Perfect storm sends CFL quarterback carousel spinning

Quarterback carousels are not uncommon in the Canadian Football League, but the past nine months have represented an epic game of musical chairs – even by the standards of the three-down league.

Consider that, as of this moment, only the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Ottawa Redblacks will roll out the same starting quarterback for the opening week of the coming regular season as they did in 2022, representing a near 78 per cent turnover rate among CFL starting quarterbacks from one season to the next.

Much of that transition occurred over the course of last season, while one third of the league – Hamilton, Montreal and Saskatchewan – will start quarterbacks in 2023 who weren’t on their roster at the end of last season.

As an indication of how much more demand than supply there is in the market, consider that Saskatchewan’s Trevor Harris, who was benched in 2021, and Hamilton’s Bo Levi Mitchell, who was benched last season, both got raises for 2023.

There’s a natural tendency to look for trends or reasons why the league is experiencing such a high degree of turnover. But this is simply a case of a perfect storm.

Start with the fact that two of the 2022 starters – B.C.’s Nathan Rourke and Toronto’s MacLeod Bethel-Thompson – will be in different leagues this coming season. Rourke is off to the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars, while Bethel-Thompson will suit up for the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL. Rourke was the first CFL starting quarterback lost to the NFL in ages, while Bethel-Thompson accepted a substantially reduced payday to play closer to home.

Harris, in all likelihood, would have returned to Montreal before that franchise became mired in ownership uncertainty, opening the door for him to land in Saskatchewan. The Riders had decided not to re-sign Cody Fajardo, who ended up in Montreal in what turned out to be a swap of quarterbacks between the two teams.

When two starting quarterbacks leave for other leagues and three – Mitchell, Fajardo and Hamilton’s Dane Evans – get demoted, the ripples are going to be felt across the nine-team league.

That brings us to the curious case of Evans, who becomes the lone starting quarterback from last season who doesn’t have a home for 2023.

Evans is 29 and coming off a down year in which he struggled with ball security after signing a two-year contract with the Tiger-Cats before last season.  

Slated to earn almost $450,000 of base pay for 2023, he has a contract for starter money in a league where there are no starting roles available. That makes it virtually impossible to find a suitable trade, leaving the Tiger-Cats with little choice but to release him.

When the Tiger-Cats do that, however, is up to them. Evans has no off-season bonus in his contract, meaning Hamilton owes him nothing until the day he reports for training camp.

While we wait, it’s not hard to figure where his most likely landing spot will be.

The CFL’s two most inexperienced quarterback rooms are in Edmonton and Toronto where the Elks and Argos are projected to head into this season with Taylor Cornelius and Chad Kelly, respectively, as their starters.

Cornelius signed a second contract with Edmonton after establishing himself as the starter in 2022, showing considerable progress along the way. It’s believed Edmonton isn’t looking to add to its QB stable with Tre Ford and Kai Locksley behind him.

Toronto, meanwhile, has only Kelly and Ben Holmes on the roster, the latter having been released by two other CFL teams during his rookie season before joining the Argos last August.

Kelly will be 29 this season, played at two big-time schools and had two stops in the NFL before surfacing in Toronto last year. But he has just one CFL start on his resume, a meaningless game against Montreal at the end of last season.

Is he ready to be the starting quarterback of the defending Grey Cup champions? He might be, and there is every reason to believe the Argos are willing to give him that chance.

But a little competition at training camp and some insurance during the regular season would sure make sense, which is where Evans comes into the picture.

Evans still sees himself as a CFL starter but, as Harris demonstrated one year ago, sometimes you have to take a step back to take one forward.

Evans to Toronto seems like a good fit for both him and the Argos, but not for the Tiger-Cats. And while there may be nothing Hamilton can do to prevent this from occurring, they can certainly delay it.  

But it feels like it’s only a matter of time before Evans is wearing double blue.

(The following paragraphs were mistakenly deleted from the bottom of this column when it was originally posted on February 23, just hours before the Tiger-Cats traded Dane Evans to the B.C. Lions for a 4^th round pick.)

Of course if Evans is willing to play on a 2023 contract with a low base salary and the Ticats are willing to deal him for a mid-round draft pick, there’s a chance he could land elsewhere via trade.

Like B.C. perhaps. The Lions have Vernon Adams as their starter, but recently-signed backup Dominique Davis is a short-yardage specialist with limited success when he’s had to start. Evans would undoubtedly deepen the Lions at the game’s most important position, and would give him an opportunity for a fresh start under Lions offensive co-ordinator Jordan Macsymic.

Yep, I bet that’s what happens.