Ricky Ray's Future with Argos A Wait and See Game

[paulwoods13]

Franklin looks like a good prospect, but there is no proof he will achieve his potential. Would we really want to surrender two first-rounders and a starter for a guy whose best games (by far) have come against our sorry defence? And therefore have no first-rounders until 2020? I wouldn't.

[Neely2005]

I agree with you completely.
I said before how the Argos and especially now with this new combo make a full court press to trade for him.
Offer a package, couple of 1st round picks for the next two years and a starter.
This kid is worth it and like you say going east is his destination as Hervey has to trade him before he turns FA at the end of the year.

Why does Hervey have to trade him? If Edmonton is competing for the Grey Cup they may decide that it's better to keep him on the roster as insurance and let him become a UFA.

[AngeloV]

Why does Hervey have to trade him? If Edmonton is competing for the Grey Cup they may decide that it's better to keep him on the roster as insurance and let him become a UFA.

Wouldn't surprise me if when push comes to shove, the Esks decide to keep him over Reilly.

[R.J]

Why does Hervey have to trade him? If Edmonton is competing for the Grey Cup they may decide that it's better to keep him on the roster as insurance and let him become a UFA.

Would be a bad move by Hervey IMO. At least two teams, maybe even 3-4 would be very interested in acquiring a talent like Franklin. Sask could trade Glenn and a couple of picks for him, thus ensuring that Glenn has played for every Canadian team in the CFL lol.

[argotom]

He cannot keep both QB's.
There is no chance he trades a warrior like Reilly who despite being what 32, is still on top of his game.
Either he trades the one(Franklin) or, one for sure will walk at the end of the year for 1st string money offered by drooling teams bidding for his services.

[hugoagogo]

If I'm Hervey, I keep the security of Franklin at #2 for the entire season. He has shown he can win when Reilly goes down. You aren't going to get a better quarterback on a first year contract.
I think Hervey will trade Franklin in the off season for minor assets and that team will lock Franklin up before he becomes a FA (much like Edmonton did with Reilly and BC a few years back).

[Will]

Franklin looks like a good prospect, but there is no proof he will achieve his potential. Would we really want to surrender two first-rounders and a starter for a guy whose best games (by far) have come against our sorry defence? And therefore have no first-rounders until 2020? I wouldn't.

Good points. He's not someone I'd object to bringing in, but not at that price. Just because Barker unwisely paid the price he did for Willy doesn't mean it'd be right to overpay for Franklin.

[jerrym]

Ricky discusses playing for Trestman in this video:

http://www.cfl.ca/2017/03/02/ray-on-...earn-from-him/

[jerrym]

In thiis Waggle podcast, Ricky says he still has plenty of football left in himself, although he admits he thought about calling it a career last year after missing time from injuries once again. Hopefully, he's right.
The full interview can be found at the url below.

He was wondering if, after 14 seasons in the Canadian Football League, it was time to call it a career.
The league’s second-oldest quarterback now with the retirement of Henry Burris (Kevin Glenn is the oldest by four months), Ray joined CFL.ca’s Davis Sanchez in a one-on-one interview for The Waggle to talk about retirement, reclaiming the starting job and the upcoming season.
“I wasn’t playing and it was just kind of ‘hey, you know, gotta just think about some things’,” said Ray.
“I got into the off-season and I never once had the feeling I didn’t want to play anymore. Everything was ‘I want to play, I want to play’ — so it ended up being an easy decision for me.” ...

The 37-year-old added that despite the physical toll caused by injuries the last few years, he’s still got plenty of football left in him. The only uncertainty came following the departure of Scott Milanovich.
What would happen next for the future Hall of Famer?
“It was kind of the first time in a while in my career when I wasn’t sure — I was like ‘man, am I going to be playing in Toronto or am I going to be looking for a job somewhere else?'”
Things changed quickly. The Argos hired the duo of Jim Popp as GM and Marc Trestman as head coach, while Trestman immediately named Ray the starter. ...

The Argos’ quarterback huddle is crowded, with names such as Drew Willy, Jeff Mathews and Logan Kilgore all in the mix. With that said, Ray knows he’ll still have to go out in camp, compete and earn the job. ...
On the other hand, Ray finds the prospect of having to prove himself rejuvenating.

“As a player, it’s nice not to have that uncertainty,” said Ray. “It’s nice to know that you’re going to be given the full opportunity to prove yourself.”
Trestman watching will only be more motivation.
“I think just re-proving yourself to new coaches and trying to earn their respect gives you a little bit of that edge that you’re looking for,” said Ray. “That’s sometimes what change brings — it gets you excited about proving yourself again.”

http://www.cfl.ca/2017/03/31/waggle-...ted-ricky-ray/

[Harpastum]

The terrible reality of being a football quarterback is - you achieve your greatest ability to read the opposing defence & have the timing it takes to make difficult plays - right around the time the brutality of playing has just about tapped you out.

[jerrym]

Ricky Ray talks about the end of his career in typical Ricky Ray fashion.

How long will this go? How is this going to end?
As Ricky Ray begins the 16th season of his surefire hall of fame career, fans across the Canadian Football League might be asking the same questions.
Now 37, a three-time Grey Cup champion and fourth in CFL all-time passing yards (54,883), Ray’s resume is almost completely filled out, his story almost completely told. Entering the final year of his contract and playing on a roster that’s full of questions after a tough off-season, Ray isn’t trying to deny that he’s in the final chapter or chapters of his career. He hears the clock ticking, the same way that Henry Burris did and the same way that Peyton Manning did. But he’s not consumed with getting the storybook ending that those two QBs got. ...

“There’s urgency to win every year,” he said this week after a practice at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. “That’s the feeling you (always) have. It’s not because I know my time is limited. Thats just the feeling you get when you have such high hopes of winning (every year). So you feel the urgency to do the best you can to help your team and put them in that position.”
Maybe in part because of the spotlight that comes with the position, quarterbacks seem to hear Father Time doing his work more loudly than their teammates. Each season that ends without a championship, each obstacle that pops up along the way: a team’s bad season or the serious injuries like the ones that have found Ray over the last few years, tick tock through the game for everyone to hear. Another imperfect chapter coming to an abrupt close.
Recently we’ve watched Burris, Anthony Calvillo and Kerry Joseph stay behind centre past 40. Kevin Glenn will go into Roughriders training camp as the No. 1 QB and he’ll be 38 by the time the season starts.
The common storyline with these guys is usually that they’re a Grey Cup away from retiring. Ray says he’s not driven by that.
“When you watch guys like Peyton Manning, Henry Burris, you think that’s kind of a cool way to do it but it’s not something that I really think about too much,” he said. “Obviously it would be great for anyone to go out with a positive note in anything that they do but it’s nothing that I’ve said, ‘Hey that’s going to make or break what I want to do.’ I mean, that would just be icing on the cake to do something like that.”
It’s classic Ricky Ray. Whereas Burris seemed consumed by proving he was still a starter, still great, still a winner in this league, Ray has gone about putting together one of the best careers in CFL history while being church-mouse quiet.
He knows that the end is somewhere down the road and that this year’s journey is a unique one, with a brand-new GM, head coach and coaching staff. There are lots of new faces on the roster that got together on the field for the first time this week at the mini-camp. Playing under Jim Popp and Marc Trestman — the Montreal GM-coach duo that he played against in three Grey Cup games — is a storybook twist unto itself.

http://www.cfl.ca/2017/04/28/oleary-...-finished-yet/

[jerrym]

GM Jim Popp is high on Ricky Ray and all three other QBs, but you would expect him to say that.

The Toronto Argonauts are feeling pretty good about their quarterback depth heading into the 2017 season.
Veteran Ricky Ray will be leading the charge for the Boatmen with three pivots sitting behind him that are ready to learn and ready to step in whenever necessary.
Drew Willy, who was acquired by the Argos last season, Cody Fajardo and recently inked Jeff Mathews have all impressed both Argos head coach Marc Trestman and general manager Jim Popp.
“I know Drew Willy has performed extremely high in this league,” Popp said during season preview call with the media on Tuesday. “I know Jeff Mathews has those abilities to do it and I’ve seen him step in while he was in Hamilton. Fajardo is an up-and-coming athlete that can be used in roles and is only going to get better.
“When they’re all sitting behind Ricky Ray, or you have Marc Trestman to learn from, which I watched in Montreal him get the best out of all the guys, and have a veteran coordinator and quarterback coach in Marcus Brady. We’ve got a great chance.”

https://www.cfl.ca/2017/05/16/ricky-...terbacks-year/

[jerrym]

Evidence that Ricky Ray is still a top QB. However the question remains whether he can stay healthy.

Ricky Ray of the @TorontoArgos was the only QB without an INT from numbers to the boundary on both sides. 138.6 is ridiculous!
Details #CFL pic.twitter.com/6iKpk3CCv2

— Derek Taylor 🇨🇦🏈 (@DTonSC) May 23, 2017

[ArgoGabe22]

Evidence that Ricky Ray is still a top QB. However the question remains whether he can stay healthy.

Ricky Ray of the @TorontoArgos was the only QB without an INT from numbers to the boundary on both sides. 138.6 is ridiculous!
Details #CFL pic.twitter.com/6iKpk3CCv2

— Derek Taylor 🇨🇦🏈 (@DTonSC) May 23, 2017

Can't throw INTs if he only does 2 yard check downs...