SPRUCE GROVE — It’s one statistic where the Edmonton Eskimos are happy to be in the middle of the pack.
Although they are a year older and wiser heading into their second season with head coach Chris Jones at the helm, their roster is constantly trying to find the delicate balance between youth and experience.
With the 53 players the Eskimos have under contract averaging 2.92 years of CFL experience, that places them right near the centre, at fourth out of nine teams, at the commencement of opening week in the CFL.
And the middle is where teams want to be, in order to avoid having too much of one or the other.
“You always want to make sure that you’re trying to get younger, but you don’t want to go so young that you’re out there with some greenhorns and they’re constantly making rookie mistakes,” said Jones, whose second season as a CFL head coach kicks off Saturday against the Toronto Argonauts in Fort McMurray (3 p.m., TSN, 630 CHED). “We’ve got a good balance of youth and older guys with experience.”
Helping to favourably tip the scales was the release of 35-year-old offensive lineman Brian Ramsay and receiver Paris Jackson, who will turn 35 in exactly one month, in Sunday’s final wave of preseason cuts. Of course, the Eskimos also got younger over an off-season that saw 33-year-old slotback Fred Stamps get traded for 25-year-old Kenny Stafford.
But it’s not just balancing player ages. The name of the game is fielding the most competitive team possible in the here and now at the same time they plan for the future.
“We’re a year older,” Jones said. “We’ve been in the system a little bit and the coaching staff and certainly the players feel a little more comfortable with the calls.”
As was made evident at Wednesday’s practice at Fuhr Sports Park, where the offence had a clear advantage over the defence in drills. Typically, it’s CFL defences that begin the season with the advantage while offences play catch up.
“Offensively, it seems Mike (Reilly) has got a good grasp of what we’re doing and he’s playing very well. Defensively, we’ve just got to do a little bit better job in man coverage right now.”
Tying the roster together, coaches and GMs have a third factor to keep in mind when heading into the season with their roster — and this one is as important as it is intangible — and that’s the issue of team chemistry.
“I sound like I’m a broken record, we’ve got a tremendous group as far as off the field,” Jones said. “They like being around each other, they like hanging out with each other and the coaching staff does, too, so it makes it real easy going into the meeting rooms and that type of thing.”
THE REST: The 16 players the Eskimos have in their fourth or fifth CFL seasons is a league high, though the Montreal Alouettes have 15 players with more than five years’ experience … The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are the most inexperienced squad with just 29 CFL games per player, but also clock in with the most players under contract with 64 … The Saskatchewan Roughriders have the most experience on their side with an average of 43 CFL games per player.
gerry.moddejonge@sunmedia.ca
@SunModdejonge
FACT BOX
The average CFL player: 2.62 prior seasons of experience (CFL only), 35 games played (same as to start 2014).
Roster turnover from 2014: 70% of the 506 players returned to their same team in 2015.
The remaining 30% are 102 first-year players plus another 49 that moved from another club or returned to the CFL after a one-year absence. First-year players make up 20% of the rosters.
Injured Lists: There are 92 players on the IL to start the year; that is up from 79 in 2014 and 64 in 2013.
The average CFL player is … 27.2 years of age (exactly the same as at June 2014).
Of the 102 first-year players, 34 came from the 2015 Canadian Draft (34 of the 63 players chosen).
There are now only 17 players in their 10th year or more, down from 26 10-plus-year vets in 2013.
A total of 46% of our roster players are in either their first or second year; up from 44% in 2014 and 42% in 2013.
Nationals comprise just under 48% of the CFL now — 241 of 506 players.
— Provided by the CFL
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