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“I don’t see how,” Desjardins said Thursday. “Never say never, though. I guess what I’m getting at is, if we felt we had to do something like that, that would have to be offset elsewhere. What is that elsewhere? That’s kind of how I’m looking at it.”

At least one former player, though, says the Redblacks will need to make moves to rebuild the middle of their defence.

Quarterback Henry Burris, who led the Redblacks to a Grey Cup victory in 2016, told TSN 1200 radio on Wednesday he thought Ottawa needed to find bodies for the interior of the defensive line.

“If you look at it now, (Jake) Ceresna is in Edmonton, Evans is in Saskatchewan, then there’s Tank Reed,” Burris said. “They always talk about the inside triangle; that’s who takes the run away. You have to be able to stop the run. You don’t want to overcompensate, take one thing away from an offence, then give up another. It all starts up front.”

Talking about the defensive line, Desjardins said: “Look, it’s going to be similar to the linebacker thing: We’ve got guys who have played some, we don’t have guys who have proven to be long-term solutions at the position. We’ll keep looking at other options as well and see how that plays out.”

One option at defensive tackle is Mehdi Abdesmad, the Redblacks’ third-round pick in the 2016 CFL college draft. Abdesmad has been with both the Tennessee Titans and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the National Football League, but is currently a free agent.