The Eskimos’ depth chart came out this morning and there’s a notable name not in the defence.
Will linebacker J.C. Sherritt won’t suit up on Saturday against the B.C. Lions, with rookie Dexter McCoil going in his place. McCoil had a team-high six tackles last week in the Esks preseason win against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
So what exactly is wrong with Sherritt? We don’t know. He’s been out of practice for the last two weeks and if you count preseason games (no one should really count preseason games), he’ll now be missing consecutive games. The words from Esks head coach Chris Jones on Thursday were “you’ll know when we know.” Maybe we find that out this afternoon when the Eskimos make it to BC Place.
Esks slotback Adarius Bowman missed the last two days of practice with (another) undisclosed ailment, but has his starting spot secured on the depth chart. His inclusion on the chart doesn’t guarantee he’ll play though. He could be one of two game-time scratches on Saturday. If that’s his fate, rookie Patrick Robertson is the likely candidate to slide in for him.
CFL, CFLPA partner with You Can Play
In a big off-field move, the league and its Players Association (nice to pair these two without writing about labour strife) announced on Friday morning that they’ve partnered with You Can Play, becoming the third pro league (NHL, MLS) in North America to join the group. YCP’s mission is ensuring equality, respect and safety for all athletes, regardless of sexual orientation.
“This is a very important issue facing the sports world today,” CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon said in the release. “And it’s important to our league and our players. Through this partnership we are demonstrating that we fully support openly gay athletes and we will provide the environment and resources necessary to ensure players are welcomed and respected, and evaluated solely on their athletic abilities, regardless of their sexual orientation.”
The partnership allows YCP to give a confidential and anonymous system for CFL players, coaches and staff can receive support, training, counseling or other resources as they’re needed, the release states.
“We have some of the greatest athletes in the world playing in our league, and their sexual orientation should be of no consequence,” Scott Flory, the CFLPA’s president said. “This partnership will provide support to all CFL players as we continue to remove any barriers or disrespect to openly gay athletes in professional sports.”
Eskimos QB Mike Reilly is the team’s YCP ambassador. Here’s a list of the ambassadors around the league:
BC Lions Marco Ianuzzi
Edmonton Eskimos Mike Reilly
Calgary Stampeders Jon Cornish
Saskatchewan Roughriders Jim Hopson
Winnipeg Blue Bombers Donovan Alexander
Hamilton Tiger-Cats Brian Bulcke
Toronto Argonauts Zander Robinson
Ottawa REDBLACKS Eric Fraser
Montreal Alouettes Kyries Hebert
Advanced stats suggest brighter days for the Esks in 2014
If you’re a CFL fan, or more specifically a Hamilton fan, you already know about Drew Edwards’ Scratching Post blog. Drew had a very interesting post go up on Thursday about CFL metrics. For those of us that are mathematically challenged (maybe just me?), this stuff is broken down well and simplified so that people like me, who might struggle with a grade 10 math test right now could take something away from it. A lot of the numbers crunched in here came out putting the Eskimos in a favourable light ahead of the start of the season, projecting them to 7.8 wins — almost double their total of a year ago.
What this tell us is that Calgary performed 1.7 wins over expectation last season – meaning they were the league’s “luckiest” team – while Edmonton was 2.5 wins under what the numbers said they should have achieved, making them the “unluckiest.” The Tiger-Cats, meanwhile, performed 1.4 wins over expectation – the second highest number in the league.
Based on Pythagorean expectation and the performance of similar teams over the past 20-plus years, the Stamps and the Ticats are predicted to be slightly worse this season, the Eskimos far better.
On turnover margin, Drew wrote:
While Saskatchewan and Calgary are likely to regress somewhat, it would seem utterly impossible that the Bombers could post another minus-27 turnover ratio and the Eskimos should also be better than their minus-15 number, if only because Edmonton quarterbacks are unlikely to throw 25 interceptions again, while the Chris Jones defence should generate more than 15 picks (they also recovered a league-low 10 fumbles.)
On close games, where the Eskimos had fans on the edge of their seats a year ago…and plummeted them rear-end first back into them repeatedly, things should improve this year.
Based on these metrics, Calgary and Toronto would appear poised for regression while Edmonton seems well positioned for improvement. The Ticats, meanwhile, may be hard-pressed to improve on their 10 wins from last season.
CFL reaches deal with ESPN for US broadcast of games
The CFL’s relationship with ESPN continues to grow, as the two announced on Friday that the US network would air 86 games this year on a variety of its channels.
“Since the early days of ESPN, CFL games have been a valued part of our programming lineup,” ESPN’s senior vice president, programming acquisitions said in the announcement. “I’m proud to see our relationship continue as we strive to serve football fans 365 days a year.”
Seventeen of the 86 games will be aired on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNEWS, including this year’s Grey Cup. The other 69 games will air on ESPN3.
