Duron Carter is back wearing a white practice jersey meaning he’s working with the offence at Riders practice.
“We gotta make sure he knows what to do, it’s Day 1, so tomorrow you’ll see him back at DB. We’ll see [if he’ll play offence against Calgary], we gotta play defence first. If they don’t score and we can hold them down we got a chance to win the football game. Offence is important, but you gotta stop them from scoring,” head coach Chris Jones said.
“He’s a guy that you can line up and cover in man coverage and he’s played some very good football for us. He’s a physical guy, he’s tall, he’s long and you can match him up.”
Carter had been filling in for rookie defensive back Nick Marshall who has been on the six-game injured list since Week 1. Marshall was a revelation who won the starting boundary corner spot in training camp and during his first regular season game in green and white he picked off Ricky Ray and returned it for the game-winning points in Saskatchewan’s 27-19 victory over Toronto.
But Marshall suffered a hand injury and Carter played four games at weak-side cornerback while the first-year cover man is healing up. Newly signed Will Blackmon lined up at the boundary spot in the secondary.
Blackmon was signed by Saskatchewan on Tuesday. The 33-year-old was a fourth-round pick in the 2006 NFL Draft and played 10 seasons in the NFL making 209 tackles, defending 24 passes, recording four interceptions while returning kick-offs and punts – three taken back for touchdowns – with the Green Bay Packers, New York Giants, Jacksonville Jaguars and Washington Redskins. He won a Super Bowl in 2012 helping the G-Men upset the New England Patriots. Blackmon has the size (six feet, 212 pounds) Jones covets in defensive backs, especially at the boundary spot.
The Riders play Calgary on Saturday and the Stampeders have the stingiest defence in the league allowing less than 10 points per game so putting a CFL All-Star playmaker back on offence makes sense. Or maybe Carter will go both ways.
