Questions loom for Eskimos in off-season

CFL.ca Staff

EDMONTON — It hadn’t even been 24 hours since Mike Reilly and the Edmonton Eskimos had played their last snap of the 2018 season and the questions surrounding the veteran quarterback’s future were front and centre.

Despite the fact that Reilly is a pending free agent, the Esks pivot said he hasn’t put much thought into where he’ll be suiting up next season just yet.

“Right now I’m an Edmonton Eskimo and that’s really the only thing that I’m comfortable talking about to be honest with you,” Reilly told members of the media at the team’s final media availability of the season on Sunday. “I’ve had a great six years here and if it continues here, I’ll be lucky to have that opportunity, of course.”

Will Mike Reilly hit the open market in February? (Adam Gagnon/CFL.ca)

“I’ve loved my time in Edmonton so far to this point,” he continued. “It’s definitely been a privilege to play for the green and gold. Every time I put that jersey on I feel a tremendous amount of pride playing for this city, playing with the teammates that we have in that locker room, playing for the coaching staff, playing for this organization.”

General manager Brock Sunderland confirmed that the organization has already started having conversations with the 33-year-old pivot about his future and staying with the Eskimos.

“(We) have already started talking to Mike,” Sunderland said when asked if the Esks had begun contract conversations with Reilly. “There have been offers made. I know this, Mike is very well aware of what we think of him and how badly we would like him here.”

With the 2018 season in the rear view mirror, Sunderland says that the evaluation of his team has already started. Player exit interviews have begun and Tuesday he’ll meet with head coach Jason Maas to discuss what went wrong for the 9-9 Eskimos squad.

“Right now, we’re in the very first stages of evaluating the organization from head to toe,” Sunderland said when asked if Maas will be back as head coach in 2019. “Today (Sunday) and tomorrow (Monday), we’re going to go through all of the player exit interviews and then Jason and I are going to get together Tuesday night and we’re going to collaborate on what went wrong and what we feel can fix it and then we’re going to go from there.”

“We’re evaluating,” Maas agreed with his GM, when questioned about returning to Edmonton next season. “I feel a certain way. I want to be back, obviously. I signed on to be here to be a coach and want to see it through.

“Beyond that, I don’t want to worry about it. I’ll let the guys that are going to make that decision make them. We’ll talk about it, we’ll discuss everything that happened.”

– With files from Esks.com

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