Franklin’s return out of question; Esks look for value in trade

EDMONTON — Edmonton Eskimos general manager Brock Sunderland asked James Franklin numerous times if he wanted to stay an Eskimo and the quarterback said no.

“I asked him multiple times point blank, ‘If I even offered you a contract or is it worth me even offering?’” Sunderland told the media on Monday afternoon. “And he said no and was very respectful in how he did it but he was honest. It was either get something in return for him or he was going to walk and we’d get nothing.”

Franklin, along with a third-round pick in the 2018 draft, was traded to the Toronto Argonauts on Monday in exchange for offensive lineman Mason Woods. Sunderland said Franklin “made it very clear” that he wasn’t going to come back to Edmonton to continue to be the back up to Mike Reilly and instead wanted to battle for a starting position somewhere else in the league.

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“He wants to go compete and we have the MVP of the league,” Sunderland said. “He wasn’t going to be here and we thought if we could get value for someone that’s not going to be here, that would be the best decision for our organization.”

That value came in a 6-foot-9, 324-pound package who has yet to play on a CFL field.

But Sunderland isn’t worried about Woods’ inexperience since he has seen what the 23-year-old can do and that he could potentially be a ratio breaker.

“He’s very versatile and that was very appealing about him and something that we thought a lot of value of,” he said of Woods. “He can play guard and tackle and he did it on both the right and left sides. What it does for us is it potentially allows us to flip our ratio and go four Canadian offensive linemen which allows us to play another international whether it be linebacker, DB, maybe all wide receivers.”

Now Sunderland and the Esks have time to assess the team’s quarterback position to find a viable option to back up Reilly. He said the team may stick with someone already within the organization, like Danny O’Brien or Zach Kline, find someone who is already established in the CFL or go completely off the board with someone who they’ve scouted elsewhere.

That’s why, as Sunderland points out, it was important to get the deal done early.

“We knew we were going to move on so it gives us time to evaluate the whole quarterback position and try to find the best back up.”