Since the Edmonton Elks last faced the BC Lions in Vancouver — a 59-15 season-opening jump just 56 days ago — head coach and general manager Chris Jones has made 83 separate changes to his team’s roster. A revolving door depth chart has long been the trademark of a man who would cut his mother if it meant securing a win, and honestly, it’s hard to blame him. Despite any promises of victory from president Victor Cui, the Elks are a 2-5 team looking at the rest of the West Division, and Jones has yet to build a winning formula out of the wreckage left by the organization’s previous regime. Each of these roster moves will play a small role in determining the outcome when these two teams meet again on Saturday night, and in many ways, things are looking good for the Elks. Undeniably improved and healthy for the first time, this is a game that could be much closer than the double-digit spread suggests. However, Edmonton will enter BC Place at a slight disadvantage thanks, in part, to one of Chris Jones’ roster moves well before the start of the current campaign. That’s because, for all his busy season, the Elks will play a shortstop at BC Place. On paper, the above statement is demonstrably false, but in practice, there is no other way to describe a depth chart that includes three kickers. In addition to Sergio Castillo and rookie Jon Ryan, the Elks will be forced to dress Australian Ryan Meskell on Saturday. A career 26-of-39 field goal at the University of Hawaii, his best bet is to contribute as a kickoff specialist — something he did well in college but brings little value to a pro roster. Love it or hate it — I won’t make any attempt to convince you in this article — the CFL’s Global initiative makes it clear that an international player must be on every team’s game day roster. With Danish forward Steven Nielsen battling illness, the team had no choice but to choose between Meskel and Brazilian forward Rafael Galliano for the final spot in the lineup. With Tomas Jack-Kurdyla dressing to replace Nielsen as the sixth offensive lineman, Edmonton will have one less body available to cover kicks for a questionable special teams unit. However, it didn’t have to be that way. All the way back on February 28, in one of his first moves as the team’s general manager, Jones cut three players from the Elks’ roster. All three were Worlds and all three had previous playing experience. The message was clear: Jones would tolerate Nielsen as a deep piece — his college pedigree and previous interest in the NFL guaranteed it — but he had no desire to humor any other world-class player. He reinforced that view in the 2022 Global Draft when he and assistant GM Geroy Simon, who was BC’s new director of global scouting, selected kickers with all three picks and passed the first round on 30-year-old punter Ben Griffiths, who never showed up at camp. It’s easy to dismiss these decisions from Jones, and no doubt there are plenty of Elks fans who share his ambivalence toward Global players. However, three years of data has shown us that this is the worst type of strategy to pursue with the mandatory roster quota, and the failure to stock competent special teams players is now coming back to bite Edmonton. All of this would hardly merit a footnote in the game’s preview if not for a random twist. On that fateful day in February, the Elks released Mexican wide receiver Diego Viamontes and French linebacker Maxime Rouyer, both of whom might have been nice to have right now. However, the third player cut will actively have a chance to hurt them on Saturday. Belgian defensive tackle Tibo Debaillie, an unheralded third-round world pick out of Towson University, had played three games in 2021, recording just one tackle in extremely limited reps. Few fans would know his name, a player so insignificant that he found out he was released by reading a tweet from Dave Campbell. Elks management claims they tried to contact him through several avenues, but Debaillie never received their communication. “I’ve never spoken to Chris Jones about it. I have never met him, never spoken to him. One night I came home from the gym and I was on the couch, just chilling with my dad and mom, and all of a sudden I see on Twitter that I’m freed,” the resident of tiny Gistel, Belgium, told me last week. . “I’ve never heard anything from Edmonton. Not a text, not an email, not a phone call.” It seemed clear that Debaillie’s CFL adventure was over and he signed with Germany’s Potsdam Royals. That was until the BC Lions emailed him, desperate to replace departed Global specialist Niklas Gustav. With all due respect to Thiadric Hansen’s ability to take rubbish bags and cover kicks, what Debaillie has managed since then has been the best performance yet by a world class player. He has played about half the Lions’ snaps at nose tackle in six games, recording nine tackles and a sack. He often sees the pitch in crucial moments and goal-line situations, taking a level of absolute confidence that no other international player has. Meanwhile, Edmonton is struggling to find a capable All-American defensive tackle to fill a void. Isn’t irony delicious? As heartwarming as his story was, Debaillie’s presence won’t win BC the game, and playing short-handed won’t cost Edmonton. However, whether due to misjudgment or a lack of effort from the Elks, the Lions took an impact player from scrap pieces that the green and gold could have desperately used. In an industry where the margins of victory are as slim as professional football, sometimes that’s what separates the good teams from the bad. Editor’s note: This article has been updated to reflect a claim by the Edmonton Elks that they attempted to contact Debaillie to inform him of his release.
