THE END OF THE REILLY ERA?
With contract up, it’s not impossible
As impossible as it may be for Edmonton Eskimos fans to picture Mike Reilly wearing anything other than green and gold, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.
The reigning Canadian Football League most outstanding player has been the starting quarterback since coming over in a trade from the B.C. Lions ahead of the 2013 season.
He has re-signed with the Eskimos twice since, and is playing in the final season of a three-year deal dating back to April 14, 2016.
While it is set to expire in February of next year, the 33-yearold native of Kennewick, Wash., is in no rush for an extension at the moment.
But not because of anything to do with his current club.
“This is an interesting year with the (collective-bargaining agreement) expiring and things like that,” said Reilly, who set an Eskimos record with 5,830 passing yards last season, a mark the CFL’s leading passer is on pace to eclipse again this year. “And a lot of guys’ contracts are ending at the same time, coinciding with the end of the CBA, which is not done on accident.”
In fact, Reilly is part of a group of quarterbacks throughout the league, all represented by super-agent Dan Vertlieb, whose contracts are all set to end in the off-season, including starters on at least four of the other eight CFL teams.
While Vertlieb did not reply to an interview request for this story, it makes good business sense, after all, for the biggest ticket on the roster to know how much wiggle room a general manager has with a new CBA raising the salary cap, before negotiating a new deal and potential bonuses.
“In football, the contracts aren’t guaranteed beyond what your signing bonus is or whatever you have worked into your contract,” Reilly said. “It’s not like baseball, or hockey or basketball, where you sign a 10-year deal and you’re locked in for 10 years and the team has to pay you, no matter what.
“Football doesn’t work that way. You’ve got to earn everything that you get one week at a time and one year at a time. For players that have contracts expiring, the best thing they can do — and I think most of them understand that — is go out and play extremely well on the field and the rest of it will take care of itself.”
Reilly and the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ Zach Collaros currently lead the league with annual salaries that have been reported at more than $500,000.
And there is plenty of bang for the buck when it comes to Reilly, who would be an instant upgrade for any team given his passing numbers alone over the last six seasons since being elevated to a starting role, without even factoring in a rushing productivity that, far and away, has led all QBs over that same span.
But what are the chances of the group making it to free agency and Reilly getting wooed by, say, Lions GM Ed Hervey, who brought him to Edmonton in the first place? Or by former head coaches he had here, such as Kavis Reed, now the Montreal Alouettes GM, or Chris Jones, who won a Grey Cup with Reilly in 2016 before taking his entire coaching staff across the straw curtain to become head coach and GM in Regina?
“You don’t really want to think about that kind of stuff because there’s just so many different things that can happen between now and then, in terms of the players, in terms of teams, in terms of the league, all that kind of stuff,” said Reilly.
“And that’s really out of our hands as players. We have our union that represents us and they’re working extremely hard to try to put us in the best position possible.
“As I tell you guys, you take it one week at a time. And when it comes to that type of stuff, it will all work itself out once the season’s over, and we’ll wait until then to really worry about it.”
That might be easier said than done for Eskimos GM Brock Sunderland, who has had re-signing Reilly at the very top of his to-do list since before being asked about the subject in the lead-up to training camp in May.
“We don’t discuss contract negotiations publicly, but I’ll say there has been communication,” Sunderland said at the time. “We want Mike here, we’ve made that very obvious to both him and his representation. We believe he wants to be here and we’ll just kind of see where that goes.
We want Mike here, we’ve made that very obvious to both him and his representation. We believe he wants to be here.
“The CBA and the ratification of it is going to play a big part of it and right now that’s a huge point of emphasis. That’s hindering some negotiations on all levels.”
It’s not just quarterbacks, of course. Reilly’s favourite target, Duke Williams, is leading the league with 1,300 receiving yards and is also due to have his contract expire after this year.
And as special as the connection they’ve got going this year, it’s nothing new to see those bonds broken up by free agency just as soon as they’re formed.
“It’s something that you kind of get accustomed to,” Reilly said.
“When they changed it to the one-year contracts being an option, it really changed the landscape of the league and it made it harder to build a dynasty.
“That’s the hardest thing about a championship team repeating. You’re not going to have all the same guys because the guys whose contracts are coming up just helped put together a championship and now their value’s up, and you can’t keep everybody.
“That’s the way football works and that’s why you can’t worry about that of stuff. You worry about playing this game and playing the best that you can with the team that you have and one season at a time and trying to win a championship that year.”
It goes without saying that Reilly’s attention is solely focused on doing everything he can to make sure the Eskimos are still inhabiting the home lockerroom at Commonwealth Stadium when Edmonton hosts the 106th Grey Cup on Nov. 25.
“It’s like I tell you guys all the time, you worry about plays that happened in the past or something in the future, you’re going to screw up what you’re doing right now,” he said. “So that’s how you’ve got to approach it as a player when it comes to that type of stuff.”