QB Mike Reilly begins 5th year with Eskimos, aims for offence to fly higher
EDMONTON — Mike Reilly was born to run, but in his fifth season with the Edmonton Eskimos, the quarterback with the Methuselah beard has pretty much run out of things to experience.
Reilly has had three coaches and two general managers with the green and gold. He has been booed off the field, along with the rest of the team, in a miserable 2013 campaign, only to don a knee brace two years later and march the Eskimos to a Grey Cup.
He has blown out his knee, blown up his bursa sac, broken his foot, and has been knocked wobbly with a concussive helmet-to-helmet hit.
He has gone from a gun-slinging, free-running risk taker dropping the deep bomb and forcing the ball into tight coverage to a field general in head coach Jason Maas’ up-tempo, no huddle offence, predicated on hot reads and adjustments on the fly.