REILLY-LEVEL MONEY CAN BUY A LOT OF HELP
What do you do when you’re about to lose the face of your franchise?
The Edmonton Eskimos have been asking themselves as much long before Tuesday’s 10 a.m. free-agency window.
That’s when it becomes open season on Mike Reilly, perhaps the most sought-after commodity in the Canadian Football League’s entire salary-cap era.
Word out of Vancouver says it’s already a done deal, with the B.C. Lions having previously sought and received permission to approach him while still under contract.
As painful as it is impossible to replace the quarterback who led the Canadian Football League in passing yards in each of the past three seasons, all the while being a fan favourite and media darling, it’s hardly the end of the world.
While his statistics say he’s still in his prime, Reilly just turned 34 and won’t be getting younger any time soon.
And, considering the Eskimos basically wrote a blank cheque and told Reilly to name his price, that gives them more than enough cap space to not only go out and pick up the next best thing to put behind centre, but also an entire extra player or three around him.
On Monday night, TSN’s Ryan Rishaug pegged that number at $700,000 annually, over a fouryear term offered by the Lions and matched by the Eskimos. Reilly was already the highest-paid CFL player last year at $500,000.
The question is, who do you get to replace the irreplaceable? Here is our list of pending free-agent prospects who could become the next big thing in Edmonton.
We’re pretty sure we only need one, but it’s a top-five list, so here goes:
1
Trevor Harris, QB, Ottawa Redblacks
At 32 years old, he checks all the right boxes. In the six seasons Reilly’s been QB1 of the Eskimos, only one other player has accounted for more yards from scrimmage than Harris, and he’s only been a full-time starter for the last four of them. That gives him much less wear and tear on his body compared to the one the Eskimos offensive line has been tasked with protecting — to varying degrees of success. The six-foot-three, 212-pound Edinboro University product was one of four quarterbacks to surpass the 5,000-yard mark in passing this season, while leading the league with 431 completions, a completion percentage of 70.1 and an interception percentage of just 1.8, which all contributed to a CFL-best pass-efficiency rating of 99.6.
2
Bo Levi Mitchell, QB, Calgary Stampeders
Hey, why not, right? Now, this one is dependent on a couple of big, important factors, namely, if the reigning CFL most outstanding player and Grey Cup MVP is even back in the CFL this season. And, even if he decides it’s more fun to play up here than hold a clipboard down in the NFL, it might be difficult to woo him away from a Calgary Stampeders club that has been the powerhouse of the league since 2013 — in the regular season, at least. Remember that one other player we mentioned with Harris? Yeah, that would be Mitchell, who checks in at just 28 years old with already five years of fulltime starting experience under his reigning-championship belt. Let’s just say, $700,000 worth of cap space can do a lot of wooing.
3
Jonathon Jennings, QB, B.C. Lions
The optics of this would make it look almost like a one-for-one trade, one that doesn’t look very favourable to the Eskimos. Not when Jennings’ own general manager publicly called his work ethic into question and basically said he wasn’t an elite-level quarterback. That being said, the six-foot, 195-pound Saginaw Valley State product checks in at just 26-years-old and already has one 5,000-yard passing season to his credit from the 2016 season. It’s been steadily trending downward ever since, however.
4
Kevin Glenn, QB, Edmonton Eskimos
Reilly isn’t the only veteran Eskimos quarterback set to become a free agent Tuesday. But is there any chance the club already has an answer in-house? Our guess is probably not, considering Glenn was simply brought in as an insurance policy in case Reilly went down last season — a notion backed up by the fact Glenn didn’t take one single regular-season snap while officially batting for the CFL cycle while joining his ninth different team. With all the free agents available in an off-season where their contracts were meant to expire along with the current collective-bargaining agreement, there is no reason to go with a soon-to-be 40-year-old stop-gap measure.
5
Ricky Ray, QB, Toronto Argonauts
Nah. But wouldn’t it be kind of fun, though?