Change is never easy, especially when it comes to something people are passionate about. Back in September 2013 Ed Hervey ripped into his team’s play and the play calling as he had lost patience with his offence for evolving too slowly. After four games in 2016 it’s the defence’s turn. However, while Hervey does that, he also needs to take a long look in the mirror.
The only real thing Hervey deserves applause for is his brutal honesty. But it is time to take a hard look at the choices made in the secondary and be brutally honest with himself.
Edmonton Eskimos Management Need to Make Changes
Best Laid Plans
The Eskimos identity has always been a hard-nosed, blue collar band of brothers that was committed to excellence as a team. In the last two decades, the Eskimo way has faded and come back largely to the efforts of Hervey-led football operations management team. After the debacle on the weekend, expect Hervey to remind the entire team what is expected in Edmonton. The question is whether anyone with character is listening. Do Hervey’s men accept their accountability, and accept the challenge?
Players get injured, players go to free agency, players get cut and players get older. Coaches also change, as do schemes and playbooks. The mark of a good general manger is to foresee change and, with a team identity in mind, make the necessary moves to keep winning. In essence, being as prepared as possible to spin change to the organization’s advantage is what makes or breaks a general manager.
For the most part Hervey has been prepared over the last three seasons. After last season, Eskimo fans expected that Hervey would continue to be ahead of the curve. In the off-season, Hervey made mostly solid decisions, bringing in Kenny Ladler resigning JC Sherritt and promoting Deon Lacey to a starting spot. However, Hervey miscalculated substantially on the development curve and quality quotient and underprepared for change he knew was coming in the secondary.
Lost Development
Hervey knew in 2015 that Aaron Grymes and Dexter McCoil were all headed south to take another run at the NFL. He also knew that Cauchy Muamba was injured significantly enough to miss the playoffs and could not be counted on for the 2016 season. Finally, he knew that Patrick Watkins was coming into his tenth pro football season and would likely be ready to move into a backup role soon. Knowing all this, Hervey worked diligently to keep the secondary change to only John Ojo in 2015. While the strategy led to a championship, it also had the negative effect of not preparing the next wave of starters for the 2016 season.
Knowing full well that defensive halfback is one of the most difficult positions to learn for new CFL players Hervey brought in Deion Belue, Kacy Rodgers II and Aaron Hester in 2015. Last years coaching staff failed to provide significant valuable game reps even as backups, but did afford CFL practice time for the trio. Hervey chose not to intervene and insist on rolling all three onto the active roster.
In the offseason the Edmonton Eskimos elected to keep Belue under contract and chose to not resign neither Rodgers nor Hester. Why Hervey invested time and energy into Rodgers and Hester then simply gave up on them is perplexing. This was lost development effort that could have been used to prepare for the pending need in the secondary.
Scheme Fits Players
Back in February Hervey was talking about having a war chest ready for when Aaron Grymes became available. As a result Hervey signed no veteran free agents in the secondary until signing Cord Parks in late in May. At this point defensive coordinator Mike Benevides had already developed the defensive scheme and playbook.
The scheme was obviously developed with the lack of secondary player continuity in mind. Benevides has developed a scheme to protect perceived weaknesses at safety and wide side halfback, as well as a drop off at the boundary corner. Add in the season ending injury to Ojo and it is impossible to see how the current Eskimos secondary could play anything other than a passive zone.
While some are now calling for Benevides’ job, the reality is better players are needed to allow for a defensive scheme change. A coaching change alone will not provide better results. To be successful on defence the Esks have to play man press at certain times in the game. That means re-signing Grymes at wide side defensive halfback between Ladler and Belue. However, getting Grymes on a new contract will not be enough. The Esks will need to aggressively go after NFL camp cuts to replace Watkins at the boundary side corner as well. Finally, if Muamba doesn’t regain his starter form, Mike Dubuisson must be promoted. The Neil King at safety experiment has to be ended immediately.
Step Up or Step Out
With a tough schedule down the stretch the Eskimos must win the next three games, all against beatable teams. Even with weakened offences, all three opponents now have the book on the Esks defense. There is no hiding the fact that there is a personnel deficit in the secondary in the short term. So Benevides is forced to make hard choices at safety and the wide side corner immediately, but also must mix in a more risky attacking defence. Any player who cannot play within a cover man blitzing package has to move on: development is over. That’s on you, Ed Hervey.
While Benevides shifts the defence, Hervey needs to step up in front of the fan base to say this one is on him. He has to admit that he failed to prepare for sudden changes like Ojo’s injury and Watkins’ drop off. Hervey needs to call himself out to protect his club. If he does, he will calm the fan base and give the Eskimos time to make the necessary change for the team to succeed in 2016.
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