Ellingson aims for perfection
It was vintage Greg Ellingson. Almost peak Greg Ellingson, in fact.
In just his second game as an Edmonton Eskimo, the 30-yearold from Tampa, Fla., banked 174 receiving yards Friday against the B.C. Lions. The outing, which earned him a top performer of the week nod, ranks as the third best of a stellar CFL career entering its seventh season. Ellingson previously piled up a career-high 218 yards in a regular season game against Toronto in 2016 and 186 against the Ticats in the 2015 East Final.
“Greg’s been doing that for so long. You know he’s going to have those games,” said Eskimos quarterback Trevor Harris, who was slinging passes to Ellingson in Ottawa before they came west together as free agents in February. “I’m not sure when they happen, but they’re going to happen.”
They happen once every four games or so. Ellingson has played 103 games since entering the league with Hamilton in 2013, including post-season action, and the Friday night performance was his 23rd game with 100 or more receiving yards.
It also put him on top of the 2019 CFL charts with 240 yards in two games and on pace to break Allen Pitts’s single-season receiving record of 2,036.
“Greg is just one of those receivers; you can’t let him get going because once he does, he’s dangerous,” said Harris. “He’s going to get an extra 15. He’s going to break tackles.”
Ellingson does his job so consistently that there isn’t a more productive receiver in the league. His regular season total of 6,335 yards since 2013 leads all active CFLers. Saskatchewan’s Manny Arceneaux is on his heels with 6,197 followed by Toronto’s S.J. Green at 5,750, Hamilton’s Luke Tasker at 5,358 and former Ottawa Redblacks teammate Brad Sinopoli at 5,190.
That said, Ellingson’s focus is on catching everything in practice and games — and winning. He’ll take a look at the receiving totals when it’s all said and done.
“As a professional player you should have milestones, you should have goals, but the mindset every week is helping the team in whatever capacity you can to make sure we win,” he said.
Ellingson does his part by getting open and catching almost everything thrown his way.
“That’s the tricky thing about playing wide receiver. You could get one target, you could get one catch, one touchdown, it could go 100 yards and boom you’ve had a solid game,” he said. “That’s the thing about being a receiver. You’ve got to capitalize on your opportunities. When those opportunities come, you have to make the play.”
Have to. Not want to. That’s the mindset. He aims for 100 per cent and imagines that a top-tier receiver would be around 90, though he doesn’t know the stat.
“You don’t want to drop many balls. I would hope to keep it under five for the whole year. That’s an opinion. I don’t really know what the stats are. You hope for zero.”
The most dependable receivers tend to stick around for years and earn a good living by doing it. Ellingson came into the league watching and learning from the likes of Green and former Eskimo Fred Stamps, who are or were as sure-handed as they get.
“You see those guys doing that and you want to mimic it, right?” said Ellingson. “Seven years in, I have the younger guys looking at me and trying to see my work ethic to make their game better.”
He’s already had a hand in helping Harris get off to a great start in Edmonton, hauling in nine passes against B.C. The duo has obvious chemistry that comes from their three seasons together in Ottawa, a stretch that included a Grey Cup victory in 2016. Ellingson has caught hundreds, if not thousands, of passes from Harris, when you factor in practices and off-season work.
“Obviously, I know him as a friend and a teammate,” said Ellingson. “That’s one of the reasons I came here, so if you put it in that perspective, yeah, it’s very valuable to have a guy that you’re friends with on and off the field, a teammate you can joke around with and get to know on a personal level. You want to play for those guys. You want to make plays for those guys.”