QB Index: A new Maier in town

The QB Index is a weekly power ranking of quarterbacks across the CFL, voted on by CFL.ca staff. The ranking reflects recent performance, historical value, statistical indicators, team success and overall on-field evaluation. 

TORONTO — If we’re talking CFL surprise of the year, the honour should still go to the injured Nathan Rourke, who tore into the competition through the BC Lions’ first nine games this season.

What’s happened in Calgary in the last couple of weeks would get my second place vote. I don’t think it’s even a lukewarm take to say that Bo Levi Mitchell is a one-day Canadian Football Hall of Famer. With a pair of Grey Cup wins and Grey Cup MVPs, along with a pair of MOP awards, Mitchell has been the face of an extremely successful Stampeders franchise for eight solid seasons.

And for now, at least, he’s watching from the sidelines.

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To Mitchell’s credit, he’s handled the loss of the starting gig with the professionalism that John Hufnagel, Dave Dickenson and the Stamps’ organization hoped he would have.

As you can see from Maier’s unusually high jump in this week’s QB Index, the 25-year-old out of UC Davis held his own in his first start of the season.

Maier made 23-28 passes for 294 yards and three touchdowns in the Stamps’ loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers last week. The outcome will be all that matters to Maier and the Stamps, but their offensive play against the top team in the league should bode well for them as they head into their OK Tire Labour Day Weekend series with the Edmonton Elks.

Maier had a stretch in last week’s game where he made 15 consecutive passes. If you were watching and having deja vu feelings on Thursday, there’s good reason. Maier got the start against the Bombers in Week 4 of the 2021 season, when Mitchell was injured and made 17 straight passes at IG Field, including a perfect first half. He finished that game going 30-39 for 307 yards in an 18-16 loss.

That he faired that well against a Bombers team that makes a habit of winning — don’t forget he played his part in the Stamps’ late-season, many-starters-resting win over the Bombers last year too — feels like a good test of what he’s about. Going in as a backup against these Bombers can be the demise of a young quarterback. Maier’s ability to play exceedingly well in those situations should give the Stamps more than enough confidence in what they’ve got.

Bombers’ head coach Mike O’Shea complimented Maier’s play after Thursday’s win.

“Calgary played a fantastic game,” he told reporters. “You saw the percentages Jake was throwing at – he was spot on. He got us with that one deep ball when Demerio got hurt, other than that we didn’t give up a ton of explosions through the air in terms of the pass distance, but we didn’t tackle real well and I think that, once again, comes back to the fundamentals we’ve been missing out on… we need to get better.

“But we’ll take the win. That was a helluva game and we’re very excited and happy we won, obviously.”

We touched on this in this week’s Power Rankings, but the Stamps have played some of their best football this season in their four losses, all of which came to Winnipeg (three times) and BC (once), the two teams ahead of them in the standings. This is a team with a ton of potential and as we’ve seen now with Maier leading the Stamps to a win two weeks back over the Argos and going down to the wire with the 10-1 Bombers, they can get to a very high level with Mitchell or Maier under centre.

We don’t know how long we may see Maier as the starter, but the Stamps remain a team to watch and one that could pose a big problem to someone come November.