BY PERRY LEFKO
sportsnet.ca
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are shopping quarterback Steven Jyles, and they’re asking a steep price.
The Bombers are seeking two high draft choices, or a draft player and a starter for the 28-year-old Louisiana native, a source told sportsnet.ca.
Jyles’ agent, Ferrell Elliott, had no comment Tuesday.
Bombers’ general manager Joe Mack told the Winnipeg Free Press, "we’re always looking to improve our football club and as we’ve stated in the past, players and scenarios are often discussed. We have no trade imminent involving anybody on our roster."
The Bombers, who finished last in the Canadian Football League with a 4-14 record last year, have the first selection overall in May’s Canadian draft, but are looking to acquire more picks.
The Bombers have a surplus of quarterbacks, due largely to season-ending injuries sustained by starter Buck Pierce, and later Jyles, both of whom were signed by Winnipeg as free agents in 2010. Jyles played in 16 games and started 11, his season ending in the penultimate game because of a separated shoulder on his throwing side. He has been rehabbing it in the off-season.
Jyles threw for 2,804 yards in his abbreviated season, easily eclipsing his previous-best season total of 533, which was recorded with Saskatchewan in 2008. He totaled 19 touchdowns and only seven interceptions and had an impressive quarterback rating of 100.9. He also ran for 452 yards on 65 carries, and though he scored four touchdowns, he fumbled eight times.
Jyles began his Canadian Football League career with Edmonton in 2006, then joined the Roughriders in a trade in 2008.
The Bombers had some interest in B.C.’s Jarious Jackson and made him an offer when he became a free agent on Feb. 16, but Jackson later re-signed with the Lions.
Pierce started off strongly with the Bombers, but his season was cut short by injuries, notably a dislocated right elbow that shelved him after the ninth game of the season. He played in only five games overall.
The oft-injured pivot has been working diligently to physically recover from his elbow injury and it’s believed the Bombers are confident he can return to the form he flashed early last season.
