After moving on from Eugene Lewis, Edmonton Elks confident No. 1 receiver can emerge

The Edmonton Elks are looking for a No. 1 receiver to emerge during training camp for the 2025 season.

In a highly publicized move, Ed Hervey decided to move on from CFL all-star Eugene Lewis and allotted his $320,000 salary elsewhere on the team’s roster. Kurleigh Gittens Jr. led the Elks with 85 receptions in 2024 as he provides Canadian quarterback Tre Ford a familiar target.

Edmonton largely remade its receiver group by adding Steven Dunbar Jr., Tre Odoms-Dukes and Kaion Julien-Grant as free agents among other offseason signees. Hervey can envision any of those three or a lesser-known addition becoming the top target for the Green and Gold.

“As far as anyone else that’s not there, I would leave that to Mark [Kilam] and the coaching staff to resolve and find out who’s ready to take that next step for us,” Hervey said.

“That’s the beauty. That’s the reality. There are opportunities in Edmonton for all the young guys. There are opportunities for guys to emerge. We feel good about that group. What is a No. 1 for our team? It’s going to be the guy that works hard.”

Gittens Jr. has proven he can be a No. 1 receiver. In 2022 with the Toronto Argonauts, he led the team with 81 receptions for 1,101 yards with five touchdowns in 17 regular season games. The Wilfrid Laurier University helped the Argos win the 109th Grey Cup that year.

That thought process in the receiver group goes along with Edmonton’s national depth, Gittens Jr. and Julien-Grant are starters on offence. Arguably the best centre in the league was brought back to the Alberta capital, David Beard, while fellow offensive lineman Gregor MacKeller can start if needed.

“We were talking about going into this with ratio flexibility. We wanted to strengthen our National talent pool. We wanted to give ourselves the best chance that we could at being able to play Americans in different spots. When you look at our offensive line, I think that was an area where we felt like we wanted to make sure that we were able to protect Tre Ford. That’s the strategy behind it,” Hervey explained.

“To have that flexibility is good, where it takes us, we have the rest of the season to see. We have a foundation that allows us the flexibility to play an American in some places. I look at the interior guard play as an area that makes the most sense if we’re going to look at where an American could make an impact in the event that we were to maneuver our roster.”

On the other side of the ball, Hervey made Robbie Smith the highest-paid defensive player in the league while Jonathan Kongbo was also added up front. CFL all-star Tyrell Ford was signed to start at one cornerback spot and three-time Grey Cup champion Royce Metchie joins him in the secondary.

“Looking at the talented national players that we recruited and were able to sign… this is the Canadian Football League, the teams with the best Canadians give themselves the best chance to have success,” Hervey said. “Mark and I talked about it at length, we felt like we need these players, we need to have this kind of team, and we feel fortunate that those players gave us a chance by coming here.”

Edmonton could easily start 10 Canadians and more if the team wanted to based on the roster construction.