Ricky Ray Traded to Toronto

[jetsforever]

Ricky Ray is about to become a Toronto Argonaut.

The Argonauts and Edmonton Eskimos have a agreed to a deal that will see the 32-year-old quarterback moving East. The Eskimos have called a media conference today at 4pm et/1pm pt to announce the deal.

Toronto's side of the trade is believed to include quarterback Steven Jyles, kicker Grant Shaw and a first-round draft pick going to the Eskimos.

The Argonauts are hoping the acquisition of Ray will solve a quarterback quandary that has existed since Damon Allen retired at the end of the 2007 season, with Michael Bishop, Kerry Joseph, Cleo Lemon and Jyles - among others - all unable to solve team's quarterback woes.

Toronto has ranked last, or second to last, in CFL passing in each of the past three seasons.

Ray is coming off what could be considered a bounce-back year after a disappointing 2010, throwing for 4,594 yards, while completing 65.2 per cent of his passes, with 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions.

Ray led the Eskimos to Grey Cup wins in 2003 and 2005 and has thrown for at least 4,500 yards six times in his career.

He holds most of the Eskimo single-season and career passing records and is among the league's highest paid players at between $350,000-$400,000 per season.

This marks the second time that Edmonton general manager Eric Tillman has traded for Jyles, the first coming in 2008 when he was wth the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Eskimos other quarterbacks are veteran Kerry Joseph, Eric Ward, who just completed his rookie season, and Matt Nichols, who has not played during his two seasons with Edmonton.

http://www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=382540

Pretty surprising. Steven Jyles goes to Edmonton in the deal but Jyles and Joesph as the QBs seems pretty lackluster.

[Johann]

So Psyched!

[BranWingss]

Beautiful trade for Toronto. Really gives them a legit starter.

[carson005]

Wow

[FlakeyFool]

acquired a hall of fame qb. Not bad, just nobody to throw to.

[wagnall]

For the 1st time in a longtime we can say T.O have a legit CFL star QB. Now just give him some weapons to use!

[wagnall]

Can't believe that Edmonton is going to rely on Jyles to replace Ray? Think they have other plans, because Jyles is not in Rays class! Can't think the fans think much of this trade!

[Canada26]

Am I the only one who thinks the Argos got robbed here? I mean, from an economic view, they did well because Ray is a huge name, he's probably ok for this year and the Grey Cup is in T.O this year, so they wanted something to a)sell seats and b) give them the best chance to win right now.

I feel that Jyles can be a good QB. He has all the tools to be a great CFL QB and he has shown flashes. He now has arguably the best RB in the country and a pretty good OL to boot. Ray has been declining now for a bit and didn't have a great year last year. He may be OK this year, but he isn't a long term solution. The Argos just traded theirs.

[ChongInc.]

Tillman seems to like to build a Great team around a sub-par QB. He's good at it so let him do his thang.