Is Trevor Harris the ‘scapegoat’ for the Edmonton Elks?
By Olivia Lawrence
RP Show Intern
It has been a rough season for the Edmonton Elks, they are currently sitting last in the West Division at 2-7. It seems the team is blaming their struggles largely on former starting quarterback Trevor Harris. News just broke he has been traded from the team to the Montreal Alouettes for defensive end Antonio Simmon.
“Are you flushing the season and doing a rebuild now with Taylor Cornelius?,” said Rod Pedersen on Monday’s episode of The Rod Pedersen Show. “You got the [Elks] GM standing at a podium at a news conference on Sunday saying ‘we’re surprised with where we are.’ If you don’t know Brock [Sunderland], who the hell does know! It’s your job to know why you are where you are. And now you’re scapegoating Trevor Harris, I have a huge problem with that. I don’t think he’s been that bad, the whole team’s been that bad.”
The team has not seen a win since Sept. 6 against the Calgary Stampeders. Even after Harris was pulled from starting quarterback after Week 6, his replacement Taylor Cornelius has not led the team to a victory yet. To give the rookie some credit, three of the four games he has started have been against the West Division leaders, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Elks did have a good opportunity to secure a win against the Ottawa Redblacks in Week 9 however. The Redblacks are currently sitting last in the East Division.
Rod Pedersen discussed the Harris trade with TSN Insider Dave Naylor on Monday’s episode to get his take on the decision by the Elks.
“I think there was some fed up with Trevor Harris in the building,” said Naylor. “I think there was some really enamored with Taylor Cornelius, and you don’t see that very often, that a team will make a leap off of a veteran quarterback to a guy who’s unproven… This is a street free agent League and we’ve seen lots of guys with great resumes, so that’s the biggest risk I think Edmonton is taking here.”
Back in 2011, the Elks took a similar risk with starting quarterback Ricky Ray, trading him to the Toronto Argonauts. The Elks thought quarterbacks Steven Jyles and Matt Nichols were going to be the next franchise quarterbacks for Edmonton, but that never really happened. Ray actually went on to win the 100th Grey Cup with the Toronto Argonauts as the starting quarterback. It will be interesting to see if Cornelius becomes the next quarterback for the franchise.
Harris on the other hand, has now become a security blanket for the Montreal Alouettes. On Saturday, the Alouettes played against the Ottawa Redblacks winning 27-16, but it was a nerve-racking game for the Alouettes with Matthew Shiltz being their only option for quarterback. If he were to have taken a hit and got injured, the team would have no quarterback on their roster who has thrown a CFL pass.
“In terms of Trevor Harris in Montreal, he’s going in as the backup,” said Naylor. “He’s going to learn the playbook, learn the schemes, learn the personnel, and I think if Matthew Shiltz continues to play well, we’ll see him start the rest of the season and take them right into the playoffs. I think the only way Trevor Harris starts a game here is if Matt Shiltz gets hurt, or his performance diminishes over the course of the rest of the season.”
CFL fans will have to wait and see what happens with these two teams. This week (Week 12), Montreal plays Friday (Oct. 22) against the Argonauts. The Elks have a bye-week, resuming on Friday Oct. 29 against the Hamilton Tiger Cats.
Brock Sunderland relieved Jason Maas of his duties and that wasn’t the problem. Whoever’s in charge of that Edmonton franchise needs to relieve Brock of his duties immediately! That team’s upper management need to grow some balls and punt this clown Sunderland.
You are absolutely correct and that would be president Chris Presson but he needs to go to along with the BOD and Elizondo but all this will probably wait until the offseason but than their is that management salary cap issue to deal with
Two things. One -the situation with Ray was entirely different. Tillman made that call against the wishes of Kavis Reed. It was a hugely unpopular trade. Not so with Harris who has his detractors. Two – as Moddejonge wrote on the trade – Harris had 6 majors in 82 drives in his 6 games. Cornelius has 5 in 39 drives in his 2 games plus change, going into the Winnipeg match. The Red Zone problems with the Elks in 2019 were well documented & we have seen that with Maas here this year. As a comparison, look at the offensive… Read more »
Mr.Roy Shivers, Mr.Warren Moon please come to Edmonton and rescue this CFL franchise. Put the pro back In professional football for the City of Champions.
CFL Edmonton Elks upper hierarchy plus Sunderland, Elizondo are making a total mockery of a historic winning football club/organization. Someone needs to put a stop this bull sh*t currently being played out.