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Ferguson: What the John Chick trade means for the Ticats, Esks

CFL

If there were any doubt about the Hamilton Tiger-Cats direction moving forward in 2017, it may have been put to rest Sunday afternoon.

The Tiger-Cats dealt defensive end John Chick to the Edmonton Eskimos for the right to move up three rounds in the 2018 CFL draft.

The mild mannered, well respected, forever focused veteran defensive end left his mark in Hamilton.

In a league full of personalities and differences Chick did his best – through actions, occasionally words – to put everyone in the same frame of mind, the John Chick state of mind.

Come to work, give everything you have, come back the next day and do it again.

I’ll never forget boarding a red-eye flight out of Calgary last season after a tough Ticats loss to the Stampeders. Ticats players were enjoying each others company loudly. Brandon Banks joking with former receiver Spencer Watt and former defensive coordinator Orlondo Steinauer.

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All of a sudden someone yelled – on a commercial flight – at the top of their lungs, “HEY, be quiet”. I snapped my head around to see Adrian Tracy finish his message to his Ticats teammates.

“John needs his sleep”.

The plane went silent. More importantly it stayed that way.

Guys respected Chick in Hamilton. His resume demanded it and his play confirmed it.

In trading Chick the Tiger-Cats have parted ways with a special man who I believe was of the highest character in the locker room. The need was necessitated by his relatively high salary number, the Ticats performance thus far and a growing sense that Hamilton may have to turn the page on some veterans before Labour Day.

All of that doesn’t change the fact that it was a brutally hard decision to give up a guy whose work ethic is unmatched and is still playing at a very high level.

Anyone who thinks John Chick has ‘lost a step’ hasn’t really watched him or the Tiger-Cats play this season. The offence averages a CFL-low 50.1 plays from scrimmage in 2017 while owning the ball for 25:54 a game and converting 37.1% of their second down opportunities on offence.

It is difficult for any defence to survive when asked to play such an astronomical number of snaps, even a man like Chick whose conditioning routine is exact in its preparation for game day and whose meticulous warmup routine begins by foam rolling in the team hotel five hours before kickoff.

Chick has a lot left to give which is great news for the Edmonton Eskimos who are dearly in need of assistance with Marcus Howard falling to injury in Ottawa recently.

In acquiring Chick the Eskimos added a player who will adapt quickly, gel naturally and – they hope – produce like he did in 2016 under defensive coordinator Orlando Steinauer and defensive line coach Dennis McPhee’s direction.

Back in Week 7 when the Tiger-Cats finished their Alberta double dip at Edmonton, Chick was matched up against offensive tackle Tony Washington. I viewed it as a favourable matchup for Chick and a chance to show he still had lots of his trademark energy and power.

Chick had a quarterback sack which forced a fumble against Washington. Two weeks later, Washington wears black and gold in Hamilton while Chick is headed west to Edmonton to prove that sack and fumble wasn’t an anomaly, rather a sign of things to come for a high quality human in search of another Grey Cup.

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