Feat earns Zylstra honourable mention
Reilly gets nod over talented receiver as Esks’ Most Outstanding Player nominee
The most outstanding player on the Edmonton Eskimos this season isn’t their only outstanding player.
While league-leading quarterback Mike Reilly takes the cake as the team nominee for Canadian Football League most outstanding player in 2017, one of his receivers is the icing on it.
Slotback Brandon Zylstra has done something no Eskimos player before him has managed to accomplish on his way to a leagueleading 1,615 yards to go with five touchdowns on 97 catches heading into Saturday’s regularseason finale in Regina’s New Mosaic Stadium against the Roughriders.
While Reilly is poised to break the club’s record for passing yards in a season, sitting 127 behind Ricky Ray’s benchmark of 5,663 yards in 2008, Zylstra is coming off a game where he set a new one by recording his 10th triple-digit performance of the season with three catches for 101 yards and a touchdown.
And he did it in his first full season as a CFL starter.
“Wow, I mean, that’s impressive,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “Particularly with the amount of receivers that have come through Edmonton and the high-calibre receivers that have come through Edmonton.
“For him to do something like that is special. He was quiet for most of the night, and then at opportune times he makes the most of his opportunities. So he’s capable on every play of making something happen.”
Like a 77-yard catch and run to open third-quarter scoring to help break open what began as a defensive chess match in a 29-20 win over the first-place Calgary Stampeders on a Saturday night that was more about quality catches than quantity for Zylstra.
“Our offence is able to spread the ball around, it’s dictated by what the does and when they choose to take guys away, they take guys away,” Maas said. “It just depends on what positions we’re putting those guys in.
“So as long as Mike’s making good decisions, the ball gets spread around to where it needs to be and the guys just have to make the most of their opportunities and Brandon does more often than not.”
It’s that reliability that keeps Reilly coming back to Zylstra, who tends to make noise even on nights when defences try to keep him quiet.
“He’s had a great season, there’s no question about it, he just makes plays and we’re going to continue to find creative ways to get him the ball,” Reilly said. “He ran a great route on that corner route for a touchdown. All I had to do was touch it off and once he caught it, the guy wasn’t in position to make the tackle and made a last-ditch effort to dive.
“I’m glad he stepped out of it, unlike when we played Week 1 in B.C., he didn’t step out of it ... Nah, he’s playing great right now. There’s going to be games like there was last week, where they’re going to take stuff away, but that’s dangerous for a team to do that because we’ve got plenty of other weapons and I think those were on display (against Calgary).”
As if teammates Adarius Bowman, Derel Walker, Vidal Hazelton and Duke Williams weren’t good company enough to be in this season, Zylstra’s accomplishment has vaulted him into the club’s single-season record books. “It’s exciting,” Zylstra said. “I’m not really thinking too much about that yet. That’s something I’ll reflect on when I’m done playing football and I can look back at all the accomplishments and stuff.
“But I’ve got my mind on one thing right now and that’s the Grey Cup.”
In and out: LT Joel Figueroa is back practising this week after sitting out the past two games with a knee injury. LB Alex Hoffman-Ellis is also back in action after sitting out on the one-game injured list. DB Forrest Hightower is working with the first-team defence this week. Calgary Stampeders offensive lineman Randy Richards was fined for an unnecessary hit to a vulnerable player on a play that involved Eskimos DT Euclid Cummings in Saturday’s game.