Fred Stamps finds it tough to prognosticate infectious passes from someone other than Ricky Ray next season.
The Edmonton Eskimos receiver, and a of Ray’s prime targets, had difficulty jacket his head around the headlines that broad executive Eric Tillman traded the face of the authorization on Monday.
"I had listened something about it, but you never unequivocally pay consideration to it until it obviously comes true," mentioned Stamps. "It’s a shocker. Ricky has been my quarterback given I’ve been in Edmnton. It’s tough, but we theory the coaches and the broad managers that’s what they obtain paid to do, make tough decisions similar to that. They contingency know something that we don’t know."
Ray was traded to the Toronto Argonauts for quarterback Steven Jyles, local kicker Grant Shaw and the second on the whole collect in the arriving CFL draft.
According to Tillman, the Argonauts pursued Ray vigorously and finally offering the Eskimos a treat he felt estimable of relocating the club’s heart and soul.
Jyles is approaching to dare for personification time next period with Kerry Joseph, Eric Ward and Matt Nichols.
"Steven’s a of my most appropriate friends, we got way back given college," mentioned ! Stamps.< /b> "You never can reinstate Ricky Ray. He’s a of the most appropriate quarterbacks in the league. Steven is a great quarterback as well, he can advance in and make a lot of plays. Only time will tell. I’m still in startle about the whole incident and we don’t have sufficient to say about it.
"It’s tough. Ricky is a playmaker, he’s a baller, so anyplace he goes he’s going to make plays and have success."
Ray outlayed 9 seasons with the Eskimos, heading the group to a span of Grey Cup championships. He leaves as the team’s all-time fleeting personality with more yards and touchdown passes than any other quarterback in the storied story of the franchise.
"Obviously they feel similar to this is a great pierce is to club. The Canadian calm is something that you always have to keep an eye on," mentioned one-time Eskimos receiver and right away head director Ed Hervey.
"The athleticism that Jyles will bring will open p the running diversion a lot more and enlarge Jarome Messam’s production.
"I’m a small bit biased, because we played with Rickey. He’s a buddy and similar to anything traffic with football, when you do things in the locker room and you fool around with players a long time, no a ever wants to see any person else go. That’s the ardent side of knowing that you’ve won with that specific individual."
The pierce held Eskimos fans by surprise, but deliberation Tillman’s story for trade big-name quarterbacks in the past, it was maybe not unexpected.
Under his leadership, the Eskimos had a turnaround promotion this season, creation it to the Western Final before bowing out to the contingent Grey Cup winner B.C. Lions.
"As far as the pierce is concerned, it’s all business and you have to live with those decision," Hervey said. "Both teams will gain from this move, our hope is to sojourn aggressive and go on our query! to win other championship.
"For Toronto, it gives them a player they can market, a player they can convene around, expand their seats hopefully and know that they’re getting a high quality individual that’s going to help them win games from the onset."
In time, Hervey believes Eskimos fans will agree to the fact Tillman traded Ray desiring it was in the most appropriate fascination of the club.
That will be notably loyal if the Eskimos go on to win the Grey Cup before the Argonauts do.
"This air blower bottom in Edmonton lived to watch Wayne Gretzky leave," Hervey said. "I’m not comparing the two because Wayne Gretzky is a worldwide icon. However, this is a air blower bottom that is used to big-time moves. And we moreover comprehend that we might not obtain the results today. Time will discuss it when the group hits the margin in the next couple of years and the effect of this trade will infer at that time. Until then, we all have to wait for andsee."