Cui discusses Jones’ job security following Elks 20th consecutive home loss

Following a 37-29 loss to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Thursday, the Edmonton Elks find themselves among dubious company. The team has now lost 20 consecutive home games, tied for the longest streak in North American major sports history with the 1953 St. Louis Browns.

Head coach Chris Jones now has a 4-20 record since taking over the reins prior to the start of the 2022 season. The team has also lost 10 straight games overall, dating back to last season. With questions now surrounding Jones’ future in the organization, Elks president and CEO Victor Cui addressed the idea of making personnel changes, in particular Jones, who also acts as the team’s defensive coordinator and general manager.

“[Personnel changes] is always something I think about, good or bad. That’s my job,” said Cui, following Thursday’s loss. “I have to make those tough decisions. I’ve had discussions with coach and our assistant GM [Geroy Simon] about, look ‘Let’s be honest with ourselves, let’s put our egos aside and really understand what it takes to win. What are we going to do?’

“Coach has this reputation. Some people wrongly judge him as having a big ego. I’m telling you he wants to win and is willing to do whatever it takes to win,” said Cui. “It’s not his ego that’s in the way on this.”

Following a 3-11 finish in 2021, the Elks fired head coach Jamie Elizondo, general manager Brock Sunderland and former president and CEO Chris Presson. Cui says those mass organizational changes still limit the changes the club can make moving forward.

“I think [Jones] wearing multiple hats has helped us because we’re working with less money with our salary cap. If you remember in 2021, we made mass changes with the organization and we’re still carrying that severance for several years,” said Cui. “We’re essentially working with half-a-million dollars less than every other team. That impacts our operations on multiple levels of the quality of people and coaches that we can hire.”

When specifically asked about the possibility of Jones losing any of his three positions in the organization, Cui discussed the difficulty of making personnel changes in the middle of a CFL season.

“I think one of the challenges in our business, in a nine-time league, is that making dramatic changes in your football operations midseason is very difficult. It’s not like you can take from someone else’s organization” said Cui. “So you have to balance where you are in the season along with what kind of changes you can realistically do.”

As the team continues to search for its first win of the season, Cui says everyone in the organization is committed to identifying the reason for their struggles and fielding a winning team. 

“Everyone in the organization from the board, to myself, to our staff are committed to listening to all the advice and doing all the innovation that we can on and off the field, said Cui. “We’ve got a young team and there are reasons why we can say we’re not winning but we’ve got to win. That’s it.

“Our fans in Edmonton expect wins. I expect wins, our coaches and players expect wins and that’s what we’ve got to do.