Chris O’Leary
Edmonton Journal
EDMONTON — Fred Stamps had the option, but didn’t want to exercise it.
The Edmonton Eskimos receiver said he didn’t want to play in another city and didn’t want to bother with opting out of his contract at the end of the 2012 Canadian Football League season.
He re-signed with the team on Tuesday, staying put where he’s spent all five of his seasons in the league, extending his contract through 2013.
“I haven’t pictured myself being anywhere else,” Stamps said on the phone from his New Orleans-area home on Thursday. “I love it in Edmonton. I love playing there and I love the fans. There’s nothing like Commonwealth Stadium.”
The 2012 season will be one of massive change for Stamps, however. Veteran quarterback Ricky Ray was dealt to the Toronto Argonauts in December and, for the first time in Stamps’ CFL career, he’ll have to work with a new quarterback in Steven Jyles, who was the key part of the Ray trade.
It’s worth noting that of the 4,818 yards that Stamps has racked up with the Eskimos, the vast majority of those passes came from Ray.
“It’s still tough,” Stamps said of Ray’s departure. “It’s something you can’t get away from in the off-season. Maybe when we get into camp that’s when it’ll change.
“(He) was our captain. You can’t replace someone like Ricky Ray, so that’s what it is. I don’t really like talking about it because that’s not my position to do (so). That’s why (general managers) get paid to make the decisions like that.”
Looking forward, Stamps said he has confidence in Jyles, who will come into this spring’s training camp looking to assert himself as the starting quarterback. There’s also some familiarity between the incumbent quarterback and Stamps. Jyles was Ray’s backup with the Eskimos in 2007, which was Stamps’ rookie year.
“Steven is a good friend of mine and one thing I know he has is the desire to win and you can’t question that about him,” Stamps said. “I know he’s going to prepare for the season. Our team still has faith in each other and the coaches and our organization and, you know, we just feel like all we have to do is go in there and just be ready for training camp.
“That’s the good thing about it. Steve is coming into an offence he knows (he worked with Eskimos offensive coordinator Marcus Crandell when the two were with the Saskatchewan Roughriders) and everyone is going to know the offence. It’s going to be exciting.”
A part of Stamps’ plan for the off-season is to spend some time with Jyles to build up some of that quarterback-receiver chemistry. Ray and Stamps knew one another’s style to the point that eye contact was often enough to know what to do and when.
“I talked to Steven the other night. We’re setting up a couple of days to get together and get some timing down,” Stamps said. “We might try to get Adarius (Bowman) to come down and get an early start on things.”
