Esk's Ed Hervey Trades McKnight (Tillman's Folly?) to Riders

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/f ... story.html

Fiacconi sounds off on Eskimo's struggles

Chris O'Leary

EDMONTON - Always a guy to pipe up in his playing days, Aaron Fiacconi did it again on Saturday night, three months into his retirement.

The former Edmonton Eskimos offensive lineman took to Twitter to voice his frustration after the team’s 39-15 loss to the Calgary Stampeders on Friday night.

“I owe so much to the esks as a franchise but this awful “management” of players has killed this team, zero confidence! Revolving door! JOKE!” he said in one of his post-game Tweets.

Almost 24 hours later, Fiacconi hadn’t cooled down.

“It’s sad to see. You can definitely say that,” he said of the team he retired from before the start of the 2012 training camp. The Eskimos have lost five straight games and are last in the Canadian Football League West Division with a 5-8 record.

The 32-year-old said that Eskimos general manager Eric Tillman is on the hot seat for taking a team that went 11-7 and played in the West Final a year ago and changing its look by trading quarterback Ricky Ray to the Toronto Argonauts in the off-season.

“I’ve never sat in the GM’s chair,” Fiacconi said. “I know that he is definitely going to be in the crosshairs for some of the decisions, and that was obviously the gamble he was willing to take when it came to trading away a cornerstone of your franchise.”

Fiacconi, who suited up with the Eskimos from 2007 to 2011, said continuity was the key to the team getting back on track.

“I think they definitely have the players and the coach in Kavis Reed to do that. I think he’s a great motivator,” Fiacconi said. “He just needs to stop second-guessing himself and take a stand and take his guys, believe in his guys, put his best on the field and run with it, win, lose or draw.

“Enough with this shuffling the deck, different quarterback every week, different offensive linemen combinations, different bunch of receivers, trading, bringing in an extra running back when you’ve got two stars in the making. Why are you doing this? What’s the motivation behind this? I don’t understand it.”

In addition to the Eskimos picking up Cory Boyd shortly before Jerome Messam returned from his National Football League stint with the Miami Dolphins — a move that crowded the backfield with Hugh Charles already having a fantastic season as the team’s starting running back — Fiacconi also had trouble wrapping his head around the acquisition of kicker Brody McKnight.

McKnight came to Edmonton on Sept. 12, in exchange for kicker Derek Schiavone and the Eskimos’ first- and fourth-round selections in the 2013 CFL draft. The move was spurred by an injury to punter Burke Dales. Grant Shaw was struggling with field goals upon McKnight’s arrival, having missed game-winners on Sept. 3 and Sept. 7 against Calgary.

“Trading your first-round pick for a kicker … what kind of confidence does that put in Grant Shaw now? You think fear is going to drive somebody and make him play better? It doesn’t work like that,” Fiacconi said.

“It doesn’t work that way. It makes you more tentative, it makes you more nervous, more scared. You don’t play free, you don’t play on the edge and that’s what Eskimo football is about, man, that’s what being a professional is about, is playing on the edge.

“When you’re doing that type of stuff, your revolving door at quarterback, what message is that sending the rest of your team? What message is that sending to your quarterback? What message is it sending to your offensive line? Your kicker, your receiving corps? What are you looking for? What are you trying to find?”

Fiacconi said something that’s been missing from the team for a number of years is coaches standing behind their players. He pointed to his offensive line coach in 2009 and 2010, Jeff Bleamer, as someone who did that.

“We had a coach that believed in us and he would go to war for us and he would stand up for us, regardless if we played a lights-out game or we didn’t play a really good game at all,” Fiacconi said. “He was that kind of guy. He believed in us and that got away from us, it definitely did.”

Admitting he still had a great emotional investment with the team, Fiacconi said that watching the Eskimos struggle in his absence this year has made retirement doubly hard as he’s moved forward in a career with engineering firm WorleyParsons.

“I can honestly say that it is hard to watch because I care a lot about that organization,” he said. “They’ve done a lot for me, I care a lot about the guys in the locker-room and I felt like a papa bear, in a sense (speaking out). I do miss them and I miss that part of it. That’s always going to be in every football player, I imagine.”

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/f ... story.html

Reeling Eskimos search for answers
 
Loss to Stampeders leaves them 0-for-September for first time in history
 
BY CHRIS O'LEARY, EDMONTON JOURNAL SEPTEMBER 29, 2012
 
CALGARY – Now what?

The Edmonton Eskimos have seen all of their quarterback options this year. The organization has watched as Steven Jyles, Kerry Joseph and now 25-year-old pivot Matt Nichols have taken a turn with the reins of what should be a potent offence.

Instead, Friday’s 39-15 loss to the Calgary Stampeders was typical for the team this Canadian Football League season and in its now five-game losing streak in particular. Not enough offence, a star running back running all over the Eskimos defence, and a fan base that’s left asking, “We traded away Ricky Ray for what, exactly?”

Friday’s loss was a bad one for the optics of the Ray trade. Jyles backed up Nichols, as a nagging injury cost him his fourth game of the season. Kicker Grant Shaw missed his only field goal attempt of the night, a 39-yarder in the third quarter, conjuring memories of the two he’s missed against Calgary this year that would have won games for the team.

Offensive lineman Austin Pasztor, the draft pick that the Toronto Argonauts gave up in the Ray trade, and the man that the Eskimos took fourth overall, is on the Jacksonville Jaguars practice roster this season. The Jaguars apparently called him while he was on his way back to Canada to sign with the Eskimos. Needless to say, Pasztor pulled a U-turn.

The other 72 players on the Eskimos roster would probably like to pull a U-turn of their own right about now.

Eskimos president and chief executive Len Rhodes, not yet a full year into the job, is getting a first-hand look at his team going off the rails.

“We’re not going to react to it immediately right after the game,” Rhodes said on Friday, standing outside of the Eskimos locker-room.

“What we’ll do with our GM, our scouts, our coaches is reassess everything. It’ll start on the way home. (Saturday) we’ll put our heads together and then we’re going to figure this out.”

Eskimos general manager Eric Tillman stands by the trade that has been subject to heavy scrutiny since it was consummated on Dec. 12 last year. On the air with 630 CHED this past week, he pointed to Jyles’ 5-4 record as a starter this year. He noted that as a starter (three games), Joseph’s completion percentage is at 67.9, with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 3:1. Two of his starts were against Calgary and were games that came down to Shaw’s missed field goals.

Still, the team is 5-8, losing as many in a row now as they’ve won all year. They’re 0-for-September for the first time ever. If they ran the table for their remaining five games, they’d finish 10-8, a win less than what they had a year ago.

Jyles’ quarterback efficiency rating of 81.9 per cent is seventh in the league, behind every established starting quarterback (Anthony Calvillo, Henry Burris, Ray, Travis Lulay, Glenn and Darian Durant, from first down). Jyles has thrown just six touchdowns all season. Joseph, predictably, is injured after throwing his soon-to-be 39-year-old body back into action it hadn’t seen in three years.

So on Friday, with the season slipping away, the controls and a mountain of pressure went to Nichols. While he showed promise, his learning curve and the team’s slide in the standings at this point in the season make for an unfavourable axis on the graph.

The monsoon of injuries that has buried the Eskimos hasn’t helped their cause. They’re playing without all four of their starting defensive linemen. Offensive lineman Simeon Rottier is out for the season, along with slotback Adarius Bowman. Linebacker J.C. Sherritt is now hurt, with a left knee injury taking him out of Friday’s game early, giving him a season-low three tackles on the night. They’ve played without fullback Mathieu Bertrand for most of the year and have been without running back/fullback/special-teams maven Calvin McCarty as well.

With the latest loss weighing on him, Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed said getting healthy was the key.

“Try to get healthy, try to find answers in terms of positional guys being healthy and get some stability,” he said. “Right now in a five-game losing streak, we’re unstable.

“Injuries are starting to mount up. We have to make certain we do a good job of the guys who are in, making certain that they have a complete understanding of the small amount of things we’re going to ask them to do.”

Rhodes was officially in his role as president and CEO for almost two weeks when he signed off on the Ray trade. He said that he had no regrets.

“We don’t look back, we look forward, and as the leader of the team I have to look at what we do going forward,” he said. “Looking back on any move doesn’t do anything for the organization, for the fans for the players.

“Everything we’ve done in the past is the past and we stand by any decision we’ve made. What we have to do is say, ‘OK, here we are at this point in the season, now with five losses in a row, what do we do short term? What do we do mid-term and what’s our long-term plan?’”

It’s a question that a lot of people are asking.

[WestCoastJoe]

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/09/29/e ... no-regrets

Esks president: 'No regrets' 5

BY GERRY MODDEJONGE ,EDMONTON SUN
FIRST POSTED: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012 05:56 PM MDT | UPDATED: SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 2012 06:04 PM MDT

Edmonton Eskimos' president and CEO Len Rhodes lays out the team's plans for the 2012 season during a media luncheon on April 10. Rhodes admits the Esks have fallen far short of those plans, but stands by the decision to trade franchise quarterback Ricky Ray in the off-season. David Bloom, Edmonton Sun

CALGARY - With a 5-8 record, and as many losses on their current losing streak as victories they’ve earned all year, the Edmonton Eskimos are currently out of a playoff spot.

Sitting in fourth place in the West Division, the Eskimos find themselves relying as much on a playoff crossover than anything right now.

But with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats coming up with one of their patented out-of-nowhere offensive displays in a 41-28 victory over the East Division-leading Montreal Alouettes in Friday’s early game, that window is currently closed.

To break back in, the Eskimos will have to beat a Ticats squad that dismantled them 51-8 in their last meeting.

But their last glimmer of hope to salvage a season that began without franchise quarterback Ricky Ray has faded, too, after Ray’s ‘air’ apparent, Matt Nichols, couldn’t come up with anything more than Edmonton’s stop-gap QBs have been able to lately.

Needless to say, this wasn’t the way Eskimos president Len Rhodes saw his first season with the club playing out.

One of his first orders of business was signing off on the Ray deal, which just so happened to land on his desk shortly after Rick LeLacheur’s official departure back in December.

But even now, looking up from the bottom, Rhodes stands by the decision.

“We expect people to be a bit upset with what they’re seeing on the field these days and we deserve to give our fans better standards than what they’re seeing,” he said. “No regrets. We don’t look back, we look forward and as the leader of the team, I have to look at what we do going forward.

“Looking back on any move doesn’t do anything for the organization, for our plans, for our players. We stand by any decision we’ve made.”

With plenty more still to be made, both short term and long.

“What we’ll do, with our GM, our scouts, our coaches, is reassess everything. We’ll put our heads together and we’re going to figure this out,” Rhodes said. “It’s tough times, there’s no doubt it’s a low right now.

“We’re better than what we’re showing. There are a lot of things that have to be reworked, there’s no denying it.”

[sj-roc]

When I first saw the headline of this thread, I thought maybe it was referring to the mayor of Regina! Imagine, the mayor of one CFL city calling out, in perhaps an unprovoked manner, a team from another city, when, after not playing head-to-head in nearly two months, his own city's team has to travel there in just two weeks for what might prove to be a key divisional matchup! And if there's one CFL city where having its mayor sound off on league matters would actually be plausible, this would probably be the one.

Man... the media, especially in Ssk and Edm, would have had a field day over THAT.

Instead it turns out to be just a former Eskimo, which by comparison (for me, at least) is a relatively boring story; it's not even the first time this season, or this month for that matter, that we've seen a recently retired player take a stick to his former (and struggling) team. Also, it turns out the name of the mayor of Regina is Pat Fiacco. Oh, well.

[TheLionKing]

Edmonton, city of chumps

[WestCoastJoe]

Crandell assigned to QBs coach; Reed takes over offence
 0 
Posted: September 30, 2012 06:30 PM
Updated: September 30, 2012 06:44 PM
CFL.ca Staff

EDMONTON -- The Edmonton Eskimos announced Sunday afternoon that they have assigned Marcus Crandell to Quarterbacks Coach, while head coach Kavis Reed will take over the offensive playcalling.

Entering his fourth year as a CFL coach, Crandell was in his second season as the club's offensive coordinator. 

“I’m going to be far more instrumental in game planning,” said Reed. “We have the ability to do somethings a little bit differently that will allow us to have more explosive plays.”

After a successful 2011 campaign, the Eskimos offence has struggled in 2012, sitting last in net offence (4,098 yards), average offence per game (315.2) and second-last in points scored (279) and average points per game (21.5).

Injuries have also affected the Eskimo offence this season, with all three quarterbacks, Steven Jyles, Kerry Joseph and Matt Nichols, seeing time as the starter.

Nichols made his debut for Edmonton last Friday in Calgary and although he was poised at times, the offence simply could not match the output of the Stampeders, falling 39-15 at McMahon Stadium.

A former CFL quarterback and 2001 Grey Cup MVP, Crandell played 11 seasons with Edmonton, Calgary and Saskatchewan. He posted 1,297 completions for 17,227 and 86 touchdowns in 153 games in the CFL.

Along with the coaching adjustment, Reed also announced that Joseph will get the start this week versus Hamilton.

“Matt Nichols did a phenomenal job of managing the football game,” says Reed. “We got all the answers that we were expecting from Matt. Situationally he was tremendous, in terms of extending plays he was tremendous, but at this point now in a critical game we’re going with a healthy Kerry Joseph in there. We knew that Kerry was close to being back at that 95% that we wanted him to be. That week off allowed him to get back at that point. Matt is our number two guy now and he’s earned that.”

Can't see this as a good move.

One of the weird things is they are not far off having a good record.

But the natives are very restless, and Crandell has been sacrificed. Might have been kinder to him to fire him, with pay. But this way he can still be blamed for stuff, like quarterback play, and thrown under the bus again. If he is that bad, why keep him around? To explain the intricasies of the playbook to Kavis, who has never been an OC?

"Curiouser and curiouser," said Alice.

Of course, many esksfans, and even those outsiders that don't like the Former Evil Empire, think that the lack of a top flight QB is the problem. Ray is in Toronto. Jyles has been relegated to third string. Joseph gets the next start. Nichols back to the clipboard, but as number two. Kind of a merry go round.

On esksfans most of the heat goes to Tillman, the architect of it all. His hires, his players, his decisions. Reed is just the next fall guy in line. There was heat for Crandell, but fans saw him as handicapped with the QBs he was given. And Reed gets heat, but not as much as Tillman, who makes the big decisions. GM hires the Head Coach, brings in the players. If the season goes poorly GM fires the coach, not himself. Their record is not that bad. But the offence has been rather horrible. So the scapegoats have been prepared. And moves are made in an attempt to cool the heat generated at the GM. Some fans are suggesting that even Danny Maciocia was smarter than Eric Tillman.

I suspect that Tillman is the instigator of this move. Crandell is the first fall guy. Reed is now positioned as the next fall guy. Fall guys for whom? Eric Tillman of course.

I don't think this move will soothe the anger one reads on esksfans.

[TheLionKing]

Writing was on the wall when they brought in an advisor. Wouldn't be surprised if he has a different area code following this eason

[Toppy Vann]

Writing was on the wall when they brought in an advisor. Wouldn't be surprised if he has a different area code following this eason

You got that right.

Reed is starting to get unzipped here. His pre-game speeches seem like rants. Athletes in general aren't the best listeners so a message to players must be brief and focused on the key things they collectively need to do to win. Mike B. makes focused pre-game speeches. Reed drones on and you can rest assured that no one in that room is even hearing him. The best teams are where the coaches say a few things that are the keys and when the players are interviewed, they are saying the exact same things. The phrase "play our game" has to be code in a team for the keys that don't need to be droned on and on about. If I had to listen to the same old rant from Reed about the Eskimo way and what others are saying about us and how we can't do it, I'd check out too.

This move is senseless as it is not only divisive in a team it doesn't end as the guy he is dumped is still there. There are very few HCs in football who can make the right overall decisions and call the offense or the defense. Trestman seems to be fine but then again even he admits that his QB in AC is a special player. How would that work out if he had a lesser guy at the helm.

Secondly, it makes it very hard in future to get someone hired as they see what you did with the last OC. LaPolice was an example of how that undid him in part - at least it contributed. Anyone with options would prefer a situation like in BC where the HC allows his coordinators to do their jobs.

A good leader and executive understands that the role of a HC is to do your job (understand how that role is diferent, yet how it influences the assistants) and how to delegate yet influence the work of the coordinators.

Reed if a good HC would have worked with his OC not dumped him. Doing it yourself means at the end of the year if you're not producing that you have no one to fire. Rookie error there Reed as it moved YOU closer to the door. Joe Mack firing Lapo moved himself closer to the door vs. year end sacrificing his HC to save his job.

The issue is in part at QB but also there are other problems there that the HC should be freed up to spot and get fixed.

Reed is showing some arrogance here in his sophomore year that might lead to his undoing.

[Blitz]

I have no idea what Reed is thinking...but his pre-game rants give an indication into his mindset...and his ego.

Kavis Reed has never coached offensively...never.

[Toppy Vann]

I have no idea what Reed is thinking...but his pre-game rants give an indication into his mindset...and his ego.

Kavis Reed has never coached offensively...never.

Go to Edmonton Sun and listen to this clown. It seems it is more and more about Kavis all the time. He puts the ME back into TEAM.
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/09/30/e ... r-position

He admits what you say here. Not an O guy ever.

Reed is breathing life into the old adage: A foolish Head Coach and his job are soon parted.
OK so I made this up.

This is either frustration at Crandell for not using Hugh Charles right and not helping their QBs as he showed he could do before or the HC about to be a former Esk HC.

But let's see this act for what it could very likely mean year end. Kavis Reed just moved a whole lot closer to the exit with this move as he is now down to his last option. Smart GMs and HCs never get down to their final option as it usually just gets your fired.

If you don't think this is about play selection and Crandell not taking advice to run and use Charles properly then possibly this scenario is likely and this goes like this:

Eric Tillman right now is no doubt focused on who his next HC will be and I say this for this reason alone.

ET is very smart. He knows if his HC takes over a role like this, this is that coaches final option.
If that does not work - and history shows it usually doesn't - that coach is done.

My reasoning: If Tillman was really committed to this HC he'd have advised against this public humiliation for Crandell and foolish move as he knows this is not a good move for a HC to do. We might have missed it but no doubt the departure of Reed has commenced with the bringing of the offensive advisor.

The good news for the GM: This also gives ET breathing room as he unlike Joe Mack in Wpg can at season's end call a press conference and announce that while Kavis is a great coach he took on too much and now they need to rebuild their coaching staff with someone who can give them stability and assemble a coaching staff and not try to do it all himself.

In the Video, Kavis talks of taking on a more leadership role in the offense. Hello, Kavis. You don't understand the term leadership. Leadership is influencing others, not doing it yourself you clown. This is not even good management as it implies that you can't delegate as you didn't hire the right people.

On David Kelly - the suspended miscreant from the NCAA - Reed says Kelly will have an expanded role and a greater voice in scheming, planning (IIRC) and scouting.

Maybe Crandell was given a lifeline with this advisor and chose his own path.

All of this stench and turmoil will not entirely take the heat of Eric Tillman as he did the big bad dirty and traded Ricky Ray but Kavis has been given a lot of rope here and seems set on hanging himself by season's end.

It makes you grateful for the stability of the BC Lions and the regime that David Braley has put in place here and that Wally Buono as GM and before as HC understands this stuff and knows the history as he has lived it. Therein lies the difference between Wally Buono and a Kavis Reed. Wally knows what he does not know well so gets assistants who do details on the x's and o's and lets him do the HC role and he did that well. When Mike B spoke of maybe being his own DC it concerned me.

There are very few of the like of a Mark Trestman who can do the HC job and call the plays effectively. But ask yourself how good would Mark Trestman be if had not come to the Als and had Anthony Cavillo pulling the trigger on his offense.

[TheLionKing]

Wondering who is asking Reed to take over the offence ? Tillman ??

[B.C.FAN]

"I have been asked to take over the offence and I have no problem with that,” said Reed of a weekend of examining the Eskimos after they became the first team in 63 years to lose all five games in September.

“After watching Friday’s game I decided to step forward.”

While he’s been a defensive co-ordinator and a special teams co-ordinator before, Reed’s only experience as a coach on offence was one season as a position coach dealing with running backs in Saskatchewan.

“I’m not experienced in offence. I understand it. But I’m not an expert. I’m a defensive coach in terms of expertise. For the sake of stability, I will orchestrate direction. It’s necessary at this time."

This is forced suicide. Tillman has the gun to Reed's head and is asking him to take on a coordinator's role for which he is completely unqualified in addition to being head coach of a losing team. By saying yes to this foollish plan, Reed gets to keep his job for another week and hope for a miracle.

[WestCoastJoe]

Kavis says he was asked to take over the OC position.

EDMONTON - The bizarre Edmonton Eskimos season, which began on Dec. 12 with the trading of Ricky Ray, just got even more bizarre.

“We’re 13 games into the season and our offence hasn’t been successful. I have been asked to take over the offence and I have no problem with that,” said Reed of a weekend of examining the Eskimos after they became the first team in 63 years to lose all five games in September.

“After watching Friday’s game I decided to step forward.”

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/09/30/e ... r-position

Tillman, providing some self serving spin, says otherwise:

TILLMAN: “Kavis and I met at 3 a.m. Saturday morning, right after everyone returned from Calgary. We both view Marcus Crandell as a bright young coach but sometimes young coaches go through growing pains — and it’s obvious our offence has some challenges. So after that late night discussion, some sleep and film review, we sat down again. Kavis recommendation was that it might be best for Marcus to take a step back and for Kavis to assume a much larger role on that side of the ball. In the name of good internal communication we took the recommendation to our club president Len Rhodes and agreed that would be our course for the rest of the season.” -- Terry Jones interview ...

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/10/01/j ... s-hot-seat

And bring Rhodes into the decision also for some more cover.
.................

How about that new kicker you gave up a first and fourth round pick for? McKnight? Didn't go there. Too much other stuff to talk about.
.................

“I’m not experienced in offence. I understand it. But I’m not an expert. I’m a defensive coach in terms of expertise. For the sake of stability, I will orchestrate direction. It’s necessary at this time.

“I hope to be a creative voice. I think we have the ability to be more explosive. And I hope to contribute to improved time of possession. When we won our first five games we led in time of possession. Time of possession is vitally important in football.”

“I’ll be responsible for the offence moving forward,” said the second year head coach who takes a five-game losing streak into Friday’s crucial crossover playoff position between the 5-8 Eskimos and the 5-8 Ticats at Commonwealth Stadium.

“I will attempt to make some adjustments to do what we need to do, manage some of the schemes to use the talent we have to have a more vertical game, a game more like we showed in the first half against the B.C. Lions,” he said of the last home game.”

Crandell will still make the play calls. And he will sit upstairs with David Kelly, the Offensive Advisor.

“Marcus will still mechanically call the plays in the quarterback’s ear piece. I will be more connected. I will be instrumental in preparing the game plan with David Kelly,” he said.

Translation: Crandell will not be involved in game planning like he was in the past.

Marcus will not be OC. He will not make the game plan. But he will make the play calls. The new OC, Reed will be on the field, but not making the play calls.

http://www.edmontonsun.com/2012/09/30/e ... r-position
.............

Oh yeah, and by the way, Marcus has not been demoted. According to Reed.

EDMONTON - Marcus Crandell isn’t quite out the door, but he’s no longer the Edmonton Eskimos offensive co-ordinator, either.

Crandell was reassigned as quarterbacks coach on Sunday, two days after the Eskimos lost their fifth straight game and fell to 5-8 in the Canadian Football League’s West Division standings.

Eskimos head coach Kavis Reed adds offensive co-ordinator to his list of duties and will lean on his offensive coaches to help him through the rest of the season. He clarified that his announcement wasn’t about a demotion.

“It’s not a demotion,” he said. “Despite reports that may be coming from out east, it’s not a demotion, he wasn’t demoted. I’m going to be more … in the front or in the lead in terms of offensively. That’s the case here.

“This is going to obviously need the entire coaching staff, the offensive staff’s co-operation as I’m not an expert in offences,” Reed said. “I have a working understanding, but I’m not an expert. This is more of a leadership role versus coming in and being the orchestrator of the offence.”

“This is not going to be offensive co-ordinator by committee,” he said. “This is going to be a situation where hopefully the plan is for me to be the pivot, to make certain that we get things done in a more efficient way.”

...........

And how about the young guy, Matt Nichols?

“Matt Nichols did a phenomenal job of managing the football game (on Friday). We got all the answers that we were expecting from Matt,” he said. “Situationally, he was tremendous.

“In terms of extending plays, he was tremendous. But at this point now in a critical game with a healthy Kerry Joseph — and we knew last week that Kerry was close at being back at that 95 per cent that we wanted him to be — that week allowed him to get back to that point.

“Matt is our No. 2 guy now and he’s earned that.”

Phenomenal job, tremendous. But ... Joseph will start. Jyles to number three.
..........

http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/f ... story.html

Now Crandell and Kelly will be stationed in the spotters’ booth during games, with Crandell in contact with newly designated starting quarterback Kerry Joseph’s headset. Reed will remain on the sidelines, obviously, having helped his offensive brain trust craft an effective plan during the week. Or so goes the plan, at any rate.

But, panning from a height greater than the spotters’ booth, the big picture is grim at the moment. All the coaching manoeuvres cannot obscure the obvious fact that departed quarterback Ricky Ray and the Argonauts are in position to battle for first place in the East Division, while the Eskimos scramble to stay in contact with third-place Saskatchewan in the West and Hamilton in the East for the crossover playoff spot.

Having traded Ray, supposedly to get younger, more versatile and less costly at quarterback, the Eskimos prepare to face the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Friday with Joseph, who turns 39 on Thursday, anointed No. 1, development QB Matt Nichols as No. 2 and Jyles, the principal in the Ray trade, carrying the clipboard as the third-stringer.

..............

Does any of this improve the team's chances of performing well? I don't think so.

Does any of this make Tillman's job safer? I don't think so.

Does it make Reed's job safer? No, he is next in line as scapegoat.

Does any of this make the fans happier? I don't think so.

Does any of this distract from performance? I do think so.

Does this look like an attempt to look like something proactive is being done? I do think so.

Is it a mess of management decision making? I do think so.

[TheLionKing]

Eerily reminds me of Steve Burratto sitting in the spotter's box and Chapdelaine on the field

[South Pender]

After seeing the tape, I kind of get the impression that David Kelly might now be the de facto OC. Or perhaps he and Marcus Crandell sharing that and providing information re game planning and play selection to Kavis Reed, who will pass it along to the players. Reed sort of implied that there was a lack of leadership in effect and that the players need to hear the offensive message from someone with more authority (Reed). If this is the case, Reed's lack of offensive bona fides may not count for much.