Latecomer learning CFL ropes on the fly

After a nine-hour trip from Atlanta to Edmonton Wednesday and a 6 a.m. wake-up Thursday morning so he could get his medical taken care of before racing off to Eskimos training camp, Jason Carr won’t have any time to catch his breath.

The huffing and puffing won’t end anytime soon for the 6-foot-6, 305-pound defensive lineman, who was signed by the Esks four days into camp.

Management likes what it sees in him but as is the case with all American players seeing the CFL for the first time, adjusting to the pace and speed of the game will be one of the biggest challenges.

“It’s a different game,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas. “There’s more running ... It’s a quicker tempo ... Virtually everyone who comes to the CFL for the first time ... discovers very quickly that they need to improve their cardio.”

“The game is so quick that you don’t need to be as heavy, generally, as you are in the States,” said Maas. “That will be the first thing anybody tells you when they come up here ... being in condition is a big thing.”

Just one relatively easy practice day into his audition and Carr is noticing it already.

As someone who’s never experienced the Canadian game before, he has adjusting to do on several fronts. For starters, playing a yard off the ball.

“I’m not going to lie, I feel like that is an advantage for the offence, but that being said you have to play by their rules,” said Carr, who attended the Cincinnati Bengals mini camp last season.

The wider field, gigantic end zones, shorter play clock are all things he’s never seen before.

“A lot of guys I talked to are defensive backs,” he said. “I know a guy, Marcus Sayles who plays for Winnipeg and he says the game is different because the receivers can run at you off the line.”

On top of all the CFL nuances, Carr also has to get up to speed on Edmonton’s schemes in time for their first pre-season game.

“There is catching up to do,” he chuckled.

“I have to get the playbook down. Me and coach are going to go in afterwards and spend as much time as we can before Sunday so I can hopefully be on the field.

“That’s the biggest thing, learning the playbook.”