Some excerpts from the article by Mike Beamish ...
Reilly played very well in his limited time against the Riders. I'm glad that Leonard has found his way onto the Practice Roster. He has potential. He needs some time.Despite a masterful, five-minute performance – eight for eight, 108 yards passing, two TDs and a single run of 17 yards – Reilly is still firmly pegged as the No. 3 QB on the Lions depth chart following Wednesday’s 34-6 preseason win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Reilly, a second-year CFL player, is staying, that’s not a surprise. What constitutes an eyebrow-raiser, though, is that head coach Wally Buono has decided to keep Corey Leonard as the team’s fourth quarterback and to park him on the practice or injured roster.
Wally has had many quarterbacks develop in his program over the years.“CFL quarterbacks are built, they’re cultivated, they’re not ready-made,” Buono explained. “I’m trying to invest in the development of quarterbacks. For any organization, you need the ability to have an evolving door. Because quarterbacks are an evolving door. I believe, and the coaches believe, that the the guys we have . . . you’ve got to invest the time, and you’ve got to invest the resources, to give these guys a chance.”
Reilly, however, did look first class, perhaps because of regular attendance in gym class. His wife, Jessica, is operations manager for two Golds Gym locations, in Kennewick and Richland, Wash., and Reilly took advantage of his wife’s connections to access state-of-the-art workout facilities, technical training strategies and dietary guidance during the offseason. He supplied the motivation.
He moves well for a guy with that weight.And now, 25 pounds of extra muscle later, the 6-2, 230 quarterback from Central Washington is ready to bust out of anonymity, at least from the CFL’s perspective.
As a four-year starter with the Wildcats, Reilly broke most of Central Washington’s passing records previously held by Jon Kitna, the well-traveled quarterback still gainfully employed by the NFL, 14 years after graduating from the university in Ellensburg, Wash. He was enough of a running threat to lead the Wildcats in rushing in the 2008 season.
“I see a more aggressive, competitive guy than I initially thought,” Buono said of Reilly. “He’s aggressive in his mind and aggressive as an athlete. I got the impression they [Roughriders] didn’t want to tackle him.”
Lots of depth at QB right now for the Lions. Lulay, Jackson, Reilly. Leonard on the PR.It was enough to suggest that Buono might consider a re-arrangement of the pecking order which sees Reilly as the third quarterback option, behind starter Travis Lulay and veteran backup Jarious Jackson. Not at this time, Buono suggested.
“At this point, somebody has to be No. 3,” he explained. “Every game that they play, they learn and get better from. The sad part is that you stop the growth. They [No. 3 QBs] don’t grow as fast and level off because the opportunities for growth [in games] aren’t there. He [Reilly] showed again the ability to be make a play, to be a good athlete and make some good decisions.”
