One Question For 2024: Can the Elks get back to the playoffs?

CFL.ca Staff

As the 2024 season approaches, each team has a question that looms over it that will shape its season. CFL.ca asked players across the league about that question. Our series shifts to the Edmonton Elks, who are looking to work their way back into the playoff picture.

EDMONTON — If you’re an Edmonton Elk with any kind of tenure, you’re probably tired of hearing about streaks.

There was a home losing streak that stretched through multiple seasons. There was of course the nine-game losing streak that opened their season last year and essentially shut their playoff window. While both of those streaks were thankfully put to bed last year — the highlights of a difficult 2023 campaign — there is one more streak the club is taking aim at this season.

The Elks haven’t seen the playoffs since the 2019 season, when the team crossed over and made it to the Eastern Final, falling to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The question for the Elks this year, amidst all of the changes made in a busy off-season, will centre on if they can end this last miserable streak and make their first playoff appearance this decade.

The change starts in Edmonton this year at quarterback. After playing in the USFL in 2023, McLeod Bethel-Thompson was wooed back to the CFL by Elks’ general manager and head coach Chris Jones. The 35-year-old led the CFL in passing in 2022, his fifth season with the Toronto Argonauts, which saw the club upset the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the 109th Grey Cup. Bethel-Thompson brings championship experience to the Elks’ QB room and is a proven culture builder. For all of the promise that Tre Ford showed in the second half of the Elks’ season, the 26-year-old pivot will have a great mentor in Bethel-Thompson.

On the field, the two could form a dynamic duo. Bethel-Thompson boasts a huge arm and anyone that saw Ford play last year knows what he can do with his feet. Jarious Jackson, who seemed to enjoy going full mad-scientist-in-the-lab mode when he stepped in as offensive coordinator last year, has likely put together a fascinating playbook for the range of talents that he has at quarterback this year.

Barring the unforeseen, there shouldn’t be any questions on who is starting this season, or the pecking order underneath the starter. The Elks should have consistency at the most important position on the field. That should help them win games.

They boast a receiving corps that features Eugene Lewis, Kurleigh Gittens Jr., Dylan Mitchell and Kyran Moore. Kevin Brown broke the 1,100-yard rushing mark last year at running back and is poised to try and top it this year. Last year’s Elks’ o-line allowed 52 sacks, putting them right in the middle of the pack of the league’s nine teams. Climbing higher in that category would only help them.

Defensively, the Elks should have a familiar look on the field, with a familiar face at the levers. Jason Shivers returns to Jones’ coaching staff as the defensive coordinator, after he served as defensive backs coach on Edmonton’s 2015 Grey Cup-winning squad. Shivers got his coaching start under Jones, working with him first in Edmonton then following him to Saskatchewan in 2016. When Jones left the Riders to pursue an NFL coaching opportunity, Shivers moved into the DC role in Saskatchewan and held it through the 2023 season.

Defensive lineman Elliott Brown is looking to be one of the new faces in Edmonton this year that can help turn the team’s fortunes around (GoElks.com)

The Elks’ defensive line will factor heavily into any kind of turnaround this year. They’ll look to replace the productivity of Jake Ceresna, who was traded to Toronto for Gittens, and are without A.C. Leonard. The duo combined for 24 (12 each) of the team’s 40 sacks in 2023. D-line coach Nate O’Neal will be looking for a way to slow opponents’ run games this year as well. The Elks’ run defence was picked apart by running backs and shrewd fantasy players alike last year, as they allowed a league-worst 2,459 rushing yards (136.6 yards per game).

They’ll also hope to get active in creating turnovers. The Elks managed 13 interceptions in 2023, tying them for last in the league, oddly enough, with West Division champion Winnipeg. The Elks’ turnover ratio was -18, also second-worst in the league. Improved QB and defensive play will raise that number.

Finally, the team got a boost in two aspects of special teams, in signing 2023 Most Outstanding Special Teams player Javon Leake and with the addition of kicker Boris Bede, both coming over from Toronto. Leake had four punt return touchdowns last year and stands to offer some valuable production that the Elks have essentially missed for a decade. Bede’s 94.9 per cent field goal percentage (37-39) led the league in 2023 and his 53-yard field goal tied for second-longest made last year. Your returner and kicker shouldn’t be counted on to win you every single game you play, but over the course of a season a good team gets those game-changing contributions from each player.

The Elks go into the 2024 season with some significant change at quarterback and seem to have the pieces in place to have a productive offence. It feels strange to say it about a Chris Jones-built team, but there are some wait-and-see spots on the defence. If that group grows into one of Jones’ trademark chaos-embracing, turnover-creating units, the Elks could finally be on their way up in the West Division standings, putting that one last streak to bed.

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