Cutting-edge quarterbacks

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This article was published 27/09/2014 (4084 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While you take in tonight’s crucial game at Investors Group Field between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers or Hamilton Tiger-Cats, don’t forget to notice an important element represented by the two men throwing footballs.

It actually looks like a new wave of quality quarterbacks is materializing in the CFL.

In Winnipeg tonight are two of the league’s four emerging quarterback stars in Blue Bomber Drew Willy and Tiger-Cat Zach Collaros.

Willy has 16 career starts, 12 of them this season for the Bombers after being the backup in Saskatchewan, and Collaros, now four starts back after a concussion, has reached 14 starts, six since coming to the Ticats from the Toronto Argos last winter.

The league has its grizzled, tried-and-true veterans such Ricky Ray, Henry Burris and Kevin Glenn, a short list of quality QBs with intermediate tenure such as Darian Durant and Travis Lulay and until recently, few other starters who seemed able to develop a resumé.

“In the NFL you need a good quarterback to win, but in the CFL, it’s paramount that you have a more than average quarterback if you plan on not only winning, but winning the Grey Cup,” said Milt Stegall, the former Bombers receiver who’s in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame and also dissecting the CFL on TSN these days.

“So it’s good to see some young quarterbacks who are coming up and who have been playing well for a while. And now we’re starting see it, with Drew Willy and Zach Collaros, and you have Mike Reilly and Bo Levi Mitchell and maybe you even have a guy like (Jonathan) Crompton in Montreal. You never know, he’s starting to play well.

“It’s not only good for those teams, it’s good for the league because this is such a quarterback-driven league.”

The coaches of the respective starters in tonight’s game were talking in terms of franchise players on Friday.

Bombers coach Mike O’Shea didn’t even let a questioner finish on the franchise player question regarding Willy, who has already authored a few miracle comebacks for the Bombers this season.

“Yes,” O’Shea said.

“Fairly early on in training camp, you start to recognize some of these intangibles we talk over and over and over about, first and foremost his desire to improve on a daily basis,” O’Shea added. “I still see a man who’s just extremely committed to be the best at his position, the best quarterback he can be.”

Tiger-Cats boss Kent Austin ran out a pretty healthy list of reasons why his club went all-in on Collaros last winter.

“He’s going to be a good player for a long time, as long as he’s blessed with staying healthy,” Austin said. “A guy who’s highly competitive, he’s a fighter, he’s accurate, he’s smart, he’s a student of the game, he’s tough both mentally and physically.

“Also saw a guy who was put in a pretty tough situation last year. Had to go on the road against some pretty good football teams. He’s a proven winner, figures out a way to win football games… I’ve not heard him make a single excuse from the first day he walked into our locker-room.

“And the guys trust him.”

Stegall noted the new wave of starters getting their bearings might have something to do with the CFL’s reduction in overall offence this season. Total scoring per game is down from 52.4 points per game in 2013 to 46.8 so far in 2014.

“These quarterbacks are still trying to figure things out,” he said. “They are young. But I think it’s promising for the league for years to come that we’re seeing these quarterbacks and the way they’re playing.”

And having an injection of exciting youth in such a role is urgent, not unlike the buzz the NFL got out of having Russell Wilson pilot Seattle over the Denver Broncos and veteran Peyton Manning in the most recent Super Bowl.

“Without a doubt,” Stegall said. “That’s a great thing. You’re trying to attract the 18-30 fan base. Those fans, they connect and relate to kids somewhat their age. I think it’s a great thing for the league to market those guys, get those guys out there so you can connect with that younger crowd.”

tim.campbell@freepress.mb.ca