LOCK ‘EM UP
Eskimos free agents that team needs to keep
Continuity is king in football. Especially for an Edmonton Eskimos club that has reached at least the divisional-final round in each of the last four seasons. At the same time, athletes have a best-before date and it’s usually better to have them on the front end the back. Here are a handful of players headed toward free agency on Feb. 13 that the Eskimos should keep off the market and under contract for the 2018 Canadian Football League season:
1) Adam Konar, WLB: 24 years old, 3 CFL seasons, 3 with Eskimos
He was the first stop-gap plugged in place after the initial injury domino fell on a season that saw the Eskimos become the first CFL team in history to surpass the $1 million mark in injury salary. Free agent pickup Cory Greenwood didn’t last the second day of training camp before a knee injury ended his season, but not before the Eskimos had gone allin on changing the ratio on defence, which required them to come up with a Canadian replacement at his WIL linebacker position. Enter Konar, 23 years old at the time, having paid his dues playing on Edmonton’s special teams for two years since being drafted in the third round (25th overall) out of Calgary. His first defensive start came on opening week in his hometown of Vancouver against the same B.C. Lions his dad, Kevin, played for. Adam led the way with a game-high seven tackles, adding two more on special teams while coming up with his first career sack. And he never looked back, finishing with 59 defensive tackles, one sack and two interceptions in 12 games, all the while helping fill the void when vet- eran middle linebacker and defensive captain J.C. Sherritt went down in that same game with a season-ending Achilles injury. The fact that Konar is Canadian only cements his status as a mustsign for the Eskimos. The big knock against him is he’s been prone to injury, though Konar was able to fight through much of last season.
2) Vidal Hazelton, WR: 29 years old, 3 CFL seasons, 1.5 with Eskimos
Before Brandon Zylstra launched his numbers to the top of the CFL’s receiving yards list to finish with a top-ranked 1,687 on the season, it was Hazelton who led the way on the Eskimos receiving corps at the season’s halfway point, before a hamstring injury sent the six-footthree, 212-pound Cincinnati product to the sideline for seven weeks. And the return of Derel Walker to the lineup meant the Eskimos didn’t have to rush Hazelton back anytime soon, either. But with Zylstra and Walker turning their attention toward the National Football League over the off-season, it would be prudent for the Eskimos to shore up a sure thing on a receiving corps that’s been the team’s strength by starting out 2018 with Hazelton. Adarius Bowman isn’t getting any younger and saw both his numbers and the things coaches were asking him to do on the field drop significantly last year, while Duke Williams and Bryant Mitchell – who have 21 games between them – would certainly ben- efit from taking the lead of Hazelton, who is entering his fourth CFL season.
3) J.C. Sherritt, MLB: 29 years old, 7 CFL seasons, 7 with Eskimos
Last but not least, the Eskimos would like nothing more than to welcome back their captain, heart and soul of the defensive side of scrimmage, after missing him for 95 per cent of the 2017 season due to an Achilles injury suffered on opening day. He’s not the kind of guy you let go. Especially after proving he can bounce back from such a devastating injury in time for what would have been a Grey Cup comeback. It didn’t happen, as the Eskimos fell four points short (or two more field goals, by Jason Maas’s count) in the West Division final. But Sherritt is a shoe-in to have his comeback moment in green and gold once the 2018 season kicks off.
4) Kenny Ladler, SLB: 25 years old, 2 CFL seasons, 2 with Eskimos
Edmonton’s defensive playmaker in the absence of Sherritt recorded 86 tackles, three interceptions, two forced fumbles and a blocked field goal on his way to being named a CFL all-star for the first time in his two-year pro career. It’s actually three if you count two National Football League regular-season games he played with the Buffalo Bills in 2014. The CFL certainly does, which is why he wasn’t officially nominated as the Eskimos top rookie in 2016, when he slid seamlessly into the starting role at cover linebacker. Last week, Ladler worked out for the Philadelphia Eagles in a bid to return down south.
5) Euclid Cummings, DT: 26 years old, 4 CFL seasons, 1 with Eskimos
The team changed the ratio around opening up a spot to bring in someone like the six-footthree, 298pound American next to perennial CFL all-star Almondo Sewell, and Cummings definitely didn’t disappoint. Another potential Eskimos defender who had an NFL workout last week, this one with the San Francisco 49ers, Cummings was by far the youngest starter on Edmonton’s defensive line this season. Of course, if things work out in free agency or the draft, the Eskimos could find themselves going back to a Canadian up front and that title could go to rookie passrusher Kwaku Boateng, who exploded onto the CFL scene in rotational duty in 2017.
Honourable mention, James Tuck
A late addition, Tuck approached what was no doubt a steep learning curve getting caught up with the Eskimos systems and lingo with the same tenacity he chased down return men with on special teams. And he’s chased down a lot in his short time here. This is the exact kind of player successful Canadian football teams are built upon.