Good start for rookies, but still long way to go
Big weekend for Eskimos GM Hervey, Oilers GM Mactavish
It would be too easy, too harsh and too early to use events and how they unfold this weekend in Edmonton and Newark, N.J., to measure the performance of Ed Hervey and Craig MacTavish.
It would also be naive not to think that how the Eskimos perform in their CFL home opener against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, how the Oilers do on the talent acquisition front in New Jersey will be how many observers at least begin to form a judgment of the two rookie GMs.
The challenges facing Hervey and MacTavish are not precise parallels, although there are commonalities. For one thing, both franchises are under some pressure to appease a restive, borderline cranky fan base.
For both the Eskimos (2005) and Oilers (1990), it has been far too long since they won a championship.
Hervey has had an entire off-season to bring significant change both to the Eskimos roster and the football operations department he leads.
It’s his old-school, all-business approach that impresses so far, in both cases.
In the recent past, the Eskimos talent recruitment mindset could best be summed up by Walter Sobchak, the character played by John Goodman in The Big Lebowski:
“You want a toe? I can get you a toe. Believe me, there are ways, Dude. You don’t want to know about it, believe me. Hell, I can get you a toe by 3 o’clock this afternoon, with nail polish.”
Think, for example, of the conga line of kickers, a dozen or more, who paraded in and out of Commonwealth Stadium over the past two seasons and a bit. Or running backs. You need a running back? No problem, here’s Hugh Charles, here’s Jerome Messam, here’s Cory Boyd. Anybody else you want?
Hervey’s plan is a careful one, well-reasoned.
Charles, a compact, elusive scatback is not merely the starting tailback, but the type of back Hervey wants to utilize, for example. John White, who won the backup job in training camp, isn’t precisely the same back as Charles, but he’s similar.
Mike Reilly and Matt Nichols aren’t really the same person, but they’re mighty similar in build and style of play, as they demonstrated throughout training camp. Nichols’ season-ending knee injury clarified who would be the starter in a cruel way. And Jonathan Crompton, who won the backup job, is, like Reilly, primarily a classic pocket passer.
Plug and play. Hervey wants continuity, position by position. He has upgraded the Eskimos along the defensive line, at linebacker and in the defensive secondary. In Isaiah (Speedy) Sweeney, Hervey has secured the vertical threat the club’s passing game hasn’t had, reliably, for years.
The proof of quality, as always, will be in the playing, and that starts Saturday afternoon against the Riders.
Nowhere will execution be more crucial than along the offensive line, where Hervey has recruited a cluster of redwoods to protect the passer and create lanes for scatbacks Charles and White to scamper through.
In particular, how tackles Thaddeus Coleman (six-footeight, 308 pounds) and Cliff Louis (six-foot-eight, 315) adjust to the Canadian game and perform will dictate the time and space Reilly will enjoy to make plays.
Little wonder that Hervey has been so outspoken about the need for the reconfigured offensive line to elevate its game and maintain a high level of play from game to game. The challenge for the offensive line is to keep Reilly clean and Hervey quiet, in effect.
Hervey is laconic by nature, and a pure, old-school football man, which has ruffled some feathers early on, particularly with some members of the media. The Eskimos CEO, brand management wizard Len Rhodes, is charged with filling up more of those shiny, new green and yellow seats.
Holding a secret, off-season mini-camp in Florida may have served football needs brilliantly, for example, but it was a missed marketing opportunity. So, there’s a learning curve there.
MacTavish, on the other hand, is a smoothie, charismatic and appealing to the media and public, including the season ticket-holders he has held in thrall with Q and A sessions.
Like Hervey, MacTavish is an obviously capable man. But you wonder sometimes whether he isn’t guilty of overpromising.
If the Eskimos have 18 new players on the roster, and nine new starters, the Oilers need something like eight or nine new players, including upgrades in goal, on defence and certainly on the third and fourth lines.
MacTavish already has intimated the Oilers will divest themselves of Ales Hemsky and Shawn Horcoff, secure an upgrade in goal for the soon-tobe-gone Nikolai Khabibulin, add some ‘meat’ to the forward lines — skilful meat, mind you — leverage that No. 7 pick for all it’s worth, and much else.
Listening to a reporter list the Oilers needs and MacTavish’s desire to check many items off that list, one NHL GM just chuckled. In the NHL, given 30 highly competitive teams, a restrictive — and shrinking — salary cap, and limited choices through free agency, it is a complex, time-consuming process to renovate an incomplete roster.
Walter Sobchak can’t just fetch you a power forward with soft hands by 3 p.m., Dude.
The trade market could be highly active, though, as teams look to off-load big contracts to comply with the lowered salary cap.
And listen, MacTavish loves the Oilers no less intensely and completely than Hervey loves the Eskimos. Like Hervey, he has started his mandate well.
For both, this weekend represents a sort of beginning for both. But only that. Both have a long way to go.