Ominous signs for Eskimos QB Nichols.
Eskimos QB to undergo more testing on knee
SPRUCE GROVE — The signs were there on Sunday, pointing to something that the Edmonton Eskimos are at this point very reluctant to acknowledge.
The team’s depth chart had been virtually unchanged through the first 14 days of their Canadian Football League training camp, regardless of whether players had leapfrogged each other in battles for starting jobs on offence and defence.
On Sunday, however, there was change and it wasn’t just the league-mandated cuts that resonated on the piece of paper that was handed out to fans at Fuhr Park, where the Eskimos paid a visit to their fans just west of Edmonton.
The quarterback listing was thinner, the order shuffled somewhat. It read: 1. Reilly 2. Joseph 3. Harris 4. Crompton Missing, along with Windsor Lancers QB Austin Kennedy, who has gone back to his Canadian Interuniversity Sport team, of course, is Matt Nichols. There was no update on the severity of the knee injury that Nichols suffered Friday during the first pre-season game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, which isn’t a good sign in itself. Nichols’ absence from the depth chart and from Sunday’s practice was another bad sign.
“We will have more information (on Monday),” Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed said.
“Obviously, there are some things that we need to do in terms of medical testing and to find out the extent of the injury and that won’t be done until sometime early this week and hopefully we’ll get it done (Monday).”
Nichols, along with running back and return man Tavoy Moore, who also injured his knee in the first quarter of Friday’s game, stayed at Commonwealth Stadium Sunday and were both on crutches Reed said, citing team protocol.
What the Eskimos needed this week was the continued two-man battle for their starting quarterback job. After Nichols’ knee buckled on Friday when he was blocked on a Carlos Thomas interception that was returned for a touchdown, the No. 1 job appears to have been placed in front of Mike Reilly, the man slotted in at the top of Sunday’s depth chart.
Reilly was going to start Friday’s pre-season game against the B.C. Lions anyway, but Reed said the former Lions backup would see his playing time increase.
“Guys are familiar with him (in B.C.) and he knows for sure right now that he’s the starter and that situation is probably going to bear true come Week 3 when we play B.C. again,” Reed said, giving another sign that the team is anticipating Nichols being out at least four weeks.
If the signs are pointing in the right direction, they’re lending to an anti-climactic finish in the dead heat that Nichols and Reilly had been in the previous two weeks.
“I’ve felt like it’s been my ball since Day 1. I’m sure Matt felt like it’s been his ball, too,” Reilly said. “(Nichols’ status) doesn’t change anything for me.”
“Obviously, all of us are hoping the best for Matt but in that situation it doesn’t change my mindset at all,” Reilly said. “I planned from Day 1 that I signed here to be the starter. I don’t have to change the way that I approach the game now.”
Reed said that veteran quarterback Kerry Joseph would get some playing time on Friday in Vancouver, but he also wants to look closer at 25-year-old Jonathan Crompton and 23-year-old Jacory Harris, who both played well in the second half of Friday’s 31-24 loss to the Riders.
Crompton, who showed off a big arm on Friday and attempted a pair of 50-plus-yard passes, said he had fun in his first taste of the CFL.
“We’re all here trying to compete as a team. We’re trying to make each other better,” the ex-Tennessee Volunteer said. “We all know what our goals are and we all try to get together and achieve those goals.”
Harris, a University of Miami alum, rushed for a seven-yard TD in the third quarter. He didn’t want to see his opportunity come at the expense of an injured veteran.
“Matt’s a great guy. He’s someone who’s helped me since mini-camp on April 9 when we were down there in Florida,” Harris said. “He made sure I knew everything and helped me get adjusted to this new thing; the CFL is new to me. It’s unfortunate, but at the same time it is an opportunity for us young guys to get in there and still display the things that we can bring to this team. Right now, that’s what we’re trying to do in practice.”