Forced to pivot from top pivots

Winnipeg Free Press

2 days ago

We're just a few weeks into the 2025 season and the Canadian Football League is already grappling with a significant quarterback problem.
Despite the emergence of young, quality quarterbacks in recent years to complement a stable of veterans, this depth under centre has morphed into a weekly guessing game of who will even suit up, let alone perform.
Indeed, of the league's nine teams, six have had to rely on their backup quarterback in a game.
Heywood Yu / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILES
B.C. Lions quarterback Jeremiah Masoli throws against the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Saturday, his second consecutive struggle starting in place of Nathan Rourke.
We've seen Saskatchewan's Trevor Harris sidelined with a head injury, B.C.'s Nathan Rourke battling an oblique injury, Ottawa's Dru Brown dealing with a hip issue and Montreal's Davis Alexander missing time with a hamstring pull. That doesn't take into account Chad Kelly, who hasn't played yet after suffering a fractured leg last year; Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie has ruled him out until at least Week 7.
This isn't just a couple of isolated incidents, but a systemic drain on the league's most important position. What's only made the matter worse is that the backups, some with several years of experience, haven't been able to pick up the slack with their average play.
While a few have shown flashes, consistency has been hard to come by. You only had to check out this past weekend's slate of games, where five of the eight starting QBs were backups, to understand the kind of impact these injuries have had on the on-field product.
The CFL is a quarterback-driven league, so when your top talent is on the sidelines the product on the field suffers. The league desperately needs its star quarterbacks healthy to restore the offensive fireworks the three-down game is known for.
There appears to be some good news on the horizon.
Brown is working with the Redblacks' first-team offence this week, suggesting he could be back in the lineup for Ottawa's road game against the Edmonton Elks on Sunday. Rourke is in the same boat for the Lions' tilt against the Alouettes, who still haven't ruled out Alexander from returning after missing last week.
Teams might also be exercising an added level of caution, given how early it is in the season and how important the position is to a club's long-term success. Let's hope that's the case, because I'm not sure how much more of this QB play I can take.
Now, let's dive into the latest edition of CFL Rundown.
1 Apologies for feeding a fed horse here, but I can't seem to get past how abysmal a couple of veteran pivots performed this past week. Jeremiah Masoli was awful in his second start for the Lions, which came after an underwhelming performance against Winnipeg in Week 3. Against the Roughriders, Masoli completed 16-of-29 passes for 173 yards, one touchdown and three interceptions. His first pick was by far the most egregious and damaging: Masoli, down 8-7 and facing a first-and-10 from Saskatchewan's 29, forced a pass to the far left sideline, only to have it intercepted by Tevaughn Campbell and returned 89 yards for a Riders touchdown. And McLeod Bethel-Thompson wasn't much better covering for Alexander in Montreal, finishing 24-for-41 passing for one touchdown and two picks. Neither veteran offered their team much of a chance at winning, let alone capturing a Grey Cup if they were to take over full time.
2 It's becoming a weekly mandate to talk about the status of the Edmonton Elks, who dropped to 0-3 with a road loss to Winnipeg. While no one is selling silver linings in Edmonton, there was some notable progress despite the defeat. QB Tre Ford had his best game of the season, passing for 252 yards and one touchdown. Ford's 68-yard strike, followed by a field goal on the next drive, had the game locked in a 23-23 tie heading into the fourth quarter before the Bombers scored 13 unanswered points to seal the victory. Needless to say, with the Bombers (3-0) and Riders (4-0) unbeaten and the Calgary Stampeders (2-1) off to a good start, urgency needs to kick in if the Elks hope to make it out of a competitive West Division.
3 Staying in the West, I feel bad for the Stampeders, who could see their strong start evaporate over the next month. The Stamps play the Bombers twice, including this week in the first-ever Stampede Bowl, plus games against Saskatchewan and Montreal rounding out the four-game stretch. QB Vernon Adams Jr. is still without a passing touchdown, which will need to change immediately if the Stamps are going to compete with the three teams currently in the top three when it comes to generating points.
4 I'm really looking forward to what should be a spirited back-to-back Labour Day Classic and Banjo Bowl between the Bombers and Riders. In what's always a fun couple of weeks, no matter where each team finds itself in the standings, this year could see the two top clubs in the league take centre stage. The way both teams are playing this year, it wouldn't be shocking to see them both go undefeated, setting up an even more explosive clash on the Canadian prairies. That probably won't happen, but it's great to see the two most popular clubs in the CFL on top of the standings.
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5 Shifting to the East Division, the Argonauts and Tiger-Cats finally got into the win column. Both Ontario clubs improved to 1-3, with the Argos defeating the Redblacks and the Ticats downing the Alouettes. While both teams were in desperate need of a victory, Hamilton's win over the Alouettes was more impressive, if only because no one expected the Ticats beating the Alouettes this season. Both victories came against teams playing their backup quarterbacks, but as previously discussed, that's become more the norm than the exception this year. You could definitely make the argument for Toronto, as its win came on the road and with Kelly still sidelined. These two rivals will play each other this week, so only one will be able to keep that momentum going.
6 I don't often highlight an individual performance week to week, but how can you ignore the masterclass that Argos safety Derek Slywka put up against the Redblacks? Slywka scored on a 105-yard fumble return and then one-upped it with a 120-yard blocked field goal return for a second TD. The fumble return was three yards shy of the league record; the blocked field goal return, however, was simply poetry in motion. Easily one of the best individual efforts I've seen covering this league in the last decade.
7 The CFL is known for its photo finishes in games, but have you noticed there haven't been as many tight affairs, at least when it comes to the final score? In fact, no single game has been within four points.
8 I had a chance to sit down with CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston last week as part of his ongoing league-wide tour. I knew the former TSN executive would be a strong replacement for Randy Ambrosie, and that was only reinforced over our nearly two-hour chat. Johnston benefits from having a stable group of owners, which should free him up to focus on important items like growing the game and increasing viewership among young fans. What I appreciated most about my chat with Johnston was that he seemed to listen as much as he spoke, eager and open to hear others' suggestions. The main takeaway: Everything is on the table.
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Jeff HamiltonMultimedia producer
Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University's journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.
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