In 2019, the Redblacks struggled on both sides of the football and in a consequence, they finished 3-15 and at the bottom of the CFL’s standings. Since the final regular season game on November 1st, the Redblacks front office has been able to bring in a solid number of players and coaches, although seen from a year ago, there is plenty of talent in Ottawa. The talent that has been brought in and the talent that has already been in Ottawa will be set to work this coming May for training camp, but ahead of camp you have the chance to look over the roster and look at who can turn the record around from a year ago.
Coming off a 3-15 season, there isn’t too much to smile about, although in the 2019 CFL season, the Ottawa Redblacks did surprisingly have a lot of bright spots. Not only did the team find a few bright spots from a year ago, the spots will only get brighter as the future comes.
DeVonte Dedmon
Dedmon was mostly used as the Ottawa Redblacks’ return specialist, although in 2020 his role is set to expand.
In 2019, Dedmon played just 5 games for the Redblacks, but before his first career game in week 6 at Winnipeg, DeVonte Dedmon took the field at TD Place in the pre-season.
As one of the players Marcel Desjardins and the front office discovered, Dedmon took special teams and offensive snaps in Ottawa’s pre-season opener vs Hamilton. Unlike a lot of the others playing in the game, Dedmon proved to the Redblacks that he was worth sticking around. Dedmon made the whole city of Ottawa cheer for him as he ran down the sidelines at TD Place for a 100 yard kick-off return touchdown. Other than the touchdown scored, Dedmon had just one catch for 38 yards. His pre-season stint unfortunately was cut short due to significant injuries which are still in his presence.
He didn’t get to finish up the pre-season with the Redblacks, nor did he play the first 4 games of the 2019 season, but the Ottawa Redblacks brought Dedmon back as soon as he was healthy. On July 19th, Dedmon took the field at Investors group field in Winnipeg where he helped the struggle full Redblacks offense get good field position. In his CFL debut, Dedmon returned 7 punts and 5 kick-offs for a total of 191 yards with a long of a 34 yard kick return. Although he averaged just 15 yards a return, his debut wasn’t even close to what he was able to accomplish throughout the season.
His 12 returns in his CFL debut are just a small piece to his 42 career touches worth 929 all-purpose yards along with 2 return touchdowns from his week 8 monster game in Montreal.
At just 23 years old, Dedmon showed Redblacks fans all that in a span of just 5 games, now in 2020, R-Nation will be able to see 24 year old DeVonte Dedmon showcase his talent on offense and special teams in 18 games. Stay tuned…
DeAndre Farris
DeAndre Farris, who played 14 games for the Ottawa Redblacks a year ago is around the top of the list of guys coming back to the defense in 2020, and at 23 years old the best is yet to come for him.
Last year the Redblacks defense were fought by the injury bug, and one key piece to the defense in Jonathan Rose, but the team didn’t lose a beat having DeAndre Farris in their defensive backfield.
23 year old Farris has so much potential in being a top cornerback in the CFL, although he may need a season or two more to be proven.
In 2019 Farris made 45 tackles, while getting his first career interception. The interception from a year ago is proven to be the first of many as in the 14 games he put together multiple pass breakups. Looking into 2020, the Ottawa Redblacks are set to see what Farris has in store for the future as he sits at 23 years old, there is much day light left in his career and the Redblacks could have the next big name defensive back on the team right now!
Stay tuned for the latest Ottawa Redblacks news at https://lilzbigr.blog/
JZ MEDIA 