The evolution of Canadian QBs about to hit another milestone

The evolution of Canadian quarterbacks is about to hit another milestone with the arrival of this week’s National Football League draft.

For the first time ever, two quarterbacks born and raised in this country are expected to either be drafted or signed as priority free agents by NFL teams over the weekend.

The kinds of opportunities that await Kurtis Rourke and Taylor Elgersma in the U.S. will go a long way to determining where they will be selected in next week’s Canadian Football League draft.

This is a common quandary for CFL general managers, who are always seeking the best players not likely to wind up in the NFL. But since the last Canadian-raised quarterback to get serious consideration from was Jesse Palmer, a fourth-round selection in the 2001 NFL Draft, it’s never been something CFL teams have had to spend much time worrying about.

Beyond Palmer, the most any Canadian quarterback of this era has garnered from the NFL has been a mini-camp invite, followed by a ticket home.

But Rourke and Elgersma have both met with nearly every NFL team over the past few months, participating in the annual job interview fair that includes various college all-star games, showcases, and pro days.  

And while their respective draft stocks may not be all that different heading into this weekend, they’ve taken very different paths to get here.

Rourke was the top-rated high school player in Canada in 2018, but his only NCAA Division I offer came from Ohio University, the same school where his brother, Nathan, had been a record-setting quarterback.

The family connection undoubtedly opened doors for Kurtis, but once in Athens, Ohio, he proved his legitimacy with a breakout 2022 season that included 25 touchdown passes and just four interceptions. A trip to a power conference team by virtue of the transfer portal might have awaited at the end that season. Instead, he tore his ACL in a November game, earning himself a full off-season of rehab.

When his game took a step backward in 2023 coming off the injury, he decided to opt for one more chance to impress the NFL. (Rourke had been granted an extra year of eligibility for the COVID-shortened season of 2020.) Rourke entered the transfer portal, landing at Indiana as the prize recruit of new Hoosiers head coach Curt Cignetti.

Rourke and Cignetti, who’d come from James Madison University, went from relative unknowns in the big-time world of college football to household names last fall, almost overnight.

Indiana, which had only three winning seasons in the 2000s prior to last season, went  11-2 overall on the season and reached the College Football Playoff.

The only two teams to beat Indiana on the year were Notre Dame and Ohio State, the two finalists in the championship game won by the Buckeyes.

Unfortunately, Rourke struggled badly in both of those losses, at a time where an elite performance would have been a big boost to his NFL draft stock.

When it was confirmed after the season that he had played on a torn ACL, it meant Rourke would have to miss the off-season workouts for NFL teams, although he did attend the combine to meet with teams.

Elgersma, by contrast, was a relative unknown beyond U Sports – despite a prolific career at Wilfrid Laurier University – before receiving a January invite to the Senior Bowl, the most prestigious college all-star event and the only one sponsored by the NFL.

It had been 33 years since a U Sports player participated in the game, and Elgersma did enough to keep teams interested, including the Green Bay Packers who brought him for a pre-draft visit.

Elgersma has NFL size and arm strength – the things you can’t teach, as they say. In terms of NFL interest for a U Sports quarterback, he’s in uncharted waters for his generation. There seems little doubt he’ll at least be signed as a priority free agent, which means a full audition at training camp, where he’d likely compete for a practice roster spot.

If either of these players are going to play meaningful snap in the NFL, it’s going to require a load of patience, diligence and being in the right place at the right time.

But the fact that two quarterbacks who grew up playing the game in Canada have managed to put themselves on the NFL’s radar in the same draft year is worthy of recognition.

And it comes on the heels of several strong signs that the long-awaited arrival of legitimate Canadian professional quarterbacks may finally have arrived.

There has been an even dozen quarterbacks selected over the past 25 years of CFL Canadian Drafts. None of the first seven, chronologically, on that list ever played a single snap.

But the eighth and ninth both did – Brandon Bridge and Andrew Buckley – each of whom enjoyed short careers before leaving the CFL to pursue other professions.

Buckley spent two seasons with Calgary in 2016 and ’17, playing sparingly and completing 33 passes. Bridge, meanwhile, became the most accomplished Canadian quarterback since Russ Jackson in the 1960s, completing 199 passes in a four-year career split between Montreal, Saskatchewan, and BC that ended after the 2019 season.

Michael O’Connor was a third-round selection of Toronto in 2019, seeing spot duty with the Argos, Stampeders and Lions over three seasons.

A year after that, B.C. used the 15th pick of the draft to select Nathan Rourke, who became the Lions’ starter in 2022 and produced one of the great CFL seasons of all-time. Him going 15th tied Jesse Palmer for the highest selection ever for a Canadian quarterback in the CFL draft.

A season-plus of mostly frustration at lack of opportunities in the NFL brought him back to B.C. last fall, and he will be the Lions starter this season.

Two years after Nathan Rourke’s selection, Edmonton used the eighth pick of the draft on Tre Ford out of Waterloo, the highest selection for a U Sports quarterback in memory, who started games during his rookie season and will be Edmonton’s starter when the CFL season begins in early June.

Two starting quarterbacks in the CFL this season, two Canadian born-and-developed quarterbacks on the NFL’s radar this spring.

The big picture is clearly changing as Canadian quarterbacks  have raised their games to the highest levels.