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Morning Coffee: Adams, Fajardo emerge as early CFL MOP frontrunners
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As the 2024 CFL season kicked off, BC Lions quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. was the clear favourite to win the league’s Most Outstanding Player award at FanDuel.
While Adams remains the obvious frontrunner, it appears we’re primed for a competitive two-man race.
Entering Week 1, Adams to win the CFL’s MOP award was +550 at FanDuel.
Since then, the former Oregon star QB has led the league with 1,752 passing yards and 11 touchdown passes, while leading the Lions to a 4-1 record.
He’s thrown just one interception through five starts.
Adams is down to +210 as the favourite to win MOP at FanDuel this morning.
Meanwhile, Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Zach Collaros and running back Brady Oliveira were expected to be Adams’ biggest competition as the second and third choices to win MOP at FanDuel entering the season, respectively.
Instead, Collaros has been sidelined with an injury, while Oliveira just topped the 100-yard rushing mark for the first time in Winnipeg’s first win of the season against the Ottawa Redblacks this past weekend.
The Bombers’ 1-4 start has opened the door for another contender to push Adams as the MOP frontrunner.
A familiar face has emerged as a legitimate challenger to win that award with an outstanding start to the season.
This is the Morning Coffee for Monday, July 8th, 2024.
Adams, Fajardo Emerge As Early CFL MOP Frontrunners
Montreal Alouettes quarterback Cody Fajardo entered the 2024 CFL season as the fourth choice to win the league’s MOP award at +1100 at FanDuel.
Since then, Fajardo has thrown for 1,574 yards and 10 touchdown passes while guiding Montreal to a 5-0 start.
On Saturday night, Fajardo threw for 374 yards and two touchdowns as the Alouettes rallied from a double-digit deficit to beat the Calgary Stampeders 30-26.
The veteran pivot also made some impressive plays with his legs.
Montreal scored 18 unanswered points against Calgary to secure the win.
Fajardo’s 374 passing yards were 268 more than Stampeders’ QB Jake Maier recorded in a losing effort.
That performance was enough to make Fajardo a co-favourite to win the MOP at FanDuel, at least temporarily.
24 hours later, Adams threw for 383 yards and four touchdown passes in a 44-28 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Interestingly, Adams might have thrown for even more yards if it wasn’t for the game getting so out of hand early on.
Adams threw for 321 yards in the first half, alone.
He would only throw for 62 more yards the rest of the game.
Adams is down to +210 as the MOP favourite.
Fajardo is a close second choice at +230 at FanDuel.
No other player is shorter than +1400 to win MOP entering Week 6.
Interestingly, Saskatchewan Roughriders’ quarterback Trevor Harris is the third choice to win MOP at +1400.
Harris guided the Riders to a surprising 3-0 start before getting placed on the six-game injured list.
After leading Saskatchewan to a win over the Toronto Argonauts to improve to 4-0, Shea Patterson will get the start opposite Adams in a highly anticipated Week 6 showdown between the Riders and the Lions.
BC opened as a 6.5-point home favourite at FanDuel.
Meanwhile, Montreal is a 6.5-point favourite against the visiting Argonauts this week.
Looking ahead, the Lions and Alouettes won’t meet until Week 14.
That showdown could very well turn out to be a Grey Cup preview.
Montreal is the Grey Cup favourite at +220.
BC is the second choice to win it all at +270.
Saskatchewan (+500) and Toronto (+550) are the only other teams with shorter than 10-to-1 odds to win the Grey Cup this season.
After outstanding starts by both quarterbacks, Adams and Fajardo are the obvious top choices to win the league’s Most Outstanding Player award at FanDuel.
It will be very interesting to see what the updated MOP picture looks like at FanDuel by the time that those QBs meet in September.