Courtesy Regina Leader Post:

Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager Eric Tillman has begun negotiating contracts with his CFL team’s potential free agents and expects to have “three to four done by Christmas.”

The Roughriders should also know soon whether defensive co-ordinator Richie Hall is going to join the Montreal Alouettes as their new head coach.

Hall is expected to be interviewed this week for Montreal’s vacancy, which was created last week when general manager Jim Popp surrendered his coaching duties. Hall is on a list that includes Toronto Argonauts offensive co-ordinator Steve Buratto, Winnipeg Blue Bombers defensive co-ordinator Greg Marshall, former Edmonton Eskimos offensive co-ordinator Jacques Chapdelaine and former Saskatchewan head coach Danny Barrett, who is the assistant head coach and quarterbacks coach at the University of Buffalo.

Popp apparently called Tillman to get permission to speak with Hall, a 14-year employee who has one year remaining on his contract.

“I won’t get into specifics because I feel it’s appropriate (the Alouettes) speak to it,” Tillman said Monday. “When (Popp) called, we spoke very highly of Richie and his contributions to our club. If they want him as a head coach, Richie will be released from his contract.”

Tillman said there are 12 members of the Grey Cup-winning team whose contracts end in the offseason: offensive linemen Wayne Smith and Jermese Jones, running backs Wes Cates and Chris Szarka, defensive backs Eddie Davis, Rontarius Robinson and Tad Kornegay, linebackers Reggie Hunt and Dustin Cherniawski, receivers Matt Dominguez and Corey Grant and defensive lineman Marcus Adams.

Tillman would not say which players he expects to re-sign quickly and which players won’t be retained.

“We would love to have everybody back, but the reality is they’re free to pick and choose,” said Tillman. “After winning a championship, a player’s price tag will rise. And given the new (salary) cap environment in this league, there will be changes to this team this year, next year and the year after that.”

The contracts of tailback Kenton Keith, who joined the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts this season, and injured defensive end Terrell Jurineack, whose knee problems limited him to one game, also expire Feb. 15.

With the pending end of the CFL/NFL agreement, there might not be option-year windows for CFL players (like Keith) to join NFL teams in the offseason, but Tillman said he expects the rules to remain unchanged.

The other challenge for CFL general managers this year is the absence of the loophole they exploited in 2006, which allowed them to re-sign players before the Grey Cup game and pay them signing bonuses that didn’t count against the 2007 salary cap of $4.05 million.

“We’re not afraid of change, so, no, that won’t affect us,” said Tillman, who couldn’t exploit that loophole extensively last year because he was trying to trim salaries to abide by the cap.

Tillman noted that money not spent to retain free-agent defensive backs Omarr Morgan and Davin Bush, who left Saskatchewan after the 2006 season, was instead used to re-sign non-import slotback Andy Fantuz and kicker Luca Congi.

Still, the Riders expect to exceed the salary cap this year “because of the inordinate number of injuries we had,” Tillman said. Although the Roughriders support the concept of a salary cap, Tillman is optimistic the system will be “tweaked” in the offseason to better allow for injuries.

Suppose the Roughriders (or any team) exceeded the salary cap by $150,000 in 2007, the CFL fine system would call for them to be fined $200,000 — $1 for each $1 overspent up to $100,000, $2 for each $1 on the next $100,000 and $3 for each $1 exceeding $200,000.