The Eskimos used free agency to rebuild their receiving corps in 2019, signing Greg Ellingson (Ottawa Redblacks), Ricky Collins Jr. (BC Lions) and DaVaris Daniels (Calgary Stampeders).
This year, Edmonton is using every tool available to find the next D’haquille (Duke) Williams or Brandon Zylstra, who led the CFL in receiving yards in 2018 and 2017, respectively, before jumping to the NFL.
The Esks still have Ellingson, who posted his fifth consecutive 1,000-yard season last year while finishing sixth in the league with 1,170 yards on 86 catches (13.6 yards per reception), and Collins Jr., who placed eighth overall with his first 1,000-yard season (1,103 yards to be exact) on 78 catches for 14.1-yard average.
Meanwhile, Toronto native Tevaun Smith totalled 632 yards on 55 receptions with a team-high six receiving touchdowns in his first CFL season. Smith, 27, had been selected by the Eskimos in the first round of the 2016 CFL Draft, but opted to try the NFL for the next three years.
The Esks have signed 12 American receivers, besides Ellingson and Collins, to fill a starting role and backup positions. Some have previous experience with the Green and Gold or CFL; others are new to the league.
Kick-returner Christion Jones, who was injured in the second-last game of the 2019 regular season, caught 11 passes for 43 yards during 10 games with Edmonton after being acquired in a trade with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Aug. 4. Jones, 27, has played three CFL seasons.
Kevin Elliott, 31, has been hanging around the CFL since 2015. The six-foot-three, 213-pound receiver had two catches for 16 yards in his only game with Edmonton in 2018 and seven catches for 95 yards and a touchdown in two contests last year.
Joshua Stangby, 29, who was on the Eskimos’ practice roster last year, and Bryce Bobo, 24, were in the 2019 training camp along with Elliott and national receivers Anthony Parker, Hunter Karl and Malik Richards.
Parker, 30, is an eight-year CFL veteran who made 185 catches for 2,344 yards and 15 TDs with the Calgary Stampeders and BC Lions from 2011-18. He signed as a free agent last year, but ruptured his Achilles tendon in the second pre-season game. The six-foot-one, 210-pound receiver will be counted on to help mentor some of the young receivers on the team this year.
Stangby played 14 games with Ottawa in 2016-17 while Kenny Shaw, 28, who won the NCAA’s BCS championship with Florida State in 2013, played 28 games with the Roughriders, Redblacks and Toronto Argonauts from 2015-18.
A potentially big off-season signing could be 32-year-old Armanti Edwards, who joined the Eskimos on April 10th. The five-foot-11, 183-pound receiver is one of only two players to ever win the Walter Payton Award twice (Esks’ second-year quarterback hopeful Jeremiah Briscoe, 2016-17, is the other two-time winner). Edwards was named the outstanding offensive player in the Division I Football Championship Subdivision (formerly Division I-AA) in 2008-09.
Edwards made 69 catches for a career-high 1,014 yards and seven touchdowns last season with Toronto. He previously just fell short of the 1,000-yard mark with the Argos in 2017 and ’18 – registering 962 and 974 yards, respectively.
He also played four games with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2016 and four NFL seasons (2010-13) with the Carolina Panthers as a wide receiver, kick returner and quarterback in the wildcat formation. He spent time with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns (2013) and Chicago Bears (2014).
Edwards, who won the Grey Cup with the Argos in 2017, will be joined in training camp by former teammate Rodney Smith, 30. Smith, who signed with the Eskimos on March 13, spent five years in the NFL, playing five games with the Minnesota Vikings and three with the Cleveland Browns during his first two seasons. The six-foot-five, 235-pound veteran out of Florida State played 23 games with Toronto the last two years, making 51 receptions for 646 yards and five TDs in 2019 and 23 catches for 257 yards two years ago.
Five-foot-eight, 169-pound Shakeir Ryan, 24, who played seven games with the Montreal Alouettes last year, is mostly a kick-returner.
JaNardreon Jones, 27, played three games with the Los Angeles Chargers and one with the New York Jets, making his first professional catch on a three-yard pass from Sam Darnold in the final game of the 2018 regular season. He had a 72-yard punt-return touchdown in the pre-season that year.
Among the newcomers the Eskimos’ scouting department brought to the CFL this season are 21-year-old Angelo Foster, TJ Smith and Domonique Young. Both Smith and Young are 25.
Mexico’s Diego Jair Viamontes Cotera, 29, one of the Eskimos’ Global players, returned three kickoffs for 44 yards and a missed field goal for 25 yards in the final game of the regular season last year.
The Eskimos have nine Canadian receivers on the roster right now.
Shai Ross (six-foot, 180 pounds), 26, and Karl (six-one, 185), 24, were 2019 draft picks. Ross, who was selected in the fifth round, spent the last 11 games on the injured list after having returned one punt for 20 yards and two kickoffs for 48 yards in five games played. Meanwhile, Karl, who was taken in the seventh round, went back to the University of Calgary, where he made 172 catches for 2,827 yards and 16 touchdowns in 35 games from 2015-19.
Harry McMaster (six-foot-two, 198 pounds), 25, a seventh-round draft pick in 2018, played in 12 games (one start) last year while Richards, 24, a 2019 fifth-round draft pick of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, returned to Mount Allison University after making a late appearance in the Esks’ training camp.
Jimmy Ralph, 27, played two seasons with the University of Alberta Golden Bears before joining the Argos in 2017. He played 39 games with Toronto during the past three seasons, catching 72 passes for 714 yards.
Danny Vandervoort, 26, played 26 games with the BC Lions after being selected in the first round of the 2017 CFL Draft. He finished last season on the Eskimos’ practice roster.
Alex Charette, 28, was a fourth-round draft pick of the Alouettes in 2015. He has played 64 games with Montreal and Toronto during the past five seasons.