The Edmonton Eskimos are well out of the playoff picture but that doesn’t mean their depth chart doesn’t have a lot of intrigue tucked into it this week.
The team has added slotback Fred Stamps and linebacker J.C. Sherritt to their nine-game injured list, shutting the two star players down for Friday night’s game against the B.C. Lions and for next week’s finale in Regina against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The Eskimos also added offensive lineman Alexander Krausnick and running back/special teamer Mike Cornell to their nine-game list.
Stamps is the leading receiver in the Canadian Football League, with 1,259 yards. Montreal’s S.J. Green is in second, with 1,070 yards and a pair of games to play against Hamilton and Toronto. He was expected to not play in Vancouver this week, with a year’s worth of nicks and bruises weighing on him, along with an awkward fall in last week’s home finale against the Calgary Stampeders. Late in the fourth quarter of that game, Stamps slipped on the concrete track that skirts the end zone, limped to the sidelines and did not return. His spot on the depth chart is filled this week by rookie Kemonte Bateman, who comes in off of the team’s practice roster.
Sherritt’s 2013 campaign with the Eskimos was disrupted with a broken thumb, suffered in Week 6 against Hamilton. He had surgery on it over the bye week and missed four games. The thumb never felt fully functional for the third-year player, though, and he re-fractured it. He’s been on the one-game injured list the last two weeks. After leading the league in tackles in 2012 with 130 (a single-season league record), Sherritt played in 10 games this year and had 46 tackles, four on special teams and had one forced fumble, one fumble recovery, one interception and one quarterback sack.
Rennie Curran will continue to fill in for Sherritt. The former Georgia Bulldog has 55 tackles in 14 games this year and was the league’s defensive player of the week after his 11-tackle outing in the Eskimos’ loss to the Riders two weeks ago.
