The Edmonton Eskimos made a roster move Tuesday releasing veteran receiver Chris Getzlaf.
The 34-year-old played the better part of the last two seasons with the green and gold, he hasn’t played the last four games spending time on the team’s practice roster. In eight games Getzlaf caught five passes for 43 yards and scored one touchdown.
Head coach Jason Maas says saying goodbye to Getzlaf isn’t easy.
“No I mean it’s not. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t find a spot for him really on the roster because he’s deserving of that,” Maas said. “We did what we could to keep him around as long as we could because he’s such a professional and there’s so many little things that he does for your organization that goes unnoticed from a lot of people but not from our coaches and not from our players. Anytime you see a vet like that who’s meant a lot to our organization leave, in a short time he’s meant a lot and he’s done it the right way.”
Overall Getzlaf played 26 games for the Eskimos in two seasons recording 498 yards and scoring three touchdowns. Before that he spent eight seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Getzlaf is the second veteran Canadian receiver on the move by the Eskimos in the last 10 days. The team traded Shamawd Chambers on September 17 to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for two draft picks. That leaves Cory Watson, Natey Adjei, and 2017 fifth overall selection Nate Behar left among Canadian receivers. Behar has played in six games but only on special teams, he says his approach doesn’t change even though he might be closer to taking on a bigger role.
“I think if something has to change in your approach because you’re closer to playing then you aren’t getting ready the right way to start,” Behar said. “If you were slacking because you didn’t think it was your time then I don’t think you knew how badly you wanted it.”
Official disciplined
Quarterback Mike Reilly has endured a blow to the head in each of the last two games, penalties were not called in either case.
630 CHED’s Morley Scott reported Tuesday on his Twitter account that the official who failed to call a penalty against Reilly late in the fourth quarter in Toronto didn’t work any games last weekend, Morley wrote hashtag “suspended.”
Reilly says he can only control what he can control.
“That’s, unfortunately, a part of football sometimes and we just always try to worry about the things that we can control and certainly in these last two games there were those situations but there was stuff that we could have and should have done better on our own part which would’ve made the result of the game different,” Reilly said. “Again those are things that we can control that we can do better and that’s really what we focus on.”
The Eskimos will look to break a five-game losing streak on Saturday when they host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium.
Kick-off is at 7:30 p.m., the game will be carried on CISN Country one-oh-three-point-nine FM starting with Countdown to Kick-off at 6:30 p.m.
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