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This article was published 18/1/2016 (1704 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Opinion

There are hard-hitting questions to be asked when brand-name, franchise-type players, hit the open market and are considered possible additions to your football team.

With the release of John Chick and Weston Dressler late last week by Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager and head coach Chris Jones, there are a number of considerations teams have surely already begun working through.

Inquiry No. 1: Will they fit into our system? Can they play just as well in our offence or defence?

TREVOR HAGAN / CANADIAN PRESS FILES John Chick

What works in one scheme does not necessarily work in another. If you’ve been around football for any amount of time, you’ve seen how players often sign with different teams, play in a foreign system and no longer resemble themselves. Sometimes players are lured by bigger dollars to a new franchise without recognizing they will be asked to perform in unfamiliar roles, and be asked to do things they are not accustomed to.

The same mistake happens from a managerial perspective as well. GMs, scouts and owners can get so starry-eyed about a player, they don’t realize the player won’t be able to replicate his performance because his supporting cast and scheme have changed.

This point won’t be a hindrance for the Blue Bombers in their consideration of these two free agents.

Defensive co-ordinator Richie Hall primarily runs a conventional four-man front and has previously coached Chick for a number of seasons. Likewise, offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice has worked with Dressler in his previous coaching stops. This is a considerable advantage to this football team, because it means there is little to no speculation and guessing as to what these players could bring to the table.

If Chick or Dressler are signed by this franchise, it will be because one of these two co-ordinators wholly endorsed their addition.

Inquiry No. 2: Are they past their prime? How many years do they have left?

Name-brand, all-star players are often over-valued by their home franchise because of all the intangibles that come with them. They sell merchandise, they connect with the community, they set positive examples and they are the foundation of the team. They often stay well past their best-before dates because of the value attributed to this kind of continuity.

In this evaluation, both Chick and Dressler are in their 30s — 33 and 30 respectively — and neither one is coming off an all-star season. Yet when your season ends at 3-15 — as the Riders’ did in 2015 — it is more difficult for your players to be draped in glory and accolades.

Playing with a number of backup pivots, Dressler still would have led the Bombers in receiving yards and receiving touchdowns last season, and Chick would have been second only to Jamaal Westerman in quarterback sacks.

It is reasonable to conclude that while neither player is trending upwards in their career, they are both still playing at high levels and capable of elite football.

MICHAEL BELL / CANADIAN PRESS FILES Weston Dressler

Inquiry No. 3: What dynamic will they bring to the locker-room? Will their personalities mesh with the existing leadership?

If either of these two were problematic types, or incapable of taking coaching or direction, you most likely would have heard about it by now. By every account, this would be the least of any team’s concerns when scrutinizing the signing of either of these two stand-up, team-first players.

Inquiry No. 4: Lastly, and most importantly, will they be worth what you pay for them?

At $240,000 (Dressler) and $260,000 (Chick) — what they were reportedly making in Saskatchewan — it’s fair to say both of these players have likely played their final games in the $200,000 stratosphere, unless they receive heavy incentives in their next deals.

They may have earned and deserved those salaries with their performances in Saskatchewan, but they don’t have that kind of leverage and accomplishment with any other team in the league.

Chick has already been replaced by Shawn Lemon in Riderville, at a savings of around $85,000.

Dressler may have been more productive than Nick Moore in 2015 — Winnipeg’s leading receiver — but Moore was considered a relative underachiever with a price tag some $60,000 less than what Dressler was making.

Dressler and Chick would each be a marketing and public-relations win for the Bombers, but if their price tags limit the franchise from making a number of other improvements, Blue and Gold should proceed with extreme caution.

While every team in the CFL overpays for some of the production on its roster, the smart money only does it with Canadian talent, as smart teams find their all-star imports in more conventional and economical ways.

Doug Brown, once a hard-hitting defensive lineman and frequently a hard-hitting columnist, appears weekly in the Free Press.

Twitter: @DougBrown97