Canadian Football League

Saturday, November 26, 2005

Canadian Football League trade after Grey Cup for Maas

It looks as though Sunday's Grey Cup contest will be quarterback Jason Maas' last with the Edmonton Eskimos.

Edmonton QB Jason Maas will be traded to Hamilton after Sunday's Grey Cup game, accoriding to reports.An anonymous league source told the Canadian Press Friday night that Maas will be traded to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats after the 93rd Grey Cup game (CBC, 5:30 p.m. ET) for veteran quarterback Danny McManus and offensive lineman Tim Bakker.
Both McManus and Bakker are former Eskimos
A Vancouver radio station was also reporting the trade.
The trade had been rumoured ever since Hamilton dealt running back Troy Davis and offensive lineman Dan Comiskey to Edmonton on Oct. 5 for receiver Brock Ralph, defensive back Tad Cody and a 2006 first-round draft pick.
The 30-year-old Maas spent the majority of the 2005 season on the sidelines backing up Edmonton starter Ricky Ray, but he come off the bench in both of the Eskimos' playoff games to lead his team to come-from-behind victories and a berth in the Grey Cup.
He will back up Ray again on Sunday against the Montreal Alouettes.
Maas passed for over 5,270 yards with Edmonton in 2004 as a starter but resumed his role as backup when Ray returned to the Eskimos this season after failing to catch on with the NFL's New York Jets.
Maas would join a Hamilton team that stumbled to a 5-13 record in 2005 and had four different starting quarterbacks: McManus, Khari Jones, Marcus Brady and rookie Kevin Eakin.
Offensively, the Ticats were ranked last in total yards (315 per game) and scoring (17.9 points) in the nine-team CFL.
The 40-year-old McManus has accumulated some of the best QB numbers in CFL history and is one of only three to amass 50,000 career yards passing. The others are Damon Allen and Ron Lancaster, Hamilton's former coach who now works in the team's front office.
Danny Mac, as he is often called, led Hamilton to its last Grey Cup title in 1999. He was great in 2004, throwing for more than 5,000 yards (5,034) for just the second time in his career as the Ticats rebounded from a disastrous 1-17 season in 2004. They finished 9-8-1 and secured an East Division playoff berth.
This year has been a different story. McManus threw for 2,544 yards this season, but he had 18 interceptions against just 11 touchdown passes.
The Ticats picked up the option on McManus' contract late in the season and the 16-year veteran publicly stated after the club's final game he intended to play somewhere in 2006.
McManus played for Edmonton from 1996-97 before heading to Hamilton alongside head coach Lancaster and receiver Darren Flutie.

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