Grymes makes it official, he’s staying with Eskimos

It might have been the worst-kept secret in all of CFL free agency this year, but that didn’t stop the Edmonton Eskimos from breathing a collective sigh of relief.

Veteran defensive back Aaron Grymes will be back with the only CFL club he has ever played for after re-signing for the 2018 season.

However, long before the official announcement was made Tuesday, TSN’s Farhan Lalji reported on Jan. 11 the five-foot-11, 185-pound Idaho product had agreed to terms on an extension with the Eskimos.

“We agreed to terms in early January,” Eskimos general manager Brock Sunderland confirmed Tuesday.

But before signing off on the deal, Grymes wanted to exhaust any and all NFL possibilities.

“It was always my plan to come back to Edmonton as far as the CFL goes,” Grymes said at Commonwealth Stadium following the announcement. “I did look into the NFL, of course, and got a little bit of interest, but nothing worth leaving for.”

After achieving CFL all-star status in his third year with the Eskimos on the way to the 2015 Grey Cup championship, Grymes spent 2016 with the NFL’s Philadelphia Eagles. He was set to return for 2017 before being waived ahead of the regular season and rejoining Edmonton for last year’s playoff push.

Technically, he became a free agent as of Feb. 13, but despite having a head coach and a general manager from that Grey Cup-winning year now running the show on either side of the provincial border, Grymes said there was no question in his mind what CFL club he was picking.

“I got calls from guys and I never shut doors of opportunity; in this business, you never know what’s going to happen," he said. "So I definitely accepted phone calls and talked to guys, but I was coming back to Edmonton as long as the situation was what me and Brock talked about.

“He was a man of his word and he made it happen. He expected the same from me and we did that. We got it done, it kind of was an easy deal to get done. I wanted to be here, he wanted me here.”

It took a leap of faith from both the team and the player.

“He trusted me, I trusted him and there’s probably a handful of players that you could set aside money like that even through free agency,” said Sunderland, who wasn’t as involved as he otherwise could have been in last week’s free-agent frenzy. “It was a huge gamble.”

And, of course, once Grymes signed on with the Eskimos, he no longer has the option of playing down south for another year.