Tiger-Cats scoop up injured rookie kick- returner Tavoy Moore after Esks released him due to numbers game
Rookie kickreturner was released after suffering knee injury during training camp
In the short time he was with the Edmonton Eskimos, quickness was the expectation with Tavoy Moore.
So it was with a swift kick to the gut that the injured kickreturner whom the Eskimos were so high on at the start of training camp signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Monday.
The Eskimos released Moore on June 18, after he suffered a knee injury on the opening kickoff in a Canadian Football League pre-season game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on June 14.
At the time he was cut, the Eskimos believed he would be out for the entire season.
There’s optimism in Hamilton, according to the Spectator’s Drew Edwards, that Moore could be ready to play in six weeks.
Just three weeks ago, the optimism centred on Moore’s potential in Edmonton. The upside, Eskimos general manager Ed Hervey and head coach Kavis Reed said, soared over Moore’s five-foot-six frame. Legendary names were thrown around: Pinball, Gizmo, Terry Vaughn.
When Moore’s knee went sideways on his first kick return, so did the Eskimos’ interest in him. They were hesitant to place a rookie on the nine-game injured list, so he was released. Moore hopped on a plane to Hamilton on Sunday and signed with the Ticats on Monday afternoon. How did that happen? “It was an unfortunate situation in terms of Tavoy’s injury, the timing of it,” Reed said. “When he was hurt on the Friday (June 14), Sunday was our cut-down day to get our roster down to 64.
“Given the fact that we needed to at that time release an amount of guys, being a rookie, being injured, we wanted to take the risk of being able to have an opportunity to bring Tavoy back in and it did not work out.”
If the rest of the league didn’t know about Moore before training camp, they certainly got wind of him once the Eskimos’ rookie started to make headlines and appear on TVs across the country. One man who already knew about Moore’s history is Tiger-Cats consultant and former Eskimos GM Eric Tillman, who scouted the kick-returner/running back when he was playing at Idaho State.
Needless to say, there’s a Cheshire cat-sized grin stretching across Tillman’s face, whether he’s in Hamilton with the Tiger-Cats or working from home in Regina.
“Obviously, Eric had information on Tavoy,” Reed said. “He was instrumental in scouting Tavoy. I can’t speak to if he would have had interest in him, but I obviously would understand that he has knowledge of Tavoy.”
The Eskimos will go into their CFL season-opener against the Roughriders on Saturday afternoon at Commonwealth Stadium with all-star cornerback Joe Burnett returning kickoffs. Rookie Tracy Lampley, currently on the practice roster, could be activated to return punts.
In the big picture, the Eskimos are confident there’s another kick-returner out there for them.
“There’s a confidence in our scouting department that we can find guys,” Reed said.