A few weeks ago, Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly and head coach Jason Maas were discussing Ricky Ray and his incredible CFL career, not only in Edmonton but also with the Toronto Argonauts.
The Eskimos were starting to get ready to play Toronto in the first game of a home-and-home series, Ray was sidelined with a serious neck injury, and the Eskimos 2018 media guide had just come out when Reilly noticed a section called: “It Could Happen …”
“I don’t know if they put it in there as a joke, but it said: ‘Mike Reilly needs 19,164 yards to tie Ricky Ray for first (place) on the Eskimos all-time pass yards list,’ ” Reilly said. “I typed it out on my calculator and said, ‘Hey Jason, we only have to average 1,065 yards per game in order to get there this year. That’s a pretty high standard. I don’t think we’re going to get to that.’ ”
Reilly passed for a CFL-leading 1,648 yards during Edmonton’s first five games this season, but at his current pace, he would finish with only 5,933 yards – a career high. His career total is 23,711 yards; all but 696 yards of those yards coming since he became the Eskimos starting QB in 2013.
What is realistic for the 33-year-old Reilly is moving into the CFL’s top-20 all-time passers. He still needs 553 passing yards, so it may not happen in Thursday’s 5:30 p.m. MDT game with the Montreal Alouettes (1-4) at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium, but it could be achieved by the time the Eskimos (3-2) are playing the Saskatchewan Roughriders (3-2) at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium on Thursday, Aug. 2. On Purolator Tackle Hunger night.
Reilly has already passed prominent CFL players like Joe Paopao, former Eskimo Tom Wilkinson (22,579), Joe Kapp, Calgary Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson and Danny Barrett this season and currently sits 22nd overall – 436 yards behind Roy Dewalt and 553 back of Bernie Faloney, another ex-Esks QB.
“The only one I really noticed was I was coming up on Dave Dickenson a few weeks ago,” said Reilly, who receives occasional updates from Eskimos statistician Brian Desjarlais. “I know at the point I’m at, pretty much anybody that you pass is going to be a notable guy because you have to play for a decent amount of time to get into that ranking.
“To me, it doesn’t mean a whole lot right now. It’ll probably be something I’ll look back on when I’m done playing. It’ll be something I’ll look at with pride.
“If nothing else, it just shows that I’ve been on teams where we’ve consistently had play-makers and good offences and things like that,” he continued. “I’ve had an offensive line that’s given me the time to throw for a lot of years now. They’ve done a great job. I’ve been blessed to have great wide receivers every single year and a coaching staff that puts me in a good position to be able to go out there and make plays and does that for our entire offence.
“There’s hopefully still a lot of names that we’ll pass between now and when I’m done,” Reilly added, “but I’m not even close to being the top guy on my own team. (Veteran backup) Kevin Glenn is sixth overall (with 52,867 yards), so I’ve got a ways to go to catch him.”
Warming up to the topic, Reilly said he has “nothing but respect” for any player who play for a long time, but specifically quarterbacks because “it’s hard to be successful week-in and week-out, let alone year-in and year-out” when defensive co-ordinators “know your style, know your tendencies and game plan specifically to try to stop you from doing things that you’re good at.”
Reilly said a lot of things have to happen in order to throw for 20,000 yards in a career.
“You have to stay healthy for a long time, which is hard to do,” he said. “You’ve got to be a starter for a long time, which again is hard to do.
“A lot of guys, like myself, come into this league and aren’t starters for the first three or four years of their career because there’s somebody really good in front of them and they have to take the time to sit back and learn the game and all that kind of stuff. And then other guys, when they do become starters, they don’t last very long because if they have one or two bad years, that’s it, (their team is) going to move on to somebody else.”
When Reilly joined the B.C. Lions in 2010, he didn’t know much about the CFL.
“It wasn’t broadcast like it is now,” he said. “I think there’s way more exposure now and people know a lot more about it back in the States.
“At the time, I was like, ‘Well, I’m either going to go up there and struggle really bad and be done (for his career), or I’m going to go up there and play great and come back to the NFL.’ I had the same mindset that every single American who comes up here thinks. And just as with every other guy who comes up here, I learned real quick, ‘No, that’s not how it works. You’re not going to jump in and play right away and dominate and go back to the NFL.’
“I also realized this was a league that I loved,” Reilly pointed out. “Once I understood what it was all about, my goal quickly changed. It was never to go back to the NFL. It was, ‘I wanted to become a franchise player somehow and try to have a long-lasting, memorable career in Canada.’
“I’ve built to the point where I’m at now, but I still have a long way to go to consider that successful in chasing that goal.”
Reilly has started 48 of the last 49 games for the Green and Gold, missing only the last game in the 2016 regular season as a healthy scratch. Edmonton has a 32-16 record during those 48 games Reilly played.
He also has more 300-yard passing games (31) than any other CFL quarterback since 2015, hitting the 300-yard mark in 63 per cent of his starts. For his career, Reilly has passed for 300 yards 36 times in 83 starts (43.4 per cent) – fourth-best in CFL history behind Doug Flutie, Ottawa’s Trevor Harris and Anthony Calvillo, who is currently the Argos’ QB coach.
Over the years, Reilly has become familiar with a lot of the CFL’s quarterbacking legends.
“I’ve seen a number of them,” he said. “There are some names on there I haven’t seen play, but obviously, I know their name, I know who they are, I know what type of success they had and things like that.
“When I’m sitting at home in the evenings, whether it’s on ESPN Classics or something like that, they have Grey Cup games, they have division final games. Any time I see that’s on, I’ll watch it. I’m like, ‘Oh man, I’ve heard of so-and-so, but I’ve never watched him before.’ So, I’ll sit there and watch the whole game. I’ll have it on PVR, and I’ll rewind it, I’ll watch it over and over.
“It’s a different game than it was in those days in a lot of the cases, but it’s no less impressive. I see guys taking snaps from under centre the entire game and taking seven-step drops and slide protection and things like that, and they’re playing on AstroTurf, and it’s just a totally different game. But at the same time, they’re still out there making plays and playing extremely well against their competition, so it is fun to watch those guys play.”
Reilly counts himself lucky to have personally met former Eskimos quarterbacks like Tom Wilkinson and Warren Moon, who were both members of the first four of Edmonton’s five-in-a-row Grey Cup teams from 1978-82. Moon was also the starting QB on the fifth championship team.
“I have absolutely a ton of respect for both of them,” said Reilly, who had a chance to chat with Moon for about 20 minutes during a layover in Vancouver on their way back to Seattle. Their conversation ranged from the CFL to Edmonton to being from the Pacific Northwest, where both men live.
“He’s an awesome guy,” Reilly said. “I really, really enjoyed getting to spend the time talking with him.
“Wilkie, I’ve seen him a dozen times around Edmonton whether it’s at the Eskimos Annual Dinner or when he’s come in and been in the player lounge for a while. I’ve sat and talked with him for 20, 30 minutes at a time. He’s just a great guy.
“They’re good people off the field to talk to, always gave me as much time as I wanted to speak with them, but what they did on the field was obviously very impressive, too.”
Wilkinson and the strong-armed Moon were polar opposites when it came to playing styles, but they were both team leaders and winners.
“You look at Warren and you’re like ‘Yeah, ex-professional quarterback, he’s still a big, strong-looking guy’ and Tom’s not a very tall guy,” Reilly observed. “I don’t know if he could play behind my O-line now. He wouldn’t be able to see over the top of them.’ But it just goes to show that they knew what their strengths were and they played to them and did an amazing job doing it.”
Just like Wilkinson and Moon, Reilly doesn’t think there is a prototype for the perfect CFL quarterback “because there have been so many great quarterbacks who have had such vastly different skill sets. It’s all about going out there and executing at what you’re great at and doing it over a long period of time. That’s what makes you a great player.”
No one knows if Montreal’s Johnny Manziel is going to be a great player in the CFL, but he’s finally going to make his debut this week after being acquired in a recent trade with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Manziel, 25, a former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL first-round draft pick, is expected to see only limited action in Thursday’s game with the Esks, but the Alouettes didn’t acquire him to sit on the bench like he did in Hamilton.
Manziel, who was recruited to Texas A&M in 2010 by Alouettes head coach Mike Sherman, completed 21 of 31 passes for 168 yards during the pre-season but didn’t see the field during six regular-season games behind Tiger-Cats starter Jeremiah Masoli.
Former Eskimos offensive tackle Tony Washington and national O-lineman Landon Rice were also included in the trade to Montreal with the controversial QB while Hamilton received defensive end, Jamaal Westerman, international wide receiver Chris Williams and first-round draft picks in 2020 and 2021.
Another ex-Esk – receiver Adarius Bowman – was also traded to the Alouettes this week for a conditional eighth-round draft pick in 2019. Bowman, 33, had just nine catches for 95 yards in six games with the Blue Winnipeg Bombers.
Maas wasn’t too worried about what was happening in Montreal.
“This is a business trip for us,” he said, discounting the Alouettes’ 1-4 record by saying: “They’re more than capable.”
What Maas wants is to see is the Eskimos deliver a strong performance after returning from a much-needed bye week. The Esks are currently stuck in a three-way tie for second place in the West Division with Saskatchewan (3-2) and Winnipeg (3-3).
SHORT YARDAGE: Second-year receiver Duke Williams was named a CFL Player of the Week after catching nine passes for 123 yards and a touchdown in the 16-15 victory over the Argos on July 13. Williams, who was chosen as a CFL Player of the Month for June, has had four consecutive 100-yard games and leads the league with 556 receiving yards and 31 receptions … Running back C.J. Gable benefited the most from the timing of the bye week because he was able to recover from the home game against the Argonauts and not only practise all week but return to the lineup for Thursday’s game…The Eskimos only roster changes this week are second-year defensive end Kwaku Boateng returning to the starting lineup after being (an unhealthy) scratch each of the last two weeks and rookie running back Shaquille Cooper making his CFL debut… Rookie fullback Tanner Green returns to the practice roster after playing one game on special teams … The Eskimos have an eight-game winning streak against the Alouettes, including their last four games in Montreal.