Update: Michael Reilly retires

[JohnnyMusso]

It was suggested by Province writer JJ Adams that Reilly may decide enough is enough and retire. He will be 37 in January and has taken a beating last 2 years. Also he is in training to be a firefighter and could decide to retire and do that.

Why come back if Lions don't look on paper much better next season. It is possible Lions could end year losing to the Elks and finishing 4 and 10. Without much change coming to both the coaching and personnel ranks why come back for another losing season and likely have to take another payout. I predict Lions likely to miss playoffs again with or without Reilly.

Also I disagree with another user on another thread that their backup could be offered a $300,000 if Reilly retires. He is totally unproven and I would not offer him more than $200,000 and even that may be too much. If Reilly does retire, my bet is Lions go after a QB that likely will be the starter. Could Harris or Evans end up here. I could see Trevor Harris coming if Campbell is back. He likely would get a prove me contract for around $150,000 to $200,000. Harris had a bad year and may be down to his last contract. Lions may roll the dice on him since he has a past relationship with Campbell.

[Lion Guy]

If the Lions sign Trevor Harris I will become a Stampeder fan

[B.C.FAN]

Trevor Harris will be 36 next year. Michael Reilly will be 37. The only advantage of signing Harris would be to save money. Reilly is leading the league in passing despite playing all season with a bad throwing elbow. Assuming he recovers by next season, he’s still a top-tier QB. Damon Allen won a Grey Cup at 41. Tom Brady has won seven Super Bowls, four of them at age 37 or more (37, 39, 41 and 43). I’d love to see the Lions make more use of Nathan Rourke’s running ability and strong arm but Reilly still gives the team its best chance to win.

[Hambone]

The Harris suggestion is laughable. Let's see. It's being suggested dumping Reilly because he's turning 37 in the New Year. The opined solution is to replace him with Harris who turns 36 before the 2022 training camp?!?!? We may be seeimg Father Time nipping at Reilly's heels but at the same time he's also chewing at Harris' heels. Replacing Reilly with Harris will not sell one single ticket in Vancouver unless it's to Harris' family. Thanks but I'd rather stick with Reilly and his current contract than turn the keys over to Harris.

Really what is there if the Lions want to go scrap heaping for a veteran alternative to Reilly? There's the aforementioned Harris. Hamilton will need to make a choice between Masoli and Evans who I believe are both on expiring deals. Matt Nichols and Antonio Pipkin are out there too. No doubt Ottawa will have significant interest in those available. I don't know if Toronto is 100% all in on MBT. Certainly there will be strong competition on the open market for the likes of Evans and Masoli.

[JohnnyMusso]

I did not realize Harris is 36. I thought he was about 30. He must have started his career late. My mistake.

Ok forget about Harris. I personally don't see Reilly as our best chance to win. Hervey's decision to sign him to a big contract was a big mistake. It ahs been a failure. Who cares if he leads the league in passing if we are 4 and 9 and could end up 4 and 10. The record is what counts and Reilly has not lead us to the playoffs in 2 straight years and don't think you can just blame the OC. Last year it was Jarious Jackson's fault. Yes neither OC has been good, but Reilly has to take some of the blame for the bad record. Yesterday, he had Lucky Whitehead wide open on a long throw and missed. He may have scored if he got the ball. Reilly will be 37 years old and is past his prime. I would make a play for Dane Evans, who I think is the one Tiger Cats will trade, not Masoli, who I think is better. I agree now Harris cannot sell any tickets, but after 2 failed years, Riley will not either. In fact, no new QB will, for let's face it Lions are a hard sell now in this market and after 2 bad years cannot sell 1 ticket especially if Campbell is back. I personally don't like the coaches cap for it looks bush league. In every other league, you can fire the coach or clean house, but in the CFL teams will be forced to keep bad coaches until their contract runs out. Campbell deserves to be fired and if he is coming back for a 2nd year will not sell any tickets. Does not matter what new owner will do in offseason, if same old crew is bad and the team is as boring to watch as they have been last 2 years. Just look at this forum compared to Canucks forums and you will see the interest level in the Lions. It is at an all time low and in 2 or 3 years we may not have a team if the trend continues.

[KnowItAll]

I dont think Reilly should take the blame for lousy blocking, lousy D, lousy kicking, etc. Reilly has mostly done his part. Two losses directly because of faulty kicking. Make that 6 and 7. Maybe he hasnt been his best the last couple of seasons, but if the rest of the team and coaching had been up to par...........

[JohnnyMusso]

I said part of the blame and still stand by my statement. Cannot absolve him for 2 whole seasons. Yes there are other problems, but he is not the same QB he was in Edmonton and his high salary caused Hervey to cut many of our leaders like Solly and we have not recovered from that. Also not bringing back Bighill was a huge blunder. He wanted back, but Hervey said no.

The problem is tying up most of salary cap for 3 or 4 players and filling out most of roster with rookies has killed us. I hate to say it, but wish Buono was back for since he left we have really fallen off a cliff. I would trust him more to rebuild this team than Campbell. You cannot bring Reilly back at $500,000 or whatever he makes, and he may decide to retire. It is 50/50 I think. The team will be 4 and 10 or 5 and 9 and has to improve dramatically next season or it will be another lost year.

[Hambone]

I did not realize Harris is 36. I thought he was about 30. He must have started his career late. My mistake.

Probably didn't notice because Harris had been working in the shadows for 5 years first as Ricky Ray's backup then Henry Burris' caddy before earning his first fulltime starting role in 2017.

Counting the cancelled 2020 season this is Harris' 10th CFL campaign. Reilly signed with BC in late July of the 2010 season. Harris signed with the Argos in March 2012 and would suit up for all 18 games for the Argos in 2012. Reilly has 168 regular season GP to Harris' 142.

[tedbear]

I said part of the blame and still stand by my statement. Cannot absolve him for 2 whole seasons. Yes there are other problems, but he is not the same QB he was in Edmonton and his high salary caused Hervey to cut many of our leaders like Solly and we have not recovered from that. Also not bringing back Bighill was a huge blunder. He wanted back, but Hervey said no.

The problem is tying up most of salary cap for 3 or 4 players and filling out most of roster with rookies has killed us. I hate to say it, but wish Buono was back for since he left we have really fallen off a cliff. I would trust him more to rebuild this team than Campbell. You cannot bring Reilly back at $500,000 or whatever he makes, and he may decide to retire. It is 50/50 I think. The team will be 4 and 10 or 5 and 9 and has to improve dramatically next season or it will be another lost year.

Be careful what you wish for and you better make sure you have an adequate replacement before you throw Reilly to the scrap heap. It doesn't matter how much money you throw around the rest of the team if you don"t have a top Quarterback you have NO CHANCE. For an example just look at how Winnipeg's vaunted offence looked when they sat Collaros yesterday.

Michael Reilly is one of the top 3 Qbs in the league this year. Get him to take a haircut on the salary, get a dominant D Lineman, and fix the kicking problems and you can add at least 4 wins on to this years total.

[tedbear]

I did not realize Harris is 36. I thought he was about 30. He must have started his career late. My mistake.

Ok forget about Harris. I personally don't see Reilly as our best chance to win. Hervey's decision to sign him to a big contract was a big mistake. It ahs been a failure. Who cares if he leads the league in passing if we are 4 and 9 and could end up 4 and 10. The record is what counts and Reilly has not lead us to the playoffs in 2 straight years and don't think you can just blame the OC. Last year it was Jarious Jackson's fault. Yes neither OC has been good, but Reilly has to take some of the blame for the bad record. Yesterday, he had Lucky Whitehead wide open on a long throw and missed. He may have scored if he got the ball. Reilly will be 37 years old and is past his prime. I would make a play for Dane Evans, who I think is the one Tiger Cats will trade, not Masoli, who I think is better. I agree now Harris cannot sell any tickets, but after 2 failed years, Riley will not either. In fact, no new QB will, for let's face it Lions are a hard sell now in this market and after 2 bad years cannot sell 1 ticket especially if Campbell is back. I personally don't like the coaches cap for it looks bush league. In every other league, you can fire the coach or clean house, but in the CFL teams will be forced to keep bad coaches until their contract runs out. Campbell deserves to be fired and if he is coming back for a 2nd year will not sell any tickets. Does not matter what new owner will do in offseason, if same old crew is bad and the team is as boring to watch as they have been last 2 years. Just look at this forum compared to Canucks forums and you will see the interest level in the Lions. It is at an all time low and in 2 or 3 years we may not have a team if the trend continues.

If the team starts winning the fans will come back.

[TheLionKing]

Firefighters don't make $500,000 per year.

[Hambone]

Firefighters don't make $500,000 per year.

No but they can make a lot more than the majority of CFL players who aren't starting QBs. At least they can on this side of the border. In the annual report on PG's highest paid City employees are 30 firefighters making from over $125K with some in the $150K+ range.

I highly doubt Reilly would pack it in before living up to the final year of his current contract. After the 2022 season the odds of that jump significantly.

[Sir Purrcival]

I dont think Reilly should take the blame for lousy blocking, lousy D, lousy kicking, etc. Reilly has mostly done his part. Two losses directly because of faulty kicking. Make that 6 and 7. Maybe he hasnt been his best the last couple of seasons, but if the rest of the team and coaching had been up to par...........

I can agree with this but the challenge going forward is whether or not the rest of the team could improve to the point where he might be more effective. Given how many years we have had issues with a lack of solid OLines and DLines, history suggests that a sudden change in those areas is not likely. Now we seem to have added to our troubles by seeing our kicking game go downhill and for the most of this season have no running game to speak of. I can think of $500,000+ reasons why Reilly would stick with it for another year. It will be the last big contract of his career. However, with all of the others areas of weakness in this franchise, It seems paying for the most expensive QB in the land is throwing good money after bad. I don't think Doug Flutie in his prime would be able to make this incarnation of the Lion's a winner. So why not start the process of repairing the two most glaring problems D and O lines. In my opinion even an average QB can be successful given decent protection and time. By contrast the best QB in the world isn't going to be able to function when he is always scrambling for his life and looking up at the score clock from the flat of his back.

I think to be fair to the man, it would make sense to try and trade him to a team that has a decent shot of making some noise in a playoff scenario. A team that has most of the parts but maybe needs that top tier QB to put them over. Gives him a chance to go out on a high note and us the chance to start to build a winner. Maybe get something back that will help us. Not likely but that would be the ideal scenario.

[Luck1sOnOurSid3]

I dont think Reilly should take the blame for lousy blocking, lousy D, lousy kicking, etc. Reilly has mostly done his part. Two losses directly because of faulty kicking. Make that 6 and 7. Maybe he hasnt been his best the last couple of seasons, but if the rest of the team and coaching had been up to par...........

I can agree with this but the challenge going forward is whether or not the rest of the team could improve to the point where he might be more effective. Given how many years we have had issues with a lack of solid OLines and DLines, history suggests that a sudden change in those areas is not likely. Now we seem to have added to our troubles by seeing our kicking game go downhill and for the most of this season have no running game to speak of. I can think of $500,000+ reasons why Reilly would stick with it for another year. It will be the last big contract of his career. However, with all of the others areas of weakness in this franchise, It seems paying for the most expensive QB in the land is throwing good money after bad. I don't think Doug Flutie in his prime would be able to make this incarnation of the Lion's a winner. So why not start the process of repairing the two most glaring problems D and O lines. In my opinion even an average QB can be successful given decent protection and time. By contrast the best QB in the world isn't going to be able to function when he is always scrambling for his life and looking up at the score clock from the flat of his back.

I think to be fair to the man, it would make sense to try and trade him to a team that has a decent shot of making some noise in a playoff scenario. A team that has most of the parts but maybe needs that top tier QB to put them over. Gives him a chance to go out on a high note and us the chance to start to build a winner. Maybe get something back that will help us. Not likely but that would be the ideal scenario.

I think the only problem moving Reilly to a contender team is that he came to BC to be closer to family. He could have gone to a number of contenders as a FA for just as much money as we gave him, but chose BC for family reasons.

[Sir Purrcival]

He would do it for 1 year and then likely retire at the end of his current contract. 500 grand will take the edge off some distance.