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“Mike and I are very in sync now with what we want. We don’t have to meet as much as we used to. We kind of know what each other is thinking,” said Walters.

“Same with the support staff. Our whole group has been together. I trust everybody here, they do their jobs, they don’t need to be micro-managed. They’re very good at their jobs and we let them roll.

“We have a real strong scouting department and we have been together as well. After so long your scouting department knows what your coaching staff is looking for. What Mike wants in a player, we’re certainly better equipped to go get that type of player who will have a chance to succeed in Mike’s system. So the continuity is important.”

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As much as he can, Walters applies the same principles to assembling his player roster year after year, though that process is both complicated and abetted by one-year contracts that continually force a flooding of the free agent market.

“It used to be that you started more long-term planning. What’s evolved, or maybe devolved, however you want to word it or look at it, with one-year contracts you pretty much have to focus on the here and now.

“You can pretty much gut your roster and replenish it every year with the way the CFL is currently up and running.”

That’s either a gamble or a blessing, depending upon how it turns out in Week 21.

“For sure it’s risky, but when you struggle as a team, it’s a much easier, quicker fix now because there are so many free agents every year. The challenge for you is to keep consistency, and that’s what we’ve done.”