WINNIPEG - Mike Reilly doesn't see the Edmonton Eskimos being one-hit wonders.

Edmonton captured its first Grey Cup title in 10 years Sunday with a 26-20 victory over the Ottawa Redblacks at Investors Group Field. Reilly, the game MVP, believes the Eskimos have the framework in place to win multiple championships.

"We'll celebrate it, recoup for a couple of months but then the work gets that much harder because we're not built to do this once," Reilly said. "With the GM we have, the coaching staff we have and the players they've brought in, we've been built to do this multiple times and it's on us to make sure that happens."

The road to the Grey Cup hasn't always been a smooth one for Reilly and the Eskimos. In 2013, the club finished last in the West Division with a 4-14 record before hiring head coach Chris Jones.

In 2013, Edmonton showed marked improvement, finishing second in the conference with a 12-6 record. But Calgary was a huge thorn in the Eskimos' side, sweeping the season series 4-0, including a one-sided 43-18 victory in the West Division finale en route to capturing the Grey Cup.

But Edmonton exorcised those demons this season, finishing tied with Calgary with a CFL-best 14-4 record but garnering first in the West by virtue of winning the season series 2-1. Then the Eskimos dispatched the defending champions 45-31 in the division final.

"It's been a process," Reilly said. "I think through the 4-14 season we learned how not to win, we learned how to lose the close games.

"Last year we learned how to win those close games but we learned how to lose the big games. This year we finally learned how to win the big ones. It's been a three-year process in my mind and that's why I say I think we've been built for the long haul to do this multiple times."

But the 2015 campaign was a tale of two seasons for the Eskimos. Reilly missed most of the first half of the year with a knee injury suffered in the season-opening loss to Toronto.

Edmonton weathered the storm, a staunch defence anchoring the club's 4-3 record until Reilly returned as the starter Sept. 12 against Calgary. Reilly threw for 352 yards and three TDs in a 27-16 victory and the Eskimos never looked back, winning its final 10 games culminating with the Grey Cup title.

So instead of heading into the 2016 season with the hunger of chasing a championship, the Eskimos will have to adopt the mindset of defending champion.

"It (winning Grey Cup) definitely changes things but that's a position that's not bad to be in," Reilly said. "You can't win the second and third until you win the first and now we've done that.

"We went through the progression and didn't just get a bunch of quick fixes and bring in a bunch of high-paycheque free agents in order to just fix it right away. That's why it's taken a little bit of time . . . but this is a great league and there's a lot of other very good football teams in it so certainly we're going to have our work cut out for us to get ready for next season."

Edmonton GM Ed Hervey had plenty of work to do this off-season, with kicker Sean Whyte, running back John White, receivers Adarius Bowman and Shamawd Chambers (Grey Cup's top Canadian), defensive lineman Almondo Sewell, linebacker J.C. Sherritt and defensive back Aaron Grymes all projected to become free agents. And then there's Jones, who the Saskatchewan Roughriders are reportedly interested in speaking to regarding their vacant head coach/GM positions.

"I'm not going to worry about that (Jones's status), we just won the Grey Cup and we're going to celebrate with him," Reilly said. "This is professional sports, people come and go for sure . . . but in my mind he's my head coach.

"There's nobody in this league that I'd rather play for. I'll fight to the death for that man and everyone in that locker-room will to. Whatever happens in the off-season is going to happen. But right now, I'm going to drink a beer with him."