Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
EDMONTON — The season doesn’t start until June but the journey for the Edmonton Eskimos begins with three days in April.
The Esks embark on their annual three-day mini-camp Sunday in Vero Beach, Fla., a date newly-hired head coach Jason Maas has had circled all off-season.
For Maas and an Eskimos staff with many new faces, April 17-19 is about setting the tone early above all else.
“The way I look at it is the 2016 season starts with your mini-camp, bottom line,” Maas said in an interview with TSN 1260’s Jason Gregor. “It’s the first time your coaching staff is with players that are potentially going to be with your team.
“So yeah,” Maas continued. “I’m fired up for it and it’s a good dry run to our training camp and what to expect from it and you always want to start fast and furious.”
Maas talked mini-camp and how the Esks’ offence might look in 2016 among other things in the 13-minute long interview with Gregor, which can be heard in its entirety on TSN.ca.
It’s that time of year again in the CFL, when many teams hit the field for the first time in 2016 in voluntary organized team activities. The Riders were the first to assemble last week in historic Dodgertown, with more than 100 players working out in front of Chris Jones and the team’s new-look coaching staff.
RELATED: Riders ‘fast and physical’ as mini-camp wraps up
The Eskimos will be focused on two things primarily: first, creating a competitive environment, particularly at positions of need like defensive back; and second, getting a newly-designed offence on the ground running.
Mike Reilly, Adarius Bowman and Deon Lacey will be among veterans heading down south, while the rest of the camp will be made up of CFL rookies hoping to earn an invitation to training camp come the end of May.
On the defensive side of the ball, the Esks hope to generate come competition for the positions left by Otha Foster and Aaron Grymes, both of whom left as free agents.
“We’re looking for competition and for the players that we’ve scouted through this whole off-season to come together and see what we have,” said Maas in the same interview. “We’re looking for players; we’ve got some holes to fill. There’s some competition to be had at training camp.”
Offensively, meanwhile, Maas will look to get the offence moving faster.
“For Mike and the other veterans it’s just about getting back to football and seeing what kind of shape they’re in,” he concluded. “We’re a little more fast-paced, more no huddle than they were last year.
“It’s getting back to football more than anything. We’re six weeks out and we want to get things off on the right foot.”
“We’re six weeks out and we want to get things off on the right foot.”
Maas, a former CFL quarterback of 12 seasons with the Eskimos, Tiger-Cats and Alouettes, was hired to replace Jones following the Eskimos’ Grey Cup Championship back in November. Jones was courted and eventually hired by the Riders to take over the role of general manager as well as head coach, taking most of his coaching staff with him from Edmonton to Saskatchewan.
The Esks hired Maas as Jones’ replacement. Now 40, Maas started his coaching career as an assistant to Scott Milanovich in Toronto before engineering one of the league’s top offences as an offensive coordinator in Ottawa, leading the second-year REDBLACKS to the Grey Cup.
Edmonton kicks off its regular season on June 25 in a Grey Cup rematch with the REDBLACKS in Edmonton.
