Zach will be our QB in 2027(?)

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Junkie, the point isn't so much what current qbs are elite, it's that half the starters are retiring soon. And there aren't any star quality new guys or backups to replace them.

Trevor
Zach
Vaj
Cody
Bo

Will mostly be gone in 1 to 3 years. 2 for sure in the next 2 years. All of them in the next 5.

The CFL overall has been crap at finding new stars. We hit about 1 every 2 seasons, with none in the last 2.

And I see no indication that this year's crop will produce any.

This is concerning since we are one of the teams with a retiring star.

The CFL has been terrible at retaining QB's the last 5 years and they're about to pay for it. Every team is looking for the instant fix, 100's of QB's have passed through the doors only to be disposed of within a year or two of their arrival. They used to give QB's 3 years to develop into starters, now they're judged on their potential and given a few brief appearances to show if they have it or not. 

[dd]

I really just see Zach retiring after this year, and maybe BLM, Harris the year after. Arbuckle is capable of replacing Zach and maybe even Powell will get the chance to step into a starting role , brown will flounder, crum has been bidding his time as backup and may get a shot on a Qb depleted team. Cody and Adam's have 2-4 years left in them

[RebusRankin]

Zach needs to retire for his own health.

I'd say Adams and Fajardo each have 4-5 years left.

Rourke, Alexander and Kelly are still young.

Honestly while its a concern its not that much different than it has been in the 35+ years I've been following the CFL.

[Jesse]

Zach needs to retire for his own health.

I'd say Adams and Fajardo each have 4-5 years left.

Rourke, Alexander and Kelly are still young.

Honestly while its a concern its not that much different than it has been in the 35+ years I've been following the CFL.

Agreed. Same story as always.

[Tecno]

The CFL has been terrible at retaining QB's the last 5 years and they're about to pay for it. Every team is looking for the instant fix, 100's of QB's have passed through the doors only to be disposed of within a year or two of their arrival. They used to give QB's 3 years to develop into starters, now they're judged on their potential and given a few brief appearances to show if they have it or not.

Then maybe the CFL needs to change the way teams handle QBs.  Maybe expand the QB roster to 4 to 6, maybe with 2-3 of those on dedicated PR spots.  i.e. force the teams to have more QBs.  Maybe add more SMS for it, or a dedicated SMS space for dev QBs.

We're getting to the point that most teams don't want a year 1-2 no-name guy as their #2 because they know they'll lose if their #1 goes down.  Teams want a Dru, Maier, Arbuckle, Ford, Crum, Powell as the #2 so they can maybe win .500.  That leaves zero room for having a dev QB because you have #1, SY, and legit #2.

Ya, teams usually carry 1 QB on the PR.  But it's not enough.  If it was, we wouldn't find ourselves in this "the CFL doesn't have enough #1 QBs to go around" situation every few years.

[Tecno]

Honestly while its a concern its not that much different than it has been in the 35+ years I've been following the CFL.

The last few years it was only 1, maybe 2, teams that didn't have a legit #1 that could win.  It's been a while since 3-4 teams had Brice / Love / Frost level guys as #1.  And that's what I see happening sometime around '27-'29.

The league needs more clearly "it" guys to show up like Rourke, Alexander, and Kelly did most recently.  Since then it's been nothing.  That's been a couple/few seasons already.  We're overdue to find the next "it" guy.

Maybe next year's crop of rookies will find the next "it" guy; although they usually still need 1-3 seasons on the PR or as #2 before they are ready to take over.

Maybe with expanded QB rosters we could find more "it" guys faster.

[markf]

The NFL expansion to 32 probably affected the CFL qb situation.

the CFL early acceptance of black athletes as quarterbacks helped us.

It got us Warren Moon. Damon Allen, Condrege Hollaway, Tracy Ham, Casey Printers,

And the CFL using "scrambling " quarterbacks,for decades before the NFL,  which the NFL derided as playground football.

Those factors, gone now, helped us.

And the fact that the NFL was not nearly as big a deal decades ago as it is now. The pay gap has gone up massively.


There was a time when It was normal for a CFL team to have a starting quality backup.


Matt Dunigan/Damon Allen for instance. Clements/huffnagle.

Circumstances are very different now.

Anyone have any idea what Matt is up to now?

Seems he was badly hurt by TSN.

[Waffler]

Then maybe the CFL needs to change the way teams handle QBs.  Maybe expand the QB roster to 4 to 6, maybe with 2-3 of those on dedicated PR spots.  i.e. force the teams to have more QBs. 

If you go to practice you will see how few reps the 3rd guy gets already. The 3rd guy is a short yardage specialist and probably never going to start.

Just having more arms is not the answer. You need to develop also. It's said that Buono gave all 3 guys equal reps and that was why Calgary was a QB factory for a while.