Henry Burris to Saskatchewan? It would be hilarious, but probably won't come to pass...
On the "CFL player in improbable location" front, it may be harder to think of anything more hilarious than the idea of Henry Burris again wearing the green and white of the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Burris first became a regular starting quarterback in Saskatchewan in 2000 and played reasonably well there that year and then again in 2003 and 2004 after returning from the NFL, but he left the Riders in the 2004-05 offseason to head back to Calgary, where he first broke into the league.That's made him a hated figure amongst many in Rider Nation ever since. However, with Saskatchewan QB Darian Durant out for at least the regular season with a torn elbow ligament suffered in Sunday's Banjo Bowl, Sun Media CFL columnist Kirk Penton has suggested the Roughriders should attempt to trade for Burris:
So what should Saskatchewan do now? Well, the answer appears to be simple: Trade for Henry Burris.
The reasons are plentiful, but the biggest reason is the Riders are good enough to win the Grey Cup again this year. Are they good enough to win it with Tino Sunseri? Your guess is as good as mine on that one, but they'd be a lot more likely to have success with Burris at the controls.
Saskatchewan's offensive line is the best in the league. Their run game is nearly unstoppable. The defensive line, led by John Chick, is relentless. Their defence overall is one of the league's elite. Weston Dressler is signed only until the end of this year. The pieces are in place for another championship. The only one missing now is at quarterback.
Burris has done some of the best work in his career under Riders offensive co-ordinator George Cortez, so it wouldn't take him long to get comfortable. He makes around the same amount of money as Durant, so his large salary won't negatively affect the salary cap with Durant on the six-game injured list.
And Burris' days in Ottawa are numbered.
There's no way they're going to bring Smilin' Hank back next season. It's time to get started on the future at quarterback in the nation's capital.
Penton makes some good points there, but while it would be hysterical to see Burris playing for a fanbase that's continuously taunted him over most of the last decade with everything from bras to boos, it seems unlikely to come to pass, at least yet. For one thing, Burris hasn't exactly been lighting up the league this year; he's thrown for just 2,180 yards, completed just 59.4 per cent of his passes, and tossed seven interceptions against just six touchdowns. He's currently eighth in our QB power rankings. Some of that's obviously on the Redblacks' issues with their offensive line and receivers, but some of it's on him.
Moreover, while Burris has played with Cortez before (in Hamilton in 2012), that Tiger-Cats' offence was substantially different from what Cortez is running in Regina. Hamilton's offence under Cortez was incredibly pass-heavy, while Saskatchewan with Cortez has been a run-first, second and third team, rushing so frequently that they'd fit in with 1970s CFL teams. In 2012, the Tiger-Cats led the league with 298.2 passing yards per game and were tied for third in passes completed with 391; they also gained the second-highest yards per pass, 8.9, and they recorded just 307 rushing attempts, second-lowest in the CFL. Through 11 weeks of this season, the Riders lead the league in rushing attempts (246) and is dead-last in passes attempted (253) and completed (151).
Moreover, when Saskatchewan does throw, it's often shorter than what the Tiger-Cats were doing. The Riders are averaging just 7.7 yards per pass, tied for fourth in the league. While some of Cortez's terminology has undoubtedly carried over, he's created a very different offence in Saskatchewan than what he ran in Hamilton, and that means that Burris would be anything but a plug-and-play solution. It would take him a while to adapt, and that raises the question of why you'd pay a big price for someone who might not be as good of an option right now as Riders' backup Tino Sunseri, who's spent the last two years learning Cortez's current offence.
Keep in mind that Ottawa doesn't seem all that inclined to trade Burris, either. Yes, he hasn't been great, and yes, there would be advantages to developing a younger quarterback like Thomas DeMarco, but this is a team that's always been about trying to win as many games as they can in their first year. That's been seen from everything from their expansion draft picks (including Kevin Glenn at quarterback) to their signing of Burris and trading of Glenn to their decision to trade away their first-overall draft pick for a proven commodity in guard Jon Gott. The Redblacks have decided they need to be competitive this year to keep their fans engaged, and that's an organizational priority.
While that approach has only led to one win so far, a lot of that isn't on Burris, and going to a younger quarterback might well make it even harder for them to pull off anything this year. A lot of the problems with the Redblacks have been from their lack of cohesion, which is as a result of their expansion-team status; they've had to bring in players and coaches from all over, and it's taken a while for them to develop any chemistry. They've seemed to start finding some of that lately, though, and although it hasn't translated into points and wins, there are promising signs. Changing their quarterback might set them back substantially and make them do a lot of that work over again.
Moreover, even if the Redblacks did feel inclined to trade Burris, there's been no indication that Saskatchewan wants him, and there's been no indication that Ottawa would accept a reasonable offer. As Don Brennan of The Ottawa Sun; writes, Redblacks' general manager Marcel Desjardins has a high asking price for Burris:
"At this point we're not looking to move Henry," RedBlacks GM Marcel Desjardins said Wednesday. "And we have not been approached.
"(The Roughriders) haven't called, we certainly haven't reached out to them about him. I guess we'll just have to see if anything were to transpire there. But there's nothing we're actively pursuing at this point."
To me that says the 39-year-old Burris may not finish his stellar CFL career in the nation's capital, after all.
...[T]his mess isn't all on Burris. He hasn't been horrible. His numbers would be decidedly better if he had receivers who could receive.
"When you're watching the game, whether it's you in the media or me up in the box or even on TV, things look deceiving sometimes," said Desjardins. "He has not been the reason we have lost as many games as we have. Now, I'm not going to say that he's been the difference maker we were hoping he would be, in terms of allowing us to win games that maybe we shouldn't win. He hasn't been perfect. He knows that. He can be better, and everybody can. But he is not the reason we've lost nine games."
So, while the Redblacks might dangle Burris for the right price, there's no indication they're actually looking to move him unless they get a huge offer, and there's nothing to suggest right now that they'll get a huge offer. Even Saskatchewan isn't that hard up; losing Durant hurts, but it's also a chance to see what they have in the likes of primary backup Sunseri, third-stringer Seth Doege and the recently-signed Keith Price. All three of those guys found significant NCAA success and might be able to replicate that in the CFL, and the expectations in the Riders' offence really aren't that high right now; this is a team that has won seven in a row despite Durant completing just 60.5 per cent of his passes and throwing for just 1,792 yards so far. Throw in Burris' age and history with the Riders, and this would seem to get even more unlikely. While "Burris to Saskatchewan" theories are fun to contemplate, there's little to suggest they'll come true any time soon.
