Chris Edwards’ first game as a regular starter in the Eskimos defence was similar to his debut with the CFL team.
Edwards took two “aggressive” penalties in Edmonton’s season-opener – a 15-yard infraction for roughness and a 10-yarder for objectionable conduct.
“I always talk about the story in training camp last year,” Eskimos defensive coordinator Mike Benevides said last week’s game before at Winnipeg. “In the pre-season game, he had a couple of penalties based on his aggressive nature. Well, there’s nothing wrong with that. You just have to understand how to work through that.”
Edwards made the most out of being a player without a position to call his own last year. He was the ultimate utility man in the secondary, filling in at both cornerback positions and both defensive halfback spots when starters were injured. He also spent some time in nickel packages for Kenny Ladler, who was selected the Eskimos Most Outstanding Defensive Player, late in the season.
“I think he’s ready for the opportunity,” Benevides said, referring to Edwards starting at the nickel/strong-side linebacker position this year. “Now he’s going to get the real chance in front of the bright lights as that guy, that starter. Kenny Ladler is in the NFL (with the Washington Football Club) because he is a talented player and did well for us and excelled with what we asked him to do. Now it’s Chris’s turn.
“I’m a believer in Chris Edwards,” Benevides added. “He took that position from the beginning of the mini-camp and training camp and took all comers on, and he’s earned the right to have that position.”
Edwards, who is six-foot-two, 217 pounds, had three defensive tackles – including one for a loss – plus a special teams tackle in the 33-30 marathon victory over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the season-opener that finished at 1:18 a.m. after two lengthy delays due to the threat of lightning near the stadium.
The 25-year-old defensive back, who had a 73-yard interception return touchdown last season, will be back at the nickel position when the 1-0 Eskimos play their home opener against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats (0-1) at 8 p.m. Friday at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium, presented by Global News.
The Eskimos are seeding the 50/50 take-home jackpot, presented by belairdirect, with $70,000 to celebrate their 70th season. Of course, that also means $70,000 goes into the pool distributed among amateur football organizations, as well. Gates will open at 6 p.m., with the first 7,000 eligible fans receiving a $20 50/50 ticket worth 10 entries into the draw.
“I always tell guys, ‘Don’t try to be Wayne Gretzky. Don’t try to be that guy who came before you. Just be yourself,’ ” Benevides said. “I think Chris will be fine when he does that.”
Edwards said it helped “to get my feet wet last year.”
“I’m a totally different player (than last year),” he said. “I feel like it’s going to show once it’s game time.
“Pretty much the biggest thing I learned is just run. There are a lot of moving parts, so if you run, people tend to stop or just look around. You’ve just got to keep running and make plays. That’s it.”
Benevides said being able to play several positions well is “extremely hard to do, but everyone knows the injury situations we had a year ago. It was just one of those kinds of years, and Chris got the opportunity to play because of it, and he grew with the opportunity.
“He’s done a wonderful job,” Benevides continued. “There’s no doubt that being with us last year helped him. Certainly, he had a strong year in his own right. By playing all of the different positions, it just forces you to understand the concepts more, and it gives you a great deal of background to understand how things play out.”
Benevides took it a few steps further when talking about Edwards performance in the mini-camp and training camp this season, saying he has done “an extraordinary job at a very complicated position.” The player at the nickel position has to deal with several different aspects, including the running game and multiple motions in the passing game, “so he’s got to be pretty keen and smart not only with his mind but his eyes.”
“I learned some stuff from Kenny,” Edwards said. “I would talk to him a lot. We’d talk just in case he did go down, and I would have to come in. We would talk about what he saw on the field or how to play this or how to play that.”
That helped make it “a pretty easy transition” this season, according to Edwards. “There’s just more (repetitions) to take in practice, but I feel like I’m in good shape so I should be ready.”
It also helps having veterans like middle linebacker J.C. Sherritt and safety Neil King nearby to offer verbal assistance on the field.
Edwards joined the Eskimos as a defensive back after doing a rookie mini-camp with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks and spending the 2016 training camp with the Oakland Raiders.
“I love it in Edmonton,” he said. “We’ve got multiple places to practise, we’ve got everything we need, so I love it here, man.”
Besides playing almost all of the positions in the secondary last year, he also returned punts and kickoffs occasionally for the first time since high school.
“When they first asked me in practice, I had to knock some rust off,” he said. “But as I practised more and more, it got easier. I’m pretty comfortable back there.”
Edwards isn’t expecting to be a kick returner this season, but said if the Eskimos need him to do that again, “I feel like I could step in and contribute.”
A cornerback in high school and free or strong safety in college, Edwards played a similar role to the Eskimos’ nickel position in his last season with the University of Idaho Vandals. The football team was in a rebuilding mode at the time.
“From my junior year to my senior year, we improved dramatically,” he said. “After I left, the guys picked up and won a bowl game after that.”
Edwards played on two consecutive undefeated teams before joining the Vandals. In his freshman season of junior college, Grand Rapids Community College in Michigan went 12-0 and then folded its football program.
He then chose to go out to Butte Community College in California but had to sit out a season for making a lateral transfer as far as level of school is concerned. When he played at Butte, they also won every game.
“(Green Bay Packers quarterback) Aaron Rodgers went there,” Edwards said about Butte. “I don’t think he won a national championship like we did, but he played pretty good there.”
Six players sent to 6-game injured list
The Eskimos had to place six players on the six-game injured list this week – offensive left tackle Tommie Draheim, defensive lineman Mike Moore, weakside linebacker Adam Konar, wide receiver Vidal Hazelton, wide-receiver/kick-returner Jamill Smith and defensive halfback Forrest Hightower, who didn’t play in the season opener.
Newcomers to the team this week are international offensive lineman Travis Bond (starter at left guard) and international defensive lineman Rakim Cox (backup), who were both recently released by the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and international offensive lineman Kelvin Palmer, whom the Eskimos released after training camp. Wide receiver Miles Shuler is activated from the practice roster while receiver Bryant Mitchell, who didn’t make it on the field during training camp, came off the one-game injured list.
The new-look offensive line has national Matt O’Donnell shifting from right guard to left tackle and left guard David Beard shifting to right guard. Justin Sorensen remains at centre, and Colin Kelly is still at right tackle.
Defensive halfback Aaron Grymes returns to the lineup after missing the season opener because of personal issues and adds experience to a very green secondary that still includes rookie Monshadrik Hunter and Nick Taylor in the starting lineup. Second-year linebacker Christophe Mulumba-Tshimanga starts in place of Konar while Jake Ceresna makes his first start with the Esks at defensive tackle.
Running back C.J. Gable will play his former team, the Ticats, for the first time since he was acquired by the Eskimos in a trade last fall.
Quarterback Mike Reilly (32 of 46 passing for 408 yards and one touchdown plus two rushing TDs) and wide receiver Derel Walker (eight catches for 176 yards, including a 101-yard pass-and-run touchdown in the first quarter) were named CFL’s Players of the Week for Week 1.