Dave Campbell
ESKS.com
Training camps for the Edmonton Eskimos have been very blasé lately when you talk about the quarterback position. Ricky Ray and, for one season, Jason Maas have been the pivots of the Green and Gold for the last 10 years. Fast forward to this season and there’s no Ricky Ray. He’s wearing double blue as a member of the Toronto Argonauts. Ray was traded away back in December for a first round draft pick, kicker/defensive back Grant Shaw, and quarterback Steven Jyles.
So welcome to the 2012 season and the Eskimo quarterback stable of Jyles, Kerry Joseph, Matt Nichols, Eric Ward and Jeremiah Masoli. Oh believe me, my Twitter interactions have been filled with nervous football fans feeling this season will be a disaster. Ricky Ray has been the face of the Eskimos since 2002. He was the one player you could point to on the Eskimos and say: “Because you have Ricky Ray at quarterback, you always have a chance to win.” When you have good signal caller, quarterbacking is a non-issue. When you have struggles at the quarterback issues, it’s a gigantic issue.
Some of the fans and media have made up their minds already that 2012 will be a bad year. Truthfully, it remains to be seen. General Manager Eric Tillman’s number one reason for trading Ray was in his words “transition.” Tillman wants to develop a new stable of quarterbacks and felt last December was the right time to do it instead of waiting two more seasons. The Eskimos held a mini-camp last month and Steven Jyles held his place as the top quarterback on the depth chart. However, Tillman says that doesn’t mean he’ll automatically be the starter this season.
“We believe in Steven, but at the same time it was made very clear before we made the trade that it doesn’t anoint Steven as the starting quarterback,” Tillman explained. “I think people have made that assumption because of the trade. The best quarterback will play and the coaches will make that determination. We have some young men on the team that can step forward.”
For the short-term, it’s Steven Jyles’ ball, or perhaps Kerry Joseph who will push hard for the number one job at training camp. Head Coach Kavis Reed says Joseph is a “39-year-old man in a 25-year-old’s body.” The long-term plan doesn’t include Jyles or Joseph however. Transition is the name of the game, or the name of the trade. The plan is to have either Matt Nichols, Eric Ward or Jeremiah Masoli step up and be the signal caller. They question is: When will the club be comfortable enough to give the ball to one of the three? Not to start 2012 to be sure….you would think. It’s very crucial for either Steven Jyles or Kerry Joseph to have a strong training camp to solidify the number one job for now. How the Eskimos plan to transition the quarterback job to one of the younger pivots is a really good question.
Matt Nichols appears to be closest at being ready to take the job. He enjoyed a great mini-camp and Reed says Nichols has a great shot of snagging the backup job for this season. Eric Ward had a lousy mini-camp showing shoddy mechanics and lacking velocity on his throws. Masoli is a project; he won’t be a factor this season.
In the short-term, Jyles or Joseph will be the number one quarterback. The Eskimos need to find a suitable replacement for Jerome Messam, who’s toiling with the Miami Dolphins and facing another knee surgery. The Eskimos will have a different look to their running attack going to smaller and more of a make-you-miss style. The receiving corps looks strong with Fred Stamps and Adarius Bowman back and the additions of Greg Carr and Cary Koch.
The defense might be faced with the task of holding the fort if the offense is slow out of the gate. The good news is the defense is likely the strength of the team. Reed feels he has better depth, especially in the secondary. He says the strength of the defense is their pass rush.
“Marcus Howard, in a short amount of time, has established himself as a premier pass-rusher in this league,” Reed said. “We compliment that with by signing Rashad Jeanty. If he is fifty percent of what he was when he left to go down to the NFL, he’s going to be a gentleman that’s going to pose a lot of problems for offensive linemen. Also, we know we have a proven commodity in Julius Williams who, as we know, had an outstanding rookie campaign.”
Training camp is just around the corner.