The 106th Grey Cup, presented by Shaw, will be held in Edmonton on Nov. 25th, but will the Eskimos be able to ‘Bring the Heat’ and play in the CFL’s championship game?
That question can’t be answered for a few months yet, but the journey starts this May long weekend with 75 Eskimos taking medicals on Saturday and beginning training camp’s on-field sessions Sunday morning at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
Isn’t it a little early for training camp?
Yes, training camp was moved up a week when the CFL and the CFL Player’s Association agreed to switch to a 21-week schedule, adding a third bye week for each team in an effort to improve player safety.
The Green and Gold will play their first pre-season game at 3 p.m. on May 27 at Commonwealth and open the regular season against the Blue Bombers in Winnipeg on June 14.
Head coach Jason Maas and his staff already had a chance to check out the new players and start introducing this season’s offensive and defensive schemes during a mini-camp for the entire team from April 21-24 at Las Vegas. In the past, the mini-camp was mostly for prospects.
“It was awesome. I had never been to one before,” said veteran defensive halfback Aaron Grymes. “I think it was good for all parties. The vets, obviously, to get back into the playbook a little bit before (training) camp starts and also for the rookies to see the tempo of how camp will be and get to know some of their teammates because they haven’t met us before.
“On offence and on defence, we were both firing more than I expected for us to not having seen each other for six months. We had a good little camp.”
The Eskimos actually had quite a busy off-season. General Manager and Vice President of Football Operations Brock Sunderland had to re-sign more than 20 veterans from last year’s team, including wide receivers Derel Walker and Vidal Hazelton, running back C.J. Gable, Grymes, cornerback Johnny Adams, national linebacker Adam Konar and national kicker Sean Whyte.
Sunderland didn’t bring everybody back, though, trading 10-year CFL defensive end Odell Willis to the Ottawa Redblacks for 23-year-old defensive lineman Jake Ceresna (Willis was then dealt to the BC Lions) and opting not to re-sign veteran slotback Adarius Bowman after seven seasons with the club. Bowman is now with the Bombers.
The defensive line received an overhaul with only veteran nose tackle Almondo Sewell remaining from last year’s starting group. Free-agent signing Alex Bazzie, a former BC Lions defensive lineman who is among 25 newcomers on the team, is expected to pick up some of the slack.
The Eskimos receiving corps is also missing slotback Brandon Zylstra, who landed a reserve/future free-agent contract with the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings after his impressive season as the CFL’s leading receiver. But the Eskimos don’t lack for talented pass-catchers with Walker and Hazelton along with Duke Williams, Mitchell Bryant and Kenny Stafford, who all have CFL experience and are chomping at the bit in hopes of getting a regular opportunity to play this season. Among the newcomers are lanky receivers Torrance Gibson (six-foot-five) and Juron Criner (six-foot-three).
Of course, quarterback Mike Reilly, the league’s Most Outstanding Player in 2017, will be directing the explosive offence for a sixth season after throwing for almost 6,000 yards last year. Gable and John White are back to power the running game.
The offensive line, which led the league with fewest quarterback sacks allowed last season, lost international left tackle Joel Figueroa in free agency and national guard Simeon Rottier to retirement, but the rest of the veterans return along with plenty of young competition.
Grymes, Adams and Konar were key players to retain for the defence, which lost strong-side linebacker Kenny Ladler, who signed a reserve/future contract with the NFL’s Washington Redskins.
“In the secondary, we look pretty solid,” said Grymes, who returned to the Eskimos last fall from an NFL stint with the Philadelphia Eagles over the 2016-17 seasons. “We’ve got to catch the ball when it comes to us, but that’s part of the reason we do play DB from what I hear.”
Grymes said dropped balls by the defensive backs “was on full display down in Vegas, but we’ll get it right for training camp.
“A lot of us hadn’t had a receiver running at us with the quarterback throwing the ball to us, so I’m going to blame it on that,” he added. “But in the professional world of football, there’s no excuse, so we’ve got to get them.”
The Eskimos traded their first-round pick (sixth overall) in the CFL Draft earlier this month to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, but still ended up with a top talent with the first selection in the second round in versatile and hard-hitting Wilfrid Laurier defensive back Godfrey Onyeka, who eventually may be able to play any of four different positions in the secondary.
Edmonton’s other draft picks were Western University defensive back Jordan Beaulieu (third round), Concordia University fullback Tanner Green (fourth), Calgary Dinos offensive lineman Curtis Krahn (fifth), Western running back Alex Taylor (sixth), Western wide receiver Harry McMaster (seventh), Acadia defensive lineman Gabriel Bagnell (seventh) and Humboldt State running back Blair Zerr (eighth).
The Eskimos will play their second pre-season game on June 1 at Winnipeg and then hold their annual Fan Day, presented by Carefree RV, at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium on Sunday, June 3 from 1 – 4 p.m.
Training camp wraps up on June 7 and final rosters have to be declared by June 9.