The Ottawa Redblacks first changed their name during the 2014 season after the Saskatchewan Rough Riders enforced their trademark and forced Ottawa to change their name. (Honestly I am glad they forced this change, two teams with the same names out of 9 teams never made sense.) Since then Ottawa has been known as the Redblacks. Ever since this name change, one player has remained on the roster, Nigel Romick. Nigel Romick returns for his tenth year with Ottawa in 2024, (counting 2020).

Nigel Romick, Redblack Through and Through

Nigel Romick’s entire career after university has come with in Ottawa. Selected in the third round of the 2014 CFL Draft, he signed his contract and made the roster as a rookie going on to play in 11 games. From there he only solidified his position on the roster, and has only built a larger role within the defense since his rookie season in which he primarily played special teams.

Romick has never really been a starter on defense, but his value on special teams should not be discounted. In his second season with Ottawa Romick was able to log 19 special teams tackles. He would follow this up with 21 tackles in 2016, and another 17 in 2017. By his fourth season in the league he had already collected 59 special teams tackles, and 9 on defense.

Re-signing Romick is on trend with what the Redblacks have done so far this offseason. Bob Dyce, has gone out and one by one re-signed his core special teams players across the board. The Redblacks special teams unit was certainly solid in 2023, although it is slightly a surprise to see so much focus on special teams players, when to this moment the only big name free agent they have brought back was Brandin Dandridge.

Lots of Work Left to Do

With that being said there are still countless players that were major contributors on the roster that have remained unsigned to this point. Players like Devonte Williams, Justin Hardy, Gary Johnson, Lorenzo Mauldin IV, Ante Milanovic-Litre are still sitting on the market as of right now, and the longer they remain on the market the more nervous Redblacks fans become. On top of everything else, Ottawa still needs to address the quarterback position. With Arbuckle a free agent, Masoli, and Adams coming back from injury, and questions looming about Crum, and Pigrome long term the work is only just beginning in Ottawa.