Esks.com
Mini-camps are nothing new to the Edmonton Eskimos, but they’ve never had one like this before.
GM Brock Sunderland and coach Jason Maas will have their full roster out at the UNLV campus in Las Vegas from Saturday until Tuesday.
The camp will wrap up just a month before training camps open across the CFL for the 2018 season (May 20). Given that their first pre-season game is a week into training camp, on May 27 at home against Saskatchewan, the trip to Vegas will be an important starting point for their season.
With that in mind, here are some of the main things to watch for as the camp unfolds.
Year 1, AD
Adarius Bowman was the fifth-most productive receiver in Edmonton last season (534 yards in 12 games), but was a fixture in the locker room, where he’d established himself as one of the top receivers in the league over the last seven years. Life after Bowman, who was released on Feb. 5 and later signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, will be more about a new voice establishing itself in the room and more specifically, a receiver taking ownership of that group.
After his release from the Eskimos, Adarius Bowman has found a new home in Winnipeg (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
Derel Walker, who will enjoy just his second full season played in the CFL this year, is the prime candidate to do that. The 26-year-old had 1,589 receiving yards in 2016 and and 634 in eight games last year, after returning from the NFL. With Brandon Zylstra taking his shot at the NFL this season, Walker is also likely the No. 1 target for Mike Reilly going into this season.
D’haquille Williams (715 yards) and Vidal Hazelton (709 yards) were second and third, respectively, last year in receiving on the team and Reilly has spoken highly of Bryant Mitchell (482 yards) since the receiver got on the team’s periphery in 2015. Don’t forget Kenny Stafford, who was lost in the shuffle of trying to re-integrate Walker back into the offence last year.
Youth movement, defensive edition
The Esks’ defensive line is undergoing similar change, having lost its two sack leaders from 2017 in Euclid Cummings and fan favourite Odell Willis. Leadership won’t be a question on the D-line, though. Almondo Sewell’s eighth CFL season gets underway in Vegas. The 31-year-old is a different presence than Willis, but will be looked to as the leader among his fellow linemen.
Free agent signing Alex Bazzie and second-year player Jake Ceresna, who came to Edmonton in the Willis trade, will get to line up with their new teammates and see where they fit. Maas, DC Mike Benevides and D-line coach Demetrious Maxie will use the mini-camp to evaluate what they have — 2017 draft pick Kwaku Boateng could blossom this year with more opportunity at DE — and how this group will come together.
Meet your team, KG
All of the deserved fanfare of Kevin Glenn’s free agent signing with the Esks — he’s got a jersey from every team in the CFL now — can be put aside, or at least on hold, as he’ll finally get on the field with his new team and start to learn Maas’ offence.
Kevin Glenn is set to complete the circuit, joining the Eskimos has his ninth CFL team (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
With the departure of backup James Franklin, Glenn is a sensible pickup for a team that’ll make a big push to play in the Grey Cup it’s hosting at the end of the season. Studying the playbook through the winter is one thing, but getting on the field with receivers running routes and getting input as you go from coaches is much more valuable. It’s also a chance for Glenn to build chemistry with receivers, work with Reilly…and maybe get a few thousand likes when he takes a selfie in his Esks practice gear. These will be an important four days for Glenn.
Introducing the three-headed running back monster
As the 2017 season ended, there were concerns about what the Eskimos would be able to do at the running back, with all of their in-house options all heading into free agency. Sunderland kept all three, inking the dominant C.J. Gable through the 2019 season. He also signed Travon Van and John White to one-year deals after each player briefly tested free agency.
There’s certainly depth at the RB spot now, but Gable is the assumed starter. Van’s versatility — he’s a great return option — could factor into his usage this season. White, when healthy — he’s coming back from a torn ACL suffered in Week 2 last year — provides a 1-A, 1-B option with Gable. Training camp will provide the structure for all of this, but the mini-camp will give the coaches a glimpse of what they’ll have when things get going full-time next month.
Healthy bodies!
JC Sherritt, John White, Ryan King, Simeon Rottier, Travon Van, Sean Whyte, Vidal Hazelton, Blair Smith, Adam Konar. That’s just a sampling of players that were lost for the season or at least six-gamed in a historic campaign that tested the team’s depth and Sunderland’s ability to find productive players in his first season as a GM. They may not all be fully 100 per cent yet, but this camp should make for the best-looking roster the Eskimos have had on the field since they opened training camp last year. The players that went through last year’s injury-riddled season will appreciate that.
