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I feel sorry for Mike. Last year he had to put up with either an oline that let him down, or a D that caved when it mattered most. Now he comes to BC and ends up with the same, while all that has improved in Edmonton.

I do wonder if all the punishment he has take over the years has affected his head in a way that is affecting his throwing. For the last couple of years, I have been reluctantly noticing that his passing is not as accurate as it was. Sure he got completions and yards but so much of the time it was because the receivers made last second adjustments and or great catches on balls that were not as accurate as they use to be. Unfortunately I still noticed the same last couple of games and unfortunately, on the whole, Lions receivers are not the calibre of what Reilly had in Edmonton.

I think Reilly still throws a good ball. I didn’t notice any problems in training camp. His passes were crisp and accurate for the most part and he was extremely accurate on deep routes except for repeated overthrows to Duron Carter. That may have had more to do with Carter’s route-running than Reilly’s passing.

Being pressured in the pocket can make a big difference. Reilly was hurried and hit hard throughout the Edmonton game. The O-line gave him better protection against Winnipeg and Calgary and he passed for over 300 yards in both games. In Calgary he completed over 80% of his passes despite contending wih a stiff Prairie breeze.

Reilly worked out with all of his receivers when he signed here. All came except for Duron Carter. It will take a little while to get the timing down but I am happy with Reilly's performance thus far.

You can't argue with his numbers against Calgary!


DH

It's also the passing routes that the Lions have receivers running.

No QB hits 100% of his targets and receivers always have been part of making a top QB even more of a star.

I hope you guys are right but....

interesting, not in a good way, the timing of my observations about the change in Reilly's play and his mental health issue occurring just before.

I fear now that it may be worse than I first speculated on. He is just not his old self. Even with the poor play of the rest of the offense, old Reilly would have done noticeable better, IMO

KnowItAll wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 27, 2019 6:58 pm

interesting, not in a good way, the timing of my observations about the change in Reilly's play and his mental health issue occurring just before.

I fear now that it may be worse than I first speculated on. He is just not his old self. Even with the poor play of the rest of the offense, old Reilly would have done noticeable better, IMO

Weren't you the one suggesting to WCJ, you can't make certain assumptions? LOL, Yet you can make assumptions - and yes you can. It's an open forum ...

All joking aside, Mike Reilly has been open about his challenges in football and how down he was after the collapse of his first marriage and how it was going here in BC - and how Travis Lulay was there for him. I don't think he's under that now and he's not one to run from pressure.

Mike Reilly's play here is not the issue. If he had a better O-line he'd be fine. I think he's not showing as much as others would in the pressure they're under.

I posted elsewhere that the Lions should cut Reilly. It would be in the best interest of the player and the team.

I am not blaming Reilly. I think he is still one of the elite QBs in the CFL. But the Lions are not going to be successful with him on the roster because they can't afford to fix problems as long as they are handcuffed to his 4-year, $2.9M contract.

Reilly, as tough as he is, will be lucky to remain healthy enough to collect his salary for the next 3 seasons. He is literally putting his career in jeopardy by playing behind the O-line he has now. But he's stuck. He can't quit and move elsewhere. He can't even demand a trade because his hefty salary makes him virtually un-tradable. So he goes into each game wondering if this is the night he gets a career ending concussion or has his shoulder or legs destroyed. And for every game he starts that the Lions lose his market value decreases just a little bit more.

There are only two scenarios that I see benefiting either the Lions or Reilly. He gets cut so the Lions can get back some cap money (and Reilly can go play for a team where he can be successful, hello Hamilton) or Reilly agrees to take a big cut in pay for the remainder of his contract so the Lions can spend some money to protect him.

But if you were Reilly, would you trust Hervey (the GM who paid Chung $250K to be one of his pylons) to spend the money you walked away from wisely? Of course not. Ol' Ed(monton) Hervey will just sign the first Eskimo cast-off he can find. So why would Reilly agree to continue to play in BC for say $500K when he could easily make the same money on a team that is not a total dumpster fire?

I know it sounds crazy to suggest that a struggling (an understatement) team would cut a marquis QB, in a league where you can't be successful without a great QB, but that's exactly what I think the Lions need to do. Chris Strevler is a free agent at the end of the season. The Lions would be much better off with him at sub-$300K and the balance of Reilly's contract spent fixing problems elsewhere on the roster.

Of course to do that we first need to get a GM who knows what he is doing and looks for "talent" somewhere other than the the Eskimos transaction wire.

Belize City Lion wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 28, 2019 12:49 pm

I posted elsewhere that the Lions should cut Reilly. It would be in the best interest of the player and the team.

....

I know it sounds crazy to suggest that a struggling (an understatement) team would cut a marquis QB, in a league where you can't be successful without a great QB, but that's exactly what I think the Lions need to do. Chris Strevler is a free agent at the end of the season. The Lions would be much better off with him at sub-$300K and the balance of Reilly's contract spent fixing problems elsewhere on the roster.

Interesting suggestion. I agree with you that it would be in Reilly's best interest from the standpoint of prolonging his career and staying healthy. Not sure he'd want to go to Hamilton as it's not very close to Seattle. I think Vancouver's proximity to Seattle is the only reason we won the Reilly sweepstakes. It certainly wasn't for the team's legacy of great play over the years and I don't think we paid him an amount of money that was light years beyond what any other team was willing to pay. (I could be wrong on that point).

I have to disagree with it helping BC in any way. As you said, having extra money to spend is only helpful if you know how to spend it. And, if I'm a quarterback, the last place I want to go is where my career is put in perpetual peril due to a sieve O-line and incompetent OC. And on top of that, there's this QB graveyard perception we would have with Lulay's career cut short due to injury, Jennings being run out of town on a career downward trajectory after starting with a string of brilliance and lastly Reilly being mysteriously run out of town / traded / whatever. If I'm a QB looking for a job, BC would be my last option.

So, while I can see where you're coming from, BC and Reilly are stuck with each other for the foreseeable future and they need to figure out how to make it better.

I'll end on an optimistic (for 2020) note. Reilly's first year in Edmonton was pretty awful too. Maybe at the end of the year, they agree to restructure the contract over a longer term to free up some money to buy an O and D line that can play. Assuming Jarious is gone and maybe some others like Hervey, next year can be better.

It's not Mike Reilly's fault who the GM brings in to play on the O-line and who thinks just his nationals on the DEF side can win in this CFL.

I agree that Reilly is not the problem. If we gave Reilly the same amount of time to pick his receivers that we give opposing QB's, Reilly would be leading the team to victories (even with our OC) and the season would not be a write-off.

I think we all have the greatest respect for Mike Reilly. No one pays the price like Mike Reilly. He stands in there, taking the hits, trying to win games.

I respect his sharing the mental health issue he has made public. That will be beneficial to so many others, in various careers, unwilling to share things that we are just beginning to understand. Glad to hear Mike has an outstanding support system.

I think he can play pretty much as well as ever. Not as mobile, at his age, with the mileage, et cetera. But we need to modify the pass protection schemes, which involve more than just what we expect from the O Line. He has significant input into the game plans. I hope we see adjustments, as discussed on here in some detail. Hot routes, et cetera, as mentioned by BCFAN. 5 on 5, with one blitzer, and no help for the O Line is not working. Tight end sets. Hot routes. Outlet passes to the RB. Quick passes into the vacated zone. We need all of that, and more.

Mike Reilly is not the problem. You could argue that his salary is a problem, and that's a debate I think that is valid (though that issue is overcome with top notch recruiting like we had 10-15 years ago). I think Calgary is in a similar position where they are spending a massive amount on one guy and that has hurt their team depth. That Calgary team could very easily be 2-4 right now if not for Rick Campbell gifting them a game, and the Lions collapsing in the final 3 minutes.

The problem with the team's offense mostly stems from an ineffective offensive system installed by Jarious Jackson, as well as an offensive line that has been leakier than I can remember. Our receivers aren't getting open. I'm not sure if that's because of the design, or because they don't have the time to get open, but I'm not seeing the plethora of open receivers that we see the other team having when they're matched up against our defense (another issue as well). Reilly is still getting the ball off quickly, so it's not like he is holding onto the ball too long. But we need to improve our pass protection to give him a chance to make something happen.

The_Pauser wrote: ↑

Mon Jul 29, 2019 10:55 am

I think Calgary is in a similar position where they are spending a massive amount on one guy and that has hurt their team depth.

Calgary is paying similar money for BLM, but they already had depth. If you recall in 2018 the Stamps suffered an endless parade of injuries, including their entire receiving corps., and yet Huffnagel always had someone who could step up and fill in. Huff & Dickenson spent years building that team, including developing BLM from raw rookie to league MVP.

Meanwhile, BC has Mike Reilly and not much else. We are in year two of the purge by Ed(monton) Hervey to get rid of nearly everyone who could be considered one of "Wally's guys" and replace them with any warm body that had so much as a cup of coffee in "the city of champions".

If the OLINE can get settled Reilly should be fine only if we got some variation in the schemes and play calling.

Farhan suggested maybe too many rookie OFF coaches but he seemed to skirt the issue that they've had no influence as Jarius like his QB maybe doesn't want input as to me it look likes just Jarius has any input on the game plans and calls.