Maas faces challenge as Creehen, Walch exit
They went into 2017 with the same coaching staff from a year earlier, but the Edmonton Eskimos will be down a couple of key components when the 2018 CFL season opens.
First, it was defensive line coach Casey Creehan exiting after two years with the Eskimos to become head coach at Lyon College, prior to the Eskimos parting ways with a trio of veteran pass rushers in Odell Willis, Marcus Howard and Phillip Hunt.
On Monday, the Eskimos bid farewell to offensive co-ordinator and receivers coach Carson Walch after two years, as news broke over the weekend that he was headed to join the coaching staff of the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles.
There, he will take over the role of assistant wide-receivers coach, rejoining Eagles receivers coach Mike Groh, whom Walch worked alongside when they were with the NFL’s Chicago Bears in 2013 and 2014 under then-head coach Marc Trestman, who’s now the head guy with the Argos in Toronto.
“I can tell you that Carson Walch is a heck of a football coach, he’s got a brilliant football mind,” Trestman said of his understudy, Walch, whom he hired in 2010 as part of the Montreal Alouettes coaching staff. “I talked with Jason (Maas, Eskimos head coach) a lot before he hired Carson about the type of person he is. He’s a class individual. He’s got great character, he’s got a great sense of interacting with players and getting the most out of them, and he’s highly creative.”
Walch has a proven track record working with receivers on both the Bears and the Eskimos. In 2013, Walch assisted a wide-receivers unit that saw Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery named to the Pro Bowl after setting a franchiserecord 2,716 combined receiving yards in a season.
In 2016, as Eskimos pass-game co-ordinator and wide receivers coach, Walch helped Adarius Bowman and Derel Walker finish No. 1 and 2 respectively in CFL receiving yards on the way to combining for a league-record 3,350 yards.
“I couldn’t be prouder of what he’s doing there and the consistency that his offence plays with and the science behind what they do. It’s impressive,” Trestman said last year, when Walch had taken over the Eskimos’ play-calling duties after being promoted to offensive co-ordinator.
Of course, that leaves the Eskimos without a receivers coach, a passgame co-ordinator or an offensive co-ordinator, the latter of which is a role Maas undertook when he first became head coach in Edmonton in 2016. He could very well assume the position again instead of trying to find a replacement.
“(Walch) and I talked the same lingo, him having worked in a staff under Trestman, which is the same type of offence we run,” Maas said after naming Walch, 38, his playcaller last year.
“Having that experience, he’s light years ahead of where most people his age are. With the amount of experience he has, he’s just a bright football mind.”