O’Day: Dan Clark’s return to Roughriders ‘highly unlikely’

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Dan Clark’s tenure with the Saskatchewan Roughriders appears to be over.

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Jeremy O’Day, the CFL team’s vice-president of football operations and general manager, said Wednesday while meeting with the media that it was unlikely the Regina-born centre would be re-signed by the Riders.

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“I would never say there’s never a chance, but I would say going into camp I think it’s highly unlikely,” O’Day said Wednesday.

The Riders signed former B.C. Lions centre Peter Godber on the opening day of free agency on Tuesday. The addition of the 28-year-old Godber was an indication that the Riders are poised to head into the 2023 CFL season without Clark, who became a free agent on Tuesday.

“We were very open with Dan that we were going to pursue other offensive linemen,” O’Day said, “and there’s still a conversation that we have to have with Dan and just to let them know where we’re at coming out of free agency.”

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Clark has been with the Riders since 2009, when he was a territorial exemption, and has dressed for 131 regular-season games. He was a CFL all-star in 2019 and shared in the Riders’ 45-23 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the 2013 Grey Cup game at old Mosaic Stadium. He turns 35 on June 1.

“Dan is the last player that I played with,” said O’Day, who spent 12 seasons on the Riders’ offensive line before moving into football operations in 2011. “He is a Roughrider through and through and he’s everything you want from a player on the football field and from the toughness aspect.”

Clark’s contributions have not been limited to the field. He’s among the most active players in the community and has embraced his role as an ambassador.

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“Ultimately, when you have a season like we did, there is going to be change and those are the difficult decisions that we have to make,” O’Day said. “Dan has been a great leader for a long time.”

Changes were due after the Riders surrendered a team-record 77 sacks in 2022. Getting younger at centre and improving at offensive tackle were issues that O’Day wanted to address. He focused on the tackle issue with the signing of national Philip Blake, who was a left tackle with the 2022 Grey Cup champion Toronto Argonauts.

“Blake is a very versatile offensive lineman who can play all five positions on the offensive line,” O’Day said. “He will provide some veteran leadership with the younger offensive linemen that we’ll need. We’re excited to get those two guys.”

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It’s unlikely that middle linebacker Darnell Sankey will be back for a second season with the Green and White. He became a free agent on Tuesday after leading the CFL in defensive tackles (with 120) in 2022.

“We’ve been communicating with him throughout the process of free agency and we weren’t able to reach an agreement,” O’Day said. “We signed Larry Dean back and we have Micah Teitz coming back so we feel that we’re in a good situation there.”

O’Day confirmed that Kian Schaffer-Baker will return to the Riders for the 2023 season. The Canadian receiver had numerous tryouts with the NFL teams during the off-season. The window closed on Schaffer-Baker signing with an NFL team when the free-agent period opened on Tuesday.

mmccormick@postmedia.com

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