Team is better than last year, Reilly says
Pigskin pundits, oddsmakers and even the Canadian Football League itself have taken their turn peering into a crystal ball and prognosticating on how the 2017 season will turn out.
Now it’s time for the teams to take to the field and start deciding for real.
But before the proverbial rubber hits the road on the Edmonton Eskimos’ schedule, which kicks off against the B.C. Lions at B.C. Place Stadium on Saturday (8 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED), they were asked for their own predictions.
“I love our team, I love what we’re about,” said head coach Jason Maas.
“We’re hard working, we’re humble. We’re physical, I know that. They come to work every single day, they enjoy being in our building, being coached hard.
“Those are things you want out of your football club and I think that’s what we’ve got. And on top of that, I think we’ve got a lot of talented players. We’ve got core veterans here but we’ve got some young guys we’re excited about.”
OK, so we know who they are. Now how are they going to do?
“I think they’ve bonded well together all through camp and I think the expectations are set very high here and there’s a standard of performance that we want to accomplish,” Maas said. “And we look forward to doing that every day we’re out here, not just the games.”
Last year, the bar was set at 10-8, giving Maas a winning record in his rookie season as a CFL head coach and sending the Eskimos east for a playoff crossover on the way to making their third divisional final appearance in a row.
“I definitely think we’re a better team, we better be,” Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly said.
“Obviously, we fell short last year and even had we won the Grey Cup, I would say we need to be a better team for this next season. Every year, you’ve got to improve because everyone else is. I think we have, I think we’re a better football team.
“We’re a little bit more experienced than we were last year with our veterans and our new guys that have come in have done a great job of competing and picking up the systems very quickly. And we have a lot of depth, probably more depth than I’ve seen on a team in a long time.”
They know it. Now they just have to show it.
“We’re in good shape,” Reilly said. “But that’s all talk until Saturday happens and we’re out there on game day. And then we’ll see how things go.”