — but looking back over our last three or four years of salary cap, we had so much money at wide receiver. Look, all those guys were deserving of those contracts, but at the same time, that’s not where you win. You win upfront.”
That philosophy is shared by both Rigmaiden and new head coach Buck Pierce, which streamlines their efforts to reshape the team from a disappointing 2024 season. The buzzwords are the same: Physicality. Toughness. Football IQ. Intelligence. Discipline.
There’s also the shared cognizance that the Lions were a mentally brittle team in 2024, leading them to regress from the progress they made in the two seasons prior.
Lions president of football operations Neil McEvoy has made no secret of his admiration for the Bombers — who’ve now played in five straight Grey Cups — saying they need to be more like them. Hiring Winnipeg’s offensive coordinator in Pierce is a better step than trying to emulate their playing style, like they wanted to last season.
“What we built in Winnipeg didn’t happen overnight,” said Pierce. “We’ve got to make sure that we’re continuing to grow … To put our players in situations where they know, they understand what winning looks like, and understand how to react in those situations.
“And building the team, the biggest thing doesn’t show up on the stat list; these guys have got to have trust in each other, and those things take time.
“It’s the best teams who win, it’s not individual players, it’s not coaches. So we’re trying to build that to be sustainable.”
There are still areas they want to address but don’t expect to be big players in free agency coming up. The Lions need to get younger, because youth means cheap. And Rigmaiden built his reputation on being a talent hawk.
He’s excited to see Qadree Ollison and 6-3, 230 pound athletic freak Zander Horvath push Butler at the running back position. He’s confident the young players he’s found in recent years, like practice-squader Tyler Coyle and the emergent Cristophe Beaulieu, have what it takes to become regular starters in the defensive backfield.
If there’s a free agent veteran to be found at a bargain price, they might act, but it’s going to come down to chemistry and math.
“It’s performance, it’s age, it’s upside, it’s their fit within the system. Fit for me is always going to be the biggest thing,” said Rigmaiden. “But financial fit is going to be a huge one for the rest of this. I don’t expect there to be huge players in the DB free agent market. We’re going to trust the young guys that we brought in, that we’ve been scouting for years. We need to find the next T.J. Lee. We need to find the next GP (Peters).”