Edmonton Elks Thread

[jerrym]

Former Argo HC Scott Milanovich is the new HC of the Eskimos.

[AngeloV]

Former Argo HC Scott Milanovich is the new HC of the Eskimos.

As is well known, I am a big Milanovich fan. Funny, Jamie Elizondo kind of screwed himself by leaving the RedBlacks over a hissy fit because they didn't grant him late permission for the Riders interview. This just may have been his real legit chance to be a HC.

[jerrym]

Two former Eskimos, who had rarely been used in the NFL, had standout performances on the weekend.

Brandon Zylstra caught 6 passes for 96 yards for Carolina on the final day of the regular season. Considering he had caught two other passes for twelve yards over the rest of the season and one pass for 23 yards in 16 games with Minnesota last year, it doesn't seem like the made good use of his talents, especially when only two of their other receivers had more than 300 yards.

A similar situation happened to Duke Williams, who had six receptions for 106 yards in the final game of the season but only six other receptions for 60 yards the rest of the year.

Brandon Zylstra caught six passes for 96 yards in Carolina’s season-ending 42-10 loss to the New Orleans Saints. The Panthers finished the year 5-11 with head coach Ron Rivera having been fired earlier this month. ...

Sunday marked one of the first real opportunities Zylstra has had to make an impact in the NFL following two standout seasons with the Eskimos (2016-2017).

The 26-year-old dressed for sixteen games with his hometown Minnesota Vikings last year, recording one catch for 16 yards. Waived by the Vikes following training camp in August, Zylstra joined the active roster in Carolina and dressed for eight games.

Considering how the Panthers struggled through the air this year — only two wide outs surpassed the 300-yard mark this season — one could argue Zylstra should have been given a larger role. ...

Williams made six receptions for 108 yards in the Buffalo Bills’ season-ending 13-6 loss to the New York Jets. The 26-year-old is in his first season with the Bills and dressed for the first time since October following eight weeks as a healthy scratch. He finished the regular season with 12 catches for 166 yards and a touchdown.

Buffalo finished the season 10-6 and will visit the 10-6 Houston Texans in next week’s AFC wild card game. It remains unclear whether or not Williams will dress for the post-season contest, which will be just the second such game for Buffalo in 20 years.

https://3downnation.com/2019/12/29/f...season-finale/

[jerrym]

The Eskimos have announced their coaching staff:

Joining Head Coach Scott Milanovich is:

• AJ Gass, Special Teams Coordinator
• Noel Thorpe, Defensive Coordinator
• Demetrious Maxie, Defensive Line
• John McDonell, Offensive Line
• Winston October, Wide Receivers/Pass Game Coordinator
• Derek Oswalt, Defensive Assistant

Milanovich will also serve as the club’s offensive coordinator.

Besides Milanovich, other coaches with Toronto connection is Demetrius Maxie, who played for the Argos in 1996-1999 and 2002.

[jerrym]

Edmonton has signed 2019 BC Lion American OL Justin Renfrow.

[Argo57]

Edmonton signs Rodney Smith who was surprisingly effect in Toronto last season.

https://www.google.ca/url?sa=t&rct=j...PNG80neYjLZbQD

[jerrym]

The Eskimos are surprised that the Argos did not pick Tomas Jack-Kurdyla and feel they had a couple of other pleasant surprises in their view.

the Toronto Argonauts spun the Canadian Football League Draft on its ear when they didn’t take Tomas Jack-Kurdyla at No. 2.

That left the Edmonton Eskimos picking fourth overall with the top-rated offensive lineman — the top one not signed to a National Football League contract, anyway — landing right in their lap.

One drafter not in the Eskimos or Argos camps called it the surprise of the night with, “Edmonton getting the O-lineman Toronto should have taken, passing on the Buffalo guy from just three hours south.”

And it wasn’t the only pleasant surprise of the evening for Eskimos general manager Brock Sunderland, who may just have scored big with a couple of late additions, taking Fort Hays State kicker Dante Brown in Round 5 (41st overall) and Wagner offensive lineman Chris Gangarossa in Round 6 (50th overall). ...

“Those are the kinds of late-round picks that can make a difference,” said one league personnel man, pointing out Gangarossa had been pegged as high as going in the top 20. “I didn’t think he was going to go in the first round, but I thought he would go in the second round, or at worst, an early third rounder.” ...“I don’t think Gangarossa’s a sleeper, I’m actually shocked that he was available,” Sunderland said. “We had him pretty high. He was one of those guys where, as we were selecting where we took him, we were a little baffled that he was there, so that one was more of a surprise to us that he was available. “We like him. We like the fact he can play guard and tackle and played at a high level, at Wagner, played for an NCAA team.”

https://edmontonsun.com/sports/footb...monton-eskimos

[jerrym]

Below is a discussion of a couple of the Eskimos draft picks by GM Brock Sunderland:

The nine newest faces on the Edmonton Eskimos will have to wait a while before they can physically step foot onto the field with the team. But that didn’t dampened the mood of general manager Brock Sunderland following last week’s Canadian Football League Draft, which saw the Green and Gold bolster its National depth at all three levels on defence, while also adding a trio of offensive linemen, a running back and, yes, even a kicker in Fort Hays State’s Dante Brown, who could prove to be a shrewd choice at 41st overall in Round 5. ...

Aside from O-lineman Tomas Jack-Kurdyla, taken in the first round (fourth overall), who is by all accounts as ready to step in and play at the professional level as much as anyone up for grabs last week, the Eskimos doubled down with a pair of defensive linemen. .. Selecting offensive lineman Tomas Jack-Kurdyla fourth overall means the six-foot-four, 300-pound Montreal native will be available for the Eskimos’ training camp – whenever that may occur – and be able to play when needed. “We went with someone whom we thought would be here that we could count on from Day 1,” said Brock Sunderland, Eskimos General Manager & Vice President of Football Operations. “He was the highest guy on our (draft) board at that point. It’s always been my philosophy to take the highest player available, no matter the position.

Alain Pae, taken 13th overall in Round 2, and Rossini Sandjong, the 59th overall pick in Round 7, heard their names called by an Eskimos team already breaking the ratio at one defensive end position, and are on track to make it both, one day. The drafted rookie pair will pad the depth chart behind the tantalizing talents of Kwaku Boateng and Mathieu Betts already on the roster. A six-foot-four, 238-pound native of Prague, Czech Republic, Pae played for the Prague Lions of the Czech League of American Football for two seasons before joining the Ottawa Gee-Gees in 2017. “His size and athleticism, he jumped off the film. If you have someone, even if you weren’t evaluating him, and he would jump off the film and you would notice him, that’s someone you want to look at deeper, he did that,” Sunderland said. “Very explosive, has good size. He has not played for a couple years, we’re aware of that but he’s in shape and has been working out recently. ...

In his one and only season of U-Sports eligibility, Pae was named to the Ontario University Athletics Conference all-rookie team after earning 25.5 tackles and six sacks in eight games as a 25-year-old. ...

The thing is, Pae, now 27, is already coming in with pro experience, albeit not on North American soil. But in the two years playing with his hometown Prague Lions, he earned 46 tackles in 10 games, including three for a loss, as well as five sacks and eight more quarterback pressures. And that makes him exactly the type of player league commissioner Randy Ambrosie is looking to open the door for through his global CFL 2.0 initiatives. ...

Fortunately, for both Pae and the Eskimos, he had become a Canadian citizen after following his father, Allen Pae Sr., to the Canadian capital, where the elder Pae has lived for 15 years. And that had Alain on the CFL’s radar on the day of its national draft, along with a 40-yard sprint time of 4.65 seconds and 10-foot, two-inch broad jump.

https://edmontonsun.com/sports/footb...und-draft-pick

[jerrym]

American RB Marvin Kinsey, who had a 2019 breakout season in rushing for 703 yards in only seven games but was suspended for the rest of the season for violating team rules that were not specified, has signed with the Eskimos.

[Wobbler]

It's nice that the EE did the right thing and consulted regarding their team name. Nice, but not nearly good enough. Now that Washington and Cleveland are about to join the 21st Century... it'll be the Edmonton Empire, right?

[jerrym]

It's nice that the EE did the right thing and consulted regarding their team name. Nice, but not nearly good enough. Now that Washington and Cleveland are about to join the 21st Century... it'll be the Edmonton Empire, right?

I agree. But at least they did one good thing last week in releasing Christion Jones after his homophobic tweets.

The Edmonton Eskimos‘ organization has removed kick returner Christion Jones from the team roster, following a tweet the player sent out Saturday evening with anti-gay and anti-lesbian sentiments.
In his tweet, Jones said, “Man ain’t suppose to be with a man. A women is not suppose to be with another women.”

https://globalnews.ca/news/7118280/e...weet-backlash/

pic.twitter.com/WyZV1arRQ3

— Edmonton Eskimos (@EdmontonEsks) June 28, 2020

[AngeloV]

It's nice that the EE did the right thing and consulted regarding their team name. Nice, but not nearly good enough. Now that Washington and Cleveland are about to join the 21st Century... it'll be the Edmonton Empire, right?

100%

[Wobbler]

Nothing out of Edmonton, yet. REALLY?

[jerrym]

Nothing out of Edmonton, yet. REALLY?

It's increasingly looking like Edmonton will change it's name with Washington's official announcement of a name change today and Edmonton losing sponsors similar to what happened in Washington.

As pressure mounts for professional sports teams to shed racist or stereotypical names, experts believe the Canadian Football League's Edmonton Eskimos will soon announce a name change.

On Monday, the National Football League's Washington Redskins announced they would retire their name and logo after pressure from sponsors.

The last thing management wants is for people to be talking about the name of the team, said Marvin Ryder, an associate professor of marketing at McMaster University's DeGroote School of Business. "Anybody talking about the name of your team, rather than the performance of your team or the athletes on your team, that's the wrong message. You want that to go away." When fans, players and sponsors start to say they feel uncomfortable with a name, a team starts to pay attention, he said. ...

Some sponsors of the Edmonton Eskimos also seemed uncomfortable with the CFL team's name.

Insurance provider Belair Direct said last week it is rethinking its premier partnership with the team. A spokeswoman said the company "will need to see concrete action in the near future, including a commitment to a name change."

Boston Pizza, another sponsor, said "as part of a larger shift in our overall marketing strategy, Boston Pizza recently ended its sponsorship of Edmonton's CFL team."

https://www.cbc.ca/sports/football/c...view-1.5648027

[jerrym]

The following url contains the survey the Eskimo team sent to its fans asking what they think of a name change. If the name of the team is changed, the title of this thread should also change out of respect for the Inuit.

https://3downnation.com/2020/07/13/e...at-they-asked/

[Wobbler]

Rest assured, the thread will be changed to reflect the new name of the team.

[AngeloV]

Rest assured, the thread will be changed to reflect the new name of the team.

Excellent!!

[jerrym]

Good news! The name is going to change.

Sources tell TSN an internal decision has been made, the Edmonton Eskimos will be changing their name. An announcement could come as early as next week.

— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) July 16, 2020

[gilthethrill]

Slippery slope. When does this stop? Yes, I know this post will make me a villain.

[bannedforlife]

Slippery slope. When does this stop? Yes, I know this post will make me a villain.

A lot more people agree with you than are allowed to say. Also interesting to note that the small survey had more people liking the Eskimos name going westward (closer to the team) but of course the non activist voice doesn't matter.