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When the guys who make the decisions are asked about Gott, you hear, “good player” and “we’re lucky to have him,” but unless injuries happen — and that’s not out of the realm of possibility — Gott may be relegated to backup duty well beyond Friday. The Redblacks start four former first-round draft choices — Jason Lauzon-Seguin, Nolan MacMillan, Alex Mateas and Johnson, with another (Mark Korte) waiting in the wings. Then there’s left tackle SirVincent Rogers, the league’s most outstanding lineman in 2015.

“We know who Jon Gott is and what he can do,” Redblacks coach Rick Campbell said. “Jon’s going to be around here and he’s going to play here again this year. We’re going to navigate our way through the season and do what we think is best as we go through it.”

Asked about Johnson, Campbell said, “He’s a guy who’s going to play in this league for a long time. He brings versatility; another factor in this thing is Evan can play both guard and tackle. The CFL’s a league where a lot of teams dress six O-linemen — that’s what we usually do. When you dress six, you have to make sure you have your bases covered.”

Johnson, who missed a couple of games in July with an injury, said, “We don’t worry about who’s playing and who’s not playing. We know all of us can play, we know all of us can start. It’s just a matter of whose number gets called.”

MAINSAH HAPPY TO BE BACK: When the Redblacks cut Tafon Mainsah on July 3, they told him they may bring him back. It didn’t take long; two weeks later the DB was back in Ottawa.