Elks to hold scrimmage before first camp cuts
With no preseason games, coaching staff tries to make best of a difficult situation
It's been said in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king.
And in a shortened Canadian Football League pre-season with no exhibition games, the intrasquad scrimmage will see the Edmonton Elks coaching staff focusing its collective eye on sorting out some of the depth on its roster with the first stage of training camp cuts looming
“All teams have to make cuts by Monday, so we have to go from 100 down to 75,” said Elks head coach Jaime Elizondo. “So, there's a number of cuts that just by the nature of the mandate of the CFL this year, we're going to have to cut some guys.”
Those whose names are already written in pen among the starting group will be part of a first-stringers-only practice on Saturday morning, and won't see the field in the hour-and-45-minute scrimmage slated to follow.
“As far as cracking the roster, everybody is going to get an equal opportunity,” Elizondo said. “This scrimmage is going to be tailored not for the ones, there will actually be a short morning practice for the starters to get some good work in.
“This scrimmage is all about letting those guys trying to earn a spot on the roster get after each other a little bit and allow us to see what they got.”
It is going to be as close to a game setting as the players have seen in training camp so far.
“The first goal is to see these guys compete under pressure with the clock and see how they react in a game situation,” said Elizondo, adding there are players on the bubble of making the roster or not who could earn some separation in the scrimmage. “See who tightens up under pressure, see who performs better and makes plays.”
But it turns out that doesn't just go for the players.
“The second part is as much for the transitions: getting the punt team on, getting the offence, field goal and defence on. Those transitions that go from sideline, as much for the coaches as anything else. Can we handle the ebb and flow of the game? And make sure that we've got 12 on the field. The right 12, and make sure we handle all those things because that's different for a lot of the guys that are here for the first time,” Elizondo said.
“In three-down football, it's punt or punt return every second (drive), so that's important for our coaches as well as for our players who will handle all of that transition that goes on in a CFL game, which is unique.”
At the same time, the scrimmage offers players a chance to be a bit more physical than they have been over the first week of camp.
“Get some tackling and some collisions,” Elizondo said. “We're going to take care of each other and we're going to monitor how much we do with that.
“The scrimmage is going to be seeing them compete, seeing how they react when they get knocked back, seeing which guys can perform when there's a little bit more stress.”
CONTROLLED CHAOS
If it looks a little chaotic on the field at times during Elks training camp, not to worry.
Sure, there's a new coaching staff working for the first time with a host of new and old roster faces coming together after being away from the game for the past 18 months.
But that's not the cause of all the apparent confusion.
Instead, it's the result of some controlled chaos coaches are purposefully infusing into the environment at different times throughout practice, given no pre-season dress rehearsal games are scheduled ahead of opening day on Aug. 7.
“Absolutely, we are trying to create chaos,” Elizondo said. “Once we get all our schemes in on special teams, we are trying to create chaos on the field. Now, I've been a little bit cautious over the last couple days about pausing them and slowing down, but we are trying to recreate game tempo.
“We need to kind of continue to create that kind of chaos because we don't have those pre-season games. When you get into a game (situation) and guys go down, this guy's out, that guy's out, it could be absolute chaos on our practice field and it probably looks that way at times, so that's by design.”
The first goal is to see these guys compete under pressure with the clock and see how they react in a game situation.
BUMPS AND BRUISES
Players came into training camp looking to knock the rust off from a cancelled 2020 CFL season. But one week in, that's not the only type of knocks they've suffered.
“The tempo that we've been practising at has been really exceptional and it is around time the injuries start to happen,” Elizondo said Friday. “Around Practices 4, 5 and 6, that's typically when they come, so we're going to evaluate as a staff the next couple days what's really the most important priority. What happens when guys go down is other guys get more reps and then those guys, because of the workload, end up getting hurt, too.
“I'm going to have to check the injury report and see how we came out because we did have some tweaks today.”
In and out: LT Sirvincent Rogers, DT Jake Ceresna and CB Jonathon Mincy, LB Kevin Brown and LS Chad Rempel didn't take part in Friday's on-field session.