Jones says Edmonton Elks going back to ‘square one’ this season after dismal 2021 campaign
Global News
"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."
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.”
READ MORE: Elks have Lions in their sights as team makes final preparations for season opener
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. Nick Arbuckle will get the first crack at the job, starting under centre in the Elks’ season opener Saturday at the B.C. Lions.
READ MORE: Nick Arbuckle hopes to find a home with Elks in Edmonton
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.
The family behind one of Canada’s most well-known ice-cream brands says they’re absorbing “all immediate increases in our costs” as the U.S.-Canada trade war heats up.
Friedrich Trump called his business in Bennett, a town that sprang up because of the Klondike Gold Rush, the Arctic Restaurant & Hotel.
A new poll suggests that 40 per cent of Canadians are worried about losing their jobs as many businesses scale back hiring plans in response to the trade war with the U.S.
At the Halifax Stanfield International Airport, the tariff trade war between Canada and the U.S. is leaving flyers who travel between the two countries feeling very uneasy.
The man pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Migratory Birds Regulations after hunting snow geese without a permit, says a release from the ECCC.
Doug Ford is set to fly in and out of the U.S. capital on Thursday for a meeting with President Donald Trump's commerce secretary which could calm or reignite trade tensions.
'Half of us here are dual citizens, including me -- Canadian and American, half of us,' Point Roberts resident Brian Calder told Global News.
The proposed upgrades include parking lot improvements, wider trails, and a 2.4-metre-wide multi-use pathway.
Carney will replace Justin Trudeau after winning a race for the Liberal leadership on Sunday, and will take the reins of government amid a growing trade war with the U.S.
A Toronto woman who faced multiple charges in a dog attack that seriously injured a child has pleaded guilty to some of them, including a criminal charge of negligence.
Doug Ford was spending Wednesday meeting with Canada's incoming prime minister and speaking to his fellow premiers ahead of a trip Thursday to Washington, D.C.
The Bank of Canada cut its benchmark rate by 25 basis points, bringing it down to 2.75 per cent. Experts say the outlook for the housing market remains hazy.
Officers received a call shortly after noon Wednesday about an unconscious person who was found on the slopes, lying near a tree.