Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
After 17-weeks away from his game uniform, Jeremiah Masoli returned to the REDBLACKS starting lineup last Saturday. It came a week after Ottawa finally ended their 13-game home losing streak thanks to Tyrie Adams who somehow pulled off the task despite a later confirmed torn ACL.
As we all know, a similar season ending fate struck Masoli in the second quarter of Saturday night’s East division battle. A moment that makes me hate being on the microphone as the one delivering the worst news possible in real time to not just a passionate #RNation fan base, but a country full of people who were happy to see Masoli back on a CFL field.
While I wish this piece could be a weaving, winding look at Jeremiah’s career and football life the reality is Ottawa is in the middle of a CFL season with plenty of possibilities and hopes in front of them.
All of these require immediate attention at the games most important position. General Manager Shawn Burke knows this. It isn’t his first time dealing with a sudden change at quarterback, hell it’s not even his first time dealing with trying to find a solution for a Masoli season ending injury.
With that in mind I have grouped the three approaches possible to Ottawa below, a situation no Ottawa football fan wanted, or expected to be in barely into the month of July.
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DEVELOP WITHIN
Regardless of whether this is a legitimate option or not, there was going to be a roster move in response to the Masoli injury. It came Tuesday morning in the form of recent training camp participant Jake Dunniway and addition of Winnipeg Blue Bombers numbers game cut Tyrrell Pigrome.
While this certainly isn’t the sexiest fix for REDBLACKS fans who have seen two starting quarterbacks go down in the span of a week and could see their fourth starting quarterback in five games to open the season if Dustin Crum gets the call it is the quickest answer to where Ottawa’s passing game goes.
Through an unthinkable amount of adversity, the quarterbacks in that meeting room watching film must feel like they’ve reached the final scene of a final destination horror film, by no fault of the Ottawa offensive line who have shown well in pass protection in 2023.
Dunniway got the typical spare reps in camp and preseason while Pigrome has shown more burst in his limited Winnipeg opportunities and could be brought up to speed as a package player quickly while Nick Arbuckle gets healthy.
NEXT MAN UP
Nobody wanted to see Dustin Crum play quarterback in Hamilton on Saturday outside of his family and friends. Sorry Dustin, that’s the honest truth as even Tiger-Cats fans cringed and held their breath when Masoli went down.
The cyclical nature of being a professional football quarterback, especially a young developmental prospect such as Crum is that chances to lead a pro team are few and far between. With basically no reps through the first month of the season I joked on TSN Saturday that Crum appeared to be wandering the sidelines introducing himself to REDBLACKS receivers before the three minute warning ahead of halftime.
What Crum showed was your classic emergency duty effort. A tendency to push the ball horizontally, or check it down followed with quick trigger running attempts born from discomfort in not fully understanding the process of each play called by Offensive Coordinator Khari Jones.
Don’t take that as a slight, it’s exactly what we should have expected from Crum, but under this difficult circumstances he showed the kind of battle and perseverance that saw him star in college for Kent State as the MAC Offensive player of the year and MVP in 2021.
I expect he gets the start this week against Winnipeg and we see whether it was a mirage, or if he can defy the odds and show improvement on an emergency starting week.
EMERGENCY FIX
Speaking of emergencies, I won’t be long winded here because social media is much better at putting together these theoretical dots than I will ever be, but if Ottawa really wants to swing for the fences with their backs against the wall it could involve any number of big hacks.
These might include begging McLeod Bethel-Thompson to come back North for a couple months, trading for Dane Evans from BC – which I think the Lions would have no interest in accommodating – making a call to Edmonton for any of their potentially available pivots as the backfield roulette wheel continues to spin in Northern Alberta or hoping a negotiation list passer of larger profile might jump at the chance to come up with immediate opportunity awaiting.
Not matter how you spin it, Ottawa is in tough at quarterback and a transaction won’t suddenly fix things, everyone around the shotgun snap catcher of choice will have to step up their game and help the REDBLACKS compete for a playoff spot against unthinkable injury woes.
