Elks going back to 'square one' after dismal 2021 season: head coach
CTV
Chris Jones didn’t mince words when asked about the state of the Edmonton Elks as they attempt to recover from one of the worst seasons in franchise history — and a pre-season that hasn’t answered a lot of lingering questions about this team.
Chris Jones didn’t mince words when asked about the state of the Edmonton Elks as they attempt to recover from one of the worst seasons in franchise history — and a pre-season that hasn’t answered a lot of lingering questions about this team.
"We've got a lot of work to do," Jones said last Friday after the Elks were rocked 37-7 by a Calgary Stampeders team that rested many regulars.
"We're back to day one, square one. We're going to go back to day one, and way back when in the playbook. My god, we're going to be a fundamentally sound football team. Right now, it doesn’t look like we are."
Jones inherits a team that went 3-11 last year, and didn’t win a single game at home — the first time that’s happened in Elks history. Jones, the team’s general manager, head coach and defensive co-ordinator, was Edmonton's biggest off-season acquisition, returning to the city where he won a Grey Cup in 2015.
But some of the questions that dogged this team in 2021 still haven’t been answered in 2022 — most notably the team’s first-choice quarterback. As of Friday Jones had not confirmed his starting quarterback for Elks' season opener Saturday on the road against the B.C. Lions, though Nick Arbuckle ran the first-team offence during Edmonton's practice on Thursday.
The team acquired Arbuckle from the Argos late in the ‘21 campaign, but then-head coach Jaime Elizondo opted not to play him, going with Taylor Cornelius, instead. The team’s brain trust felt that throwing Arbuckle into a new offensive system was too much to ask, so he held a clipboard while the team sputtered.
Arbuckle played in the team’s pre-season opener, a 30-20 win over Winnipeg on May 27 before injury curtailed his pre-season preparation.
