Newest Lion catches Reilly fever
Receiver Carter excited about playing with ‘best player’ in CFL, who has already been in touch
Shortly after he signed with the B.C. Lions, Duron Carter’s phone started blowing up.
It wasn’t congratulations from friends — it was his quarterback, Mike Reilly, who had only signed with the CFL team 24 hours earlier.
“I was signed for literally an hour, and he was already calling me,” the Lions’ newest wide receiver chuckled, talking from his off-season home in Boca Raton, Fla.
“He even texted me today and hit me with a pop quiz on what we should do with Cover Zero, seven-man protection. So he’s really locked in.”
“I’ve gotten some of those same texts,” laughed fellow B.C. wideout Bryan Burnham.
“It’s pretty cool for a quarterback to reach out to us to see what we like, and get a hold of our football IQ. I love talking X’s and O’s … I could talk all day about what we are going to do.”
Burnham admitted to spending a lot of time in the off-season on social media searching #MikeReilly for the latest rumours. Despite sharing the same agent, he had no idea where the former Edmonton Eskimos pivot was going to sign.
It also played a role in him re-signing a two-year extension with the team.
Carter was watching the Reilly sweepstakes play out on the first day of CFL free agency, and when B.C. cashed in the winning ticket it made his decision to head West easy, as well.
“Hands down, he’s the best player in the league,” said Carter, whose cousin — Esks’ receiver Kenny Stafford — talked up the quarterback’s ability even more.
“I would hope that people are as excited as I am, to go play with Mike Reilly, because I’ll tell you, my whole career, I’ve just been sitting there watching him throw to Derel Walker, throw to Duke Williams, throw to Adarious Bowman … and I’ve always been, ‘If I could get a quarterback like that, I’d just take off.’
“And lo and behold, all the chess pieces came together, and I’m with Mike Reilly. So I’m just super excited.”
Carter and Burnham will give the Lions arguably the two best pass-catchers in the league, if not the most exciting.
Burnham has the most 40-plus yard receptions (23) in the CFL over the past three seasons, as well as the most red-zone receptions (33) over the same span. His 15 redzone touchdowns only ranks second to Hamilton’s Luke Tasker, but his red zone target-to-catch percentage (78 per cent) tops the charts by a long shot.
Carter, a two-time all-star in 2014 and 2017, has 4,150 yards on 276 receptions with 27 touchdowns in his five seasons in the league, and makes regular appearances on the play-of-the-week highlight reel. Last season’s split between Saskatchewan and Toronto was a low ebb in his career, with his numbers — 18 catches for 230 yards and two TDs in 10 games — all ranking as career lows.
That should change now that the incredibly athletic 6-5, 200-pound wideout has Reilly throwing in his direction. Carter laboured under three of the lowest-rated quarterbacks in the CFL last season in Zach Collaros (Saskatchewan), McLeod Bethel-Thompson (Toronto) and James Franklin (Toronto), but now has the reigning passing champion putting him in his crosshairs.
Not only that, he’s been reunited with Jarious Jackson and Marcus Howell, who helped him to a career-best 1,043 yards and eight touchdowns in 2017 while serving as assistants in Saskatchewan.
“I’ve watched Mike Reilly play, and I see the trust he puts in his receivers,” Carter said. “I think it’s the perfect fit because it allows me to sit back and get ready for the ball, because I know it’s coming. I don’t have to say anything about getting the ball, because I have Mike Reilly throwing it. I’m literally in bliss right now.”
Burnham has caught the Reilly fever sweeping the Lions’ fan base, as well. He was quick to defend last year’s quarterbacks Jonathon Jennings and Travis Lulay, but the team ranked in the bottom three in most of the passing statistics.
“We’re expecting to be explosive and high scoring (this season),” he said. “We couldn’t really score the ball last year. We’d move the ball every once in a while last year, but there were a lot of twoand-outs, a lot of drives that ended with zero points.
“And that’s hard for a defence to handle, when they just got done a long drive and they’re sitting on the bench getting water, and all of a sudden they have to get up and get back on the field because the offence couldn’t produce … that’s hard, man.”
Burnham has made his share of incredible highlight-reel catches in his five seasons with B.C., but now his main competitor in that category will be lining up beside him. So who will have more catch-of-the-week highlights?
“That’s a tough one. I can tell you, I think me and Duron are definitely going to be one and two, that’s for sure, but as for who’s one and who’s two? I don’t know, man, I don’t know,” he said, laughing.