Collaros

[dd]

he moved on from Matt Nichols...with Collaros.  If Dru Brown plays like Collaros did when he got here then the call may be made.  Timing in the season is very different but MOS does move on.

That is true, but MOS has serious respect for Collaros and what he's done for our club, I just don't see him pulling the plug on Zach this season

[Jesse]

That is true, but MOS has serious respect for Collaros and what he's done for our club, I just don't see him pulling the plug on Zach this season

Yeah, Nichols didn't have two Grey Cups for the club.

[Sir Blue and Gold]

That is true, but MOS has serious respect for Collaros and what he's done for our club, I just don't see him pulling the plug on Zach this season

I think the only scenario he would is for Zach's health.

He let Thomas go full Rudy all last year so no matter how Collaros does, he's not going to be sat for play.

I like O'Shea but sometimes I think he needs to play more chess with his personnel decisions. For good and bad, he's a straight shooting black and white thinker.

[dd]

Yeah, Nichols didn't have two Grey Cups for the club.

That's what I mean...ZC won us 2 Cups and took us to 3 more, I just don't see MOS pulling the plug on ZC, the doctors or ZC calls that shot.

[Blueforlife]

I think the only scenario he would is for Zach's health.

He let Thomas go full Rudy all last year so no matter how Collaros does, he's not going to be sat for play.

I like O'Shea but sometimes I think he needs to play more chess with his personnel decisions. For good and bad, he's a straight shooting black and white thinker.

Nah Thomas was never a Rudy, shows no respect for a long decent career

Steps.
Go to bar, find Thomas, tell him he was full Rudy, report back if head is still attached to body

We play chess pretty darn well, proven by our win loss record and cups under mafia's epic run

Dave Ritchie also hung on to vets too long but it brought him much success as well, sure do miss him

You don't give enough credit to cdn depth, its the pillar of success of any cfl club and always will be

Dru Brown has a sharp mind with a fragile body, they have to figure out how to protect him from damage, he should enroll in the crash course at the Matt Nichols/Trevor Harris school of self preservation.

A big question mark but if Zach can do it so can Dru, all about the OL, well said agree all

he moved on from Matt Nichols...with Collaros.  If Dru Brown plays like Collaros did when he got here then the call may be made.  Timing in the season is very different but MOS does move on.

Dru Brown imo will never reach that level, tough to call that now but he isn't close to Zach's prime imo.  And I love and trust Dru.  But Zach's ability to put touch on a deep ball is something we might not see for a decade.  Not to mention his ability to extend with younger legs.

It made sense to re-sign Zach for 2026 because we did not have much in the way of an alternative (although he was overpaid). Now we do, and it will be interesting to see how Brown does. I still remember him coming in after Zach got injured against Edmonton, and leading us to a comeback victory while looking like a much better QB than Zach. Lots of water under the bridge since then, with both QBs older (although that's only a problem with Zach) and with significant injuries. Not sure how Drew will do, he probably only has part of the playbook to work with and limited familiarity with his receivers, but interesting to see how it goes. Should be a beautiful night tomorrow weather wise. Suspect the Argos will put up too many points on the board for us to keep up, but you never know.

30 plus min to win

I think Brown will light it up and we could move on from Collaros, but we won't , that's not MOS style, he'll go back to Collaros, who won't do as well as Brown but will remain our starter until he gets hurt again or retires

I see them as equals until Brown can prove 2 things:
1. Be healthy
2. Avoid ints

I believe in both

Collaros only played 13 games in 2025. One game was due to a suspension issue. Another game IIRC was a game where we played mostly back up players?

However he seemed to miss 1/2 of several games due to upper body injury / concussion protocol.  Three I think.

My point is that he already missed 1/2 of game 4 and now is sitting out game 5. I'm not a doctor but that hit didn't appear to be one that should knock a player out of a game other than precautionary.

The team may be looking at his best interests but IMO we're reaching a tipping point. How much longer or how often can we continue down this road?

It's been discussed that if a player can't practice, why not just put him on the 6 game IR? It's not clear if or when he can practice again. If this is another concussion protocol, should he be allowed to return to practice? When is enough, enough with risk to his future health?

Hopefully Brown plays well. It's good to have a good backup which protects us from these situations. Does Collaros return as the starter regardless of how Brown plays, when he returns to practice?

The end may be nearer than we think or hope.

He isn't hurt bad enough to be on the 6 game.  The end was always in question since he got here.  I think he has a few more rounds.

If 110% healthy this is still Zach team.  We got time to let him heal with our depth at QB.  I give Zach another game off regardless.  Once ready our leader shall rise again imo. 

[J5V]

If that is true he would have been out of uniform immediately. I think it was precaution. They let him stay on the sidelines with his helmet, no way they do that if he is concussed.

Agree and I didn't know you could get a concussion from a hit like that. It didn't look like his head was involved at all. Looked more like a blow to his upper arm/shoulder. Maybe it was like a whiplash-thing? Not sure, but I'm fairly concerned if a hit like that costs a QB 2 games. Yikes! Durability question there. Are we paying top dollar for goods that are damaged more than we may have realized?

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Agree and I didn't know you could get a concussion from a hit like that. It didn't look like his head was involved at all. Looked more like a blow to his upper arm/shoulder. Maybe it was like a whiplash-thing? Not sure, but I'm fairly concerned if a hit like that costs a QB 2 games. Yikes! Durability question there. Are we paying top dollar for goods that are damaged more than we may have realized?

Bauming has hinted a few times it's related to a re-occurring neck injury.

[The Zipp]

Bauming has hinted a few times it's related to a re-occurring neck injury.

yah. wouldn't be surprised if he has some sort of degenerative neck/spine issue. 

we will never know and none of our business but if that hit makes him miss almost 2 games there are significant health issues

[TBURGESS]

Can someone tell me what kind of neck injury causes you to squint at bright lights? Thats what Collaros was doing on the sideline after the hit. 

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Can someone tell me what kind of neck injury causes you to squint at bright lights? Thats what Collaros was doing on the sideline after the hit.

Eyesight could be a factor, he normally wears glasses or contacts.

[Blueforlife]

He wasn't doing that as much 2nd half

[Tecno]

The end may be nearer than we think or hope.

But why would right now be any different vs 1 year ago?  If we didn't decide to ditch him then, why now?  Nothing is different.  If anything, he's getting hurt less so far vs 2025.  The OL pass-pro is better this season by quite a large amount.  It should continue to be so.

So if they didn't pull that lever then, they won't do so now.  Unless it gets worse.

One could argue we have his replacement in house now, whereas we didn't have that option in '25.  That's if you think Dru is the future top-3 level QB.  I won't comment, other than to say "unlikely".  If Mafia thinks Dru will take us to 5 GCs in the next 6 years, then ya, they could yank Zach.  If not, they won't.

My take on the "tapped his head booboo = sits out the next game" thing is it's a courtesy to Zach, makes the doctors happy, and makes the lawyers happy.  If QBs ever start suing clubs, showing how you waited that extra week every single time even when he was cleared to play, and every other team would have just thrust him back in, will go a long way to prove you weren't reckless with CTE.  So even if it's not doing anything in reality, it provides good optics and warm fuzzies.

[Tecno]

Can someone tell me what kind of neck injury causes you to squint at bright lights? Thats what Collaros was doing on the sideline after the hit.

It's both, I think.  There was a year a few years back I would get this recurring neck crick.  It's a real eeeotch.  Really ruins your life, but comes and goes for no reason (then disappears for no reason).  If I was taking hits like Zach during that time it would never heal.  Heck, I was almost around the same age as Zach now!  That magic 40 sure starts the body breaking down process.

He wasn't doing that as much 2nd half

He was still looking a bit dazed even in the 2nd H.

[Tecno]

Agree and I didn't know you could get a concussion from a hit like that. It didn't look like his head was involved at all.

If you freeze the frames and step ahead when the hit first comes in you can see what happens to Zach's head is it snaps around rotationally along the horizontal axis, like a spinning top.  That's one of the worst motions for concussion-like injuries.

His brain in skull acts like an ice cube floating in a cup.  Rotate the cup along the circle center and the ice cube stays in place.  His brain stayed in place, his skull moved.  That really messes with the connectors between brain & rest of body.

It's way "better" to get a straight head-on hit where your brain bounces back & forth once or twice.  Side loads are worse than that, but still better than rotation.

The funny thing is, having a pillow at the back of Zach's head would normally save him from 90% of his usual damage (which is most often caused by hitting the turf), but this time neither a pillow nor guardian cap would have helped in the slightest.

On the bright side, he almost never goes unconscious.  It's only these mini-concussions.  That's why I always say he's immune to the big one.

[Tecno]

I think Brown will light it up and we could move on from Collaros

Give me a hit of that hopium!!  It's just as likely Dru throws 4 balls to guys in blue and blue.  Could go either way.

Dru better believe though that he's running out of chances to prove he's worthy of #1...