I'd take Reilly on the Bombers in a heartbeat. Could you imagine what he'd be able to do with Harris and the O-line here? It's his exorbitant salary that's the problem, as Hervey's no doubt learned. You can't build a well balanced roster with that kind of money on the books.
The 2018 Eskimos and the 2019 Lions missed the playoff in spite of him and his production. He's posted passer ratings of 99.2 and 96.0 over the last two seasons, indicating he's more than done his part. He's just not getting the help around, which speaks to an overall team issue more than anything. Mike Reilly has the numbers and the accolades to back up his worth as a pivot in this league.
I agree on Claybrooks being given a crap hand. One year is not enough time to assess HC ability, IMO. He's one hell of a defensive coach and I'd welcome him here if Hall were to retire.
Nobody forced that hand on Claybrooks, he applied for and accepted the Lion's HC job presumably on his own belief he was ready to step up and lead a team, he probably should have realized his "easy-going style" wasn't going to cut it as a HC beforehand.
Here is a summary of Hevery's explanation for his firing. Hard to disagree.
"We failed as a team," he said. "We failed on the field, we failed off the field. It's our job to make sure we fix it."
Two factors weighed heavily in deciding Claybrooks fate.
On the marketing side, the Lions would have trouble selling tickets next year if Claybrooks was still on the sideline wearing his hat at a slightly twisted angle.
"We have to look at the organization as a whole," said Hervey. "There's a business to this as well. If we're not winning everything else becomes part of it."
On the football side, Hervey was frustrated by a lack of structure in the Lions dressing room. Claybrooks is a big man, with a big personality who maybe didn't always enforce discipline and hold players accountable.
"Structure is extremely important," said Hervey. "Accountability is high on my list of priorities and a level of discipline must be there."
As a CFL veteran, Hervey said "it doesn't take long for players to take advantage if a coach doesn't apply the rules. If there is no consequence for a player being one minute late for a meeting today, he may be three minutes late the next day and bring a cell phone into the room with him."
"It's how the players respond to the coach," said Hervey. "It's how the players respond to the environment and the culture being set."
"You start to realize there were things there that needed to be looked at. Here we are today with the decision made."
When Claybrooks spoke to the media Monday during the Lions dressing room cleanout he acknowledged some situations might have been handled better.
"You can?t let any detail go, whether it's a violation of dress code or something like that," he said. "Because . . . if you allow those things to go, those are the things that creep in when it's a pivotal point in a situation on the field. It's just little things like that, that we've got to explore and we've got to look at and we've got to fix."
https://www.cfl.ca/2019/11/06/morris-lions-one-done-claybrooks-search-new-coach-begins/
