MONTREAL JUST THE LATEST STOP FOR GLENN
Addition of veteran quarterback gives Als some insurance in playoff hunt
A month ago, the Canadian Football League’s glass was not half-empty, it was barely moist inside.
Quarterbacks had been dropping like flies. Only Calgary and Hamilton had them, and everyone else was scuffling to find a warm arm.
Now, the only team that doesn’t have a viable starting quarterback has no use for one.
It’s already next year for Saskatchewan, which is the main reason the 2-13 Roughriders shipped Kevin (Suitcase) Glenn, their only plausible healthy pivot, to Montreal for the proverbial bag of chinstraps, i.e. a fifthround draft pick.
It’s Glenn’s seventh CFL stop, though the expansion Ottawa Redblacks only had him on paper, and he’s no one’s idea of a likely saviour. But he might be just good enough to get the Alouettes into the playoffs ahead of whichever of his former teams, the 5-9 B.C. Lions or 5-10 Winnipeg Blue Bombers finishes third.
“I thought about texting him this morning and wishing him luck, but I don’t know how much (luck),” chuckled Lions quarterback Travis Lulay, whose slow recovery from off-season shoulder surgery was the reason B.C. had to deal a first-round pick to Ottawa to get Glenn in time for the 2014 campaign.
“Obviously, I wish him well on a personal level, but, that’s the funny place we find ourselves in,” Lulay said. “This is what, his fifth team in two years. Calgary, Ottawa, B.C., Saskatchewan, Montreal. He’s been everywhere now but Toronto and Edmonton, right?
“It’s a whirlwind. I’m sure when he signed with Saskatchewan he wasn’t thinking he’d be traded to Montreal, and Montreal would be trying to win a Western playoff spot.”
The transformation that’s taken place over just a few weeks is a cautionary tale for those of us who thought the CFL’s quarterbacking pool had run dry.
Instead, the unproven got proven in a hurry.
Trevor Harris in Toronto is making the Ricky Ray comeback almost academic. Out of nowhere, pretty much, the Lions stumbled onto Jon Jennings, whose periods of brilliance two weeks in a row have greatly eased the temptation to rush Lulay back from an injured knee.
The season-ending Zach Collaros knee injury turns out not to have been the end of the Ticats, who have coached up Jeff Mathews to the point where he is one of the CFL players of the week.
Mike Reilly got well in Edmonton, and the Eskimos were able to trade Matt Nichols to Winnipeg, where he has stabilized the QB position and may be doing more than just keeping the seat warm for when Drew Willy returns.
Ottawa has the forever young 40-year-old Henry Burris, Calgary has rolled along with Bo Levi Mitchell, and that left only Montreal groping in the darkness, further away than ever from finding someone to replace Anthony Calvillo.
Glenn will never do that, but at the cost of a fifth-rounder, he’s a lot better than what they had.
Now, in the mad scramble for playoff seedings, the Riders have enriched two contenders at the expense of a bunch of others. Not only did they traded Glenn to Montreal, they dealt their horse of a running back, Jerome Messam, to Calgary, where Jon Cornish has been scratched with “neck stiffness,” which is often code for concussion, a more than occasional problem for Cornish.
The Stamps could still catch Edmonton for first place in the West but they are home and dry with a playoff spot. But Montreal isn’t, so the Glenn deal directly impacts the Lions and Bombers chances.
Some might suggest that whether or not the Lions make the post-season, the more important development is that with the discovery of Jennings, they finally have a marketable commodity to sell to the customers over the winter.
Everyone else but the Alouettes already have someone, though Saskatchewan is depending on Darian Durant to make a full recovery from what can be an iffy ruptured Achilles tendon.
That’s the long-term view, though.
“That’s not even a thought,” said B.C. head coach Jeff Tedford. “If we were in a situation like Saskatchewan is, maybe that would be the case, but it’s not the case. We’re in a three-way hunt here for the playoffs. There’s nothing more important.”
“The long-term goals are obviously there,” said running back Andrew Harris, “(but) that’s not our job, it’s the GM’s job. As players, it’s all about the right now: getting into the playoffs and making something happen once we get there. The goal never changes.”
Only the personnel. With stunning regularity.
This is what, his fifth team in two years. Calgary, Ottawa, B.C., Saskatchewan, Montreal. He’s been everywhere now but Toronto and Edmonton, right?