Since the beginning of the CFL off-season, the Ottawa Redblacks front office has been busy taking care of the team’s roster heading into the 2020 CFL season. One major part of the team that has been worked on thus far is the special teams. Just weeks into the off-season period, the team announced that special teams coordinator Bob Dyce would be back, and following that, they also re-upped the contract of long snapper LP Bourrasa.
Those two moves may sound very minor, although they helped lead up to today’s big moves. Just minutes ahead of the CFL’s first ever negotiations period, the Ottawa Redblacks signed both Richie Leone and Lewis Ward back to the team for 2020. With the NFL still on the back of both of the kicker’s minds, Marcel Desjardins and the two thought a one-year extension would be the best fit.
This past season, the Redblacks fell to 3-15 and it was obviously a tough season for the Redblacks fans. With the number 3 in the win column, fans didn’t have too much to cheer for, but Lewis Ward and Richie Leone helped bring light to difficult times. Whether it was cheering for Ward at the end of his record breaking field goal streak, or cheering for a rouge from Richie Leone, Redblacks fans liked having the two kickers around for the 2019 season, and we look forward to having both of them back in 2020.
Going into 2020, Lewis Ward is 27 years old while Richie Leone is going to be 28 by the start of the season. Sitting at 27 and 28, the two kickers still have hopes of going to the NFL, and the hopes really came into reality this off-season where the were able to try-out for several teams together.
Congratulations to Richie Leone and Lewis Ward on their new contracts in Ottawa, we all look forward to watching you kick this year!
JZ MEDIA 