Lionbackers.com

Ricky Ray is about to become a Toronto Argonaut.

The Argonauts and Edmonton Eskimos have a agreed to a deal that will see the 32-year-old quarterback moving East. The Eskimos have called a media conference today at 4pm et/1pm pt to announce the deal.

Toronto's side of the trade is believed to include quarterback Steven Jyles, kicker Grant Shaw and a first-round draft pick going to the Eskimos.

The Argonauts are hoping the acquisition of Ray will solve a quarterback quandary that has existed since Damon Allen retired at the end of the 2007 season, with Michael Bishop, Kerry Joseph, Cleo Lemon and Jyles - among others - all unable to solve team's quarterback woes.

Toronto has ranked last, or second to last, in CFL passing in each of the past three seasons.

Ray is coming off what could be considered a bounce-back year after a disappointing 2010, throwing for 4,594 yards, while completing 65.2 per cent of his passes, with 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Ray led the Eskimos to Grey Cup wins in 2003 and 2005 and has thrown for at least 4,500 yards six times in his career.

He holds most of the Eskimo single-season and career passing records and is among the league's highest paid players at between $350,000-$400,000 per season.

This marks the second time that Edmonton general manager Eric Tillman has traded for Jyles, the first coming in 2008 when he was wth the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Eskimos other quarterbacks are veteran Kerry Joseph, Eric Ward, who just completed his rookie season, and Matt Nichols, who has not played during his two seasons with Edmonton

SOURCE: http://tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=382540

WOW.... deal now being confirmed on twitter with Jyles heading to Edmonton. Eskimos must be looking at Burris as well unless they really like Jyles that much.

Very weird. Is Eric Tillman not a Ricky Ray fan? Two Grey Cups. Calm leadership. Huge productivity and yardage. Weird.

Good for Toronto if they get him. I still don't mind seeing Edmonton struggle. IMO this will help the Schmos struggle. Could be Tillman's biggest mistake, in football that is.

IMO ...

Wonder if Burris will surface into this little bit on intrigue?

Trade now being confirmed. Ray to Argos for Jyles, K Grant Shaw, and a 2nd rounder (although Dave Naylor reporting it could be a 1st round pick - will try to get confirmation).

Wow. Didn't see this coming. I thought Ricky would retire an Eskimo. Glad to get RR out of our division.


DH

Damn glad to get him out of the West!

WOW!! Huge shocker.

Ray is a guy who, going into the season, I would have loved seeing the Lions go after (although I firmly believe we have the best QB in the league now). Must mean either Henry Burris or Adrian McPherson will be headed to Edmonton. I just can't see them going with Jyles or an unproven rookie.

Given this move though, barring another shocking move that beefs up the Eskimos, or Stamps/Riders...the West could be BC's to lose next year. Although it is very very early still, I just don't see how this trade helps Edmonton at all.

WestCoastJoe wrote:Very weird. Is Eric Tillman not a Ricky Ray fan? Two Grey Cups. Calm leadership. Huge productivity and yardage. Weird.

Good for Toronto if they get him. I still don't mind seeing Edmonton struggle. IMO this will help the Schmos struggle. Could be Tillman's biggest mistake, in football that is.

IMO ...

Between Tillman trading away Ray and Brendan Taman being Brendan Taman it's pretty good to be in the west right now.

I gather many Eskimo fans just did not appreciate what they had in Ricky Ray.

I've seen the words overrated and overpaid. Well now RR is overthere, in Toronto.

Hall of Fame QB. Irreplaceable, IMO.

Travis Lulay #1 in the CFL. Ricky Ray #2. AC aging. Henry the Sulk off the charts. IMO ...

Wondering what lies behind Tillman's reasoning here. Is RR a quiet coach killer? I doubt that very much, although he did end JC's stay in Edmonton, and a number of OCs. Does Reed want a more fiery guy? Dunno. This does not make sense to me. I do like it though. Good for the league. Strengthens the weak Argo franchise. Removes a scary competitor from the West.

Ricky I gather was a fan of Danny Maciocia. I wonder if the bum's rush Danny got ticked Ricky off.

When it rains it pours....

Via twitter:

Stampeders will make "major player announcement" tomorrow @ 11:30am MST.

cromartie wrote:

WestCoastJoe wrote:Very weird. Is Eric Tillman not a Ricky Ray fan? Two Grey Cups. Calm leadership. Huge productivity and yardage. Weird.

Good for Toronto if they get him. I still don't mind seeing Edmonton struggle. IMO this will help the Schmos struggle. Could be Tillman's biggest mistake, in football that is.

IMO ...

Between Tillman trading away Ray and Brendan Taman being Brendan Taman it's pretty good to be in the west right now.

"I blame the meds"

- Eric Tillman

It is certainly a surprise, but I know Eric Tillman a little bit, and one thing Eric isn't is impatient, or foolish with his football impressions...the only way Tillman makes this deal is if he has an answer for the QB position, and if he feels that the pieces he gets back are the missing links for his club...

So before we all go running out onto the streets celebrating, I think we should be a little cautious and see how this thing plays out...

And remember one thing about Ricky Ray...between the 20 yards lines, there is likely no better QB in the history of the CFL, but inside the red zone, he simply doesn't get it done anywhere near consistently...Tillman wants a Grey Cup title, and not a strong 2nd place year after year...

And let's not forget, Tillman has just freed up a boat load (pardon the pun) of SMS space with which to go after FAs without the RR salary on the books.

He's also acquired two more non-imports; Shaw is pretty versatile.

I think we should wait to see how this plays out before declaring it a slam dunk win for the Esks.


DH

I know many will disagree, but I've always felt that Ricky Ray is one of the most overrated QB's in the history of the league. RR is the master of the 5 yard crossing pattern. He basically makes a living off of that one play. He rarely throws deep and rarely mixes up his passes. The key to beating RR is to stop that 5 yard crossing patteron on first down. Second and long is not RR's strength.

That being said, RR is a much better QB than Jyles. Jyles was positively brutal in TO and really hasn't been that great his entire career. He will be slightly better in Edmonton due to their depth at receiver however his decision making is very suspect. To me, Jyles is a good backup. Honestly, I wonder why the Argos didn't just stick with Cleo Lemon. He looked like he was developing just fine.

As for Burris, not sure what this means for him. I get the feeling he's going to sign in Edmonton. Overall, I see the Alberta teams each weaker next year which bodes well for BC.

Once again, I'm so glad that Wally has the eye for QB talent that he does. When you take a look at how long it's taken so many other teams to develop a QB, and then you look at BC over the last ten years it's really hard to believe. Casey Printers, Dave Dickenson, Jarious Jackson, Buck Pierce, Travis Lulay. BC is basically developing QB's for the rest of the league.