Ray trade turns Eskimos season upside down
Tillman’s reviled deal felt from beginning to end of 2013 season
It’s generally a bad sign when the axis of a team’s story is centred over 3,000 kilometres away, playing for another team.
That’s where the Edmonton Eskimos’ story began in 2012, with nine-year veteran quarterback Ricky Ray traded to the Toronto Argonauts in the off-season and question marks abounding at the position on their team.
The successes Ray had as he found his way with the Argos seemed to coincide as the polar opposite of the direction the Eskimos went as the Canadian Football League season worked its way to the 100th Grey Cup. The Argos’ journey was a gradual elevation that culminated with the team peaking at the perfect time and Ray winning the third CFL championship of his career.
Anchored by a markedly strong defence in the first half of the season, the Eskimos sat at 5-3 after a 26-17 win over Ray and the Argos at Rogers Centre on Aug. 27. Despite the offence’s troubles (the Eskimos were averaging 23.75 points at that point), the defence was holding teams to 19.25 points per outing and chipping in with scoring plays, as well. Cornerback Joe Burnett had a gamesealing 106-yard interception return for a touchdown against the B.C. Lions in Week 4, while special teams and the defence chipped in against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in Week 3, when Clint Kent recovered a fumbled kick return for a TD and T.J. Hill scored on an interception return.
When healthy, the defence made the Eskimos a dangerous team. The defensive line allowed middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt to go wild early in the season. In his second year, Sherritt got to work quickly on setting a single-season record for tackles (130).
Sherritt continued to chase the record as Edmonton’s defence deteriorated with injuries. D-linemen Marcus Howard, Julius Williams, Etienne Legare and Ted Laurent missed a combined 40 games. Their replacements weren’t able to dodge the injury bug, either. Lee Robinson (quad) was lost for the season on Sept. 15 at Hamilton; rookie Justin Capicciotti battled injuries all year; and Jermaine Reid missed the first half of the season recovering from shoulder surgery.
As the defence withered away, the Eskimos got their reality check with a winless September — the first time that happened in franchise history. The Esks were exposed once their defence couldn’t keep making heroic plays.
They lost on missed field goals against the Calgary Stampeders in the Labour Day Classic and the rematch; and were destroyed 51-8 by the Tiger-Cats in Hamilton.
Quarterback Steven Jyles (the key player obtained in the Ray trade) made his final start after throwing the ball away on a third-down gamble late in the fourth quarter of a 19-18 loss to B.C.
Third-stringer Matt Nichols got the start a week later in Calgary, but the Eskimos were overwhelmed by Jon Cornish and the Stamps in a 39-15 game that was never close.
With the season slipping away, the pressure mounted on then-general manager Eric Tillman, who engineered the Ray trade. Head coach Kavis Reed and his staff, notably offensive co-ordinator Marcus Crandell, felt the heat, too.
After the loss in Calgary, Reed slid Crandell to quarterbacks coach and assumed offensive co-ordinator duties, alongside coach David Kelly, who was brought in as an offensive adviser for the remainder of the year. At that point, Reed declared veteran backup Kerry Joseph as the team’s starting QB and pointed to Hugh Charles as the main running back over free-agent acquisition Cory Boyd and Jerome Messam, who had recently returned from his tryout with the NFL’s Miami Dolphins.
The Eskimos pulled briefly out of their funk, beating Hamilton and Saskatchewan the next two weeks. The 37-20 win over the Roughriders on Oct. 13 was their last of the season, but their 7-11 record was good enough to squeak into the playoffs.
That wasn’t enough to save Tillman’s job, though. He was fired on Nov. 3, eight days before Edmonton travelled to Toronto for their crossover playoff game. Perhaps fittingly, the slumping Eskimos were run over by the surging Argos, who scored a record-breaking 31 points in the second quarter en route to a 42-26 win.
The game was disastrous on every front. Nichols, 25, the only quarterback on the roster who showed long-term promise, suffered a hideous ankle dislocation in the third quarter. He’s rehabbing ahead of schedule, but will have to prove he’s healthy in training camp next year before he can try to assume starting duties.
The Eskimos’ off-season has given them hope for the future. Former receiver and head scout Ed Hervey was hired as GM on Dec. 10. He’s said the right things about looking to bring the franchise back to where it was when he won a pair of Grey Cups with Ray. He’s also taken care of some big player signings, already locking up Hill, Sherritt, safety Donovan Alexander, kicker Grant Shaw and offensive lineman Brian Ramsay before free agency takes effect on Feb. 15, 2013.
They’re steps in the right direction, but there’s a long road is in front of Hervey and the Eskimos after a giant misstep of a season in 2012.