The heart and soul of the Edmonton Eskimos defence will be back in the green and gold as J.C. Sherritt signed a two-year contract extension on Friday.
The new deal will take him to the end of the 2019 CFL season.
“It wasn’t difficult,” Sherritt said. “I think Brock and I had a great understanding of each other. I wanted to to be here, he wanted me here so that always makes things easy.”
LISTEN: J.C. Sherritt talks about coming back for an eighth season with the Eskimos
Sherritt will be entering his eighth CFL season, all with the Eskimos. Sherritt played just one game in 2017 after suffering a ruptured Achilles in the season-opener in Vancouver. Sherritt recorded one fumble recovery in the game.
“Well I think once you get to know somebody you find out the most about people and I’ve said this before through trying times,” Sunderland said. “A person that goes down with an Achilles in week one, there was never a woe is me. There was disappointment because he loves the game and loves being here with his teammates. There was never any hanging his head it was just I’m going to get back to the Grey Cup. Immediately even before we boarded the flight back from Vancouver in week one there’s talk of if we get to the Grey Cup I’m going to play.”
LISTEN: Eskimos GM Brock Sunderland on the signing of J.C. Sherritt and planning for free-agency next Tuesday.
Sherritt has recorded 407 defensive tackles in his career, including a season-high 130 in 2012 which was a CFL record at the time. Sherritt won the CFL Most Oustanding Defensive Player award in 2012 and was named a Western Division and CFL All-Star in the same season.
Sherritt has 16 forced fumbles, 12 quarterback sacks, 12 interceptions and one touchdown in 91 games played. He helped the Eskimos to a Grey Cup championship in 2015.