Chick & Hurl Named Players of the Week

Saturday night was a good night at Mosaic Stadium for the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the good vibes continued into the new week.

On the backs of two outstanding performances in the Riders' 37-9 thumping of the Toronto Argonauts, John Chick and Sam Hurl were recognized for their efforts by being named the CFL Defensive Player and Canadian Player of the Week respectively.

Chick was on another level during Saturday's win, constantly beating the Argos' offensive line and getting into the face of quarterback Ricky Ray.  He finished the game with two sacks and a forced fumble.

“I feel like it's a new year, new me,” said Chick on Tuesday after the Riders' first practice of the week.  “The last four weeks I'm thankful for and I'll continue to work off those, but definitely when I'm watching film, I'm seeing plays that I left out there, so I've got to continue to improve.”

The fact that Chick feels he needs to improve can be a scary thing for the rest of the CFL as he has led the Riders defence so far this year.  Saturday's effort was just another in a string of stellar games to start the season for Chick, who now leads the CFL with six sacks in four games.

This is the second season back in the CFL for the big defensive end and he's been looking more and more comfortable each passing week.  

“Health is always a key, I wasn't not healthy last year, but I feel young,” said Chick, 31.  “I had a full year of focus where I knew what I was doing, so all those things have worked together and I'm just having fun doing what I'm doing.”

Head coach Corey Chamblin has been impressed with what he's seen so far out of his prized offseason signing from a year ago.

“I don't know what John Chick has found, but I told him that he can put it into the other players too,” said Chamblin.  “He's just a phenomenal player with great mental strength.”

For Hurl, this was the first time in his career that he picked up a weekly honour after posting a career-high seven tackles and a fumble recovery in Saturday's win.  The 24-year-old Calgary native has been off to a hot start this year as he sits fourth in the league with 21 defensive tackles.

“I definitely think playing more helps,” said Hurl, who's been starting at linebacker for the first time in his three-year career.  “Experience is everything, so the more I get comfortable out there with what I'm seeing in front of me and I get more use to the speed of the game mentally, so the more I play, it's only going to go up hill from there.”

Saturday could be considered Hurl's best game of his young career and he's just hoping to build off it now going forward.

“Each game I feel like's got easier,” he said.  “I'm just hoping that I can keep it going and I have confidence that I can do that and continue to get better.”

Again, Chamblin has liked what he's seen so far this year from Hurl.

“I was going to tell him today that he's been playing well and then he got the honour, so that's a positive for him to move in the right direction,” said Chamblin.  “He's tackling better, a lot better.  He's running through his tackles and he looks like a linebacker out there.”

This was the third and fourth time that a Rider has earned player of the week honours after Ricky Foley picked up double recognition in Week 1.

Riders Return From Injury

The Riders have been hit with the injury bug pretty hard to start the season.  They were missing two key pieces of their offence for Saturday's game, but they got some good news on that front on Tuesday.

Slotback Chris Getzlaf was back out on the field for the full practice, as was centre Dominic Picard.  Getzlaf has been out since Week 1, while Picard missed his first game this past week.

Chamblin was remaining cautiously optimistic with both players' status for this Saturday's game in Ottawa.

“I expect them back tomorrow and it's a day at a time around here,” he said.

Ryan Smith was out again on Tuesday and Chamblin feels he could still be another week away from making a return, “just for precautionary measures”.

Riders Add Two To Practice Roster

Two players were signed to the Riders' practice roster on Tuesday as the team added international wide receiver Korey Williams and international defensive lineman Chancey Aghayere.

Williams was a player that Chamblin said they've had on their radar for a while now.

“In one of the games we played last year, he had a great run on us, so he's a good player,” said Chamblin.  “Anytime there's good players available, we have to be able to bring them in.”

Williams is in his second CFL season after originally signing with the BC Lions in 2013.  He posted seven catches for 112 yards and a touchdown, while adding one rush attempt for 41 yards.

Aghayere – six-foot-four 265lbs – comes to the Riders after attending offseason workouts with the NFL's Seattle Seahawks.  He played four seasons at Louisiana State where he posted 44 tackles, 4.5 tackles for loss and two sacks in 43 games.