REDBLACKS’ SIX SHOOTERS
Half-dozen QBs vie for spot
There’s a new left tackle to protect the blind side and a fleet of new receivers, so now it’s all up to the quarterback.
But there’s no doubt about who will start for the Ottawa Redblacks, barring injury. At No. 3 in Canadian Football League history in yards and touchdowns passing, No. 1 on the roster in salary and the most visible face of the second-year franchise, Henry Burris is the man.
Behind Burris, though, it could get interesting.
The Redblacks had 87 players at TD Place stadium for the spring mini-camp that ended Wednesday, including five other quarterbacks.
Among them were Thomas DeMarco and Danny O’Brien, who split backup duties last season, Alex Carder, who spent most of 2014 on the practice roster, and CFL newcomers Brock Jensen and Jordan Johnson.
Teams can only have 75 players under contract as of May 1, plus non-counting rookies, so the Redblacks will have to release about 10 players. Given that they’re installing a new offence and will have three days of rookie camp in late May and 12 days of training camp in early June before the end of their pre-season schedule, practice reps for quarterbacks will be at a premium.
“We have six guys here,” head coach Rick Campbell said. “Usually it’s tough to go to (training) camp with that many, but we are never going to turn away good football players, even if it means we have an extra guy or two at a position, regardless of what that position is.”
The other QBs were kids when Burris cashed his first CFL paycheque in 1997. DeMarco was eight, Carder was seven, O’Brien and Jensen were six and Johnson was just five.
Thus, their assignments include trying to prove they can be the next guy if, heaven forbid, something bad happens to Burris. Something, say, like what happened to DeMarco last August, when the posterior cruciate ligament in his left knee was ruptured by a low hit from a Calgary Stampeders defensive lineman.
“As soon as I went down, I went through the whole, ‘Oh my gosh, I can’t believe this happened,’ and probably 10, 15 minutes later I was like, ‘It’s all about coming back,’” said DeMarco, who is going into what would be his fourth CFL season. “First, it’s physically, then it’s mentally, and now I just have to put those two together at training camp and get to do what I love to do every single day.”
DeMarco, O’Brien and Carder are no more familiar than Jensen or Johnson with the system being installed by new offensive co-ordinator Jason Maas.
All six quarterbacks participated in online meetings during the offseason and viewed video cut-ups of the offence of Maas’s previous employers, the Toronto Argonauts. Mini-camp gave them the benefit of seeing those concepts from field level.
“There’s an opportunity for everybody,” said Jensen, who won three NCAA Division 1 football championships with North Dakota State and spent parts of 2014 with the Miami Dolphins.
“The best players are going to play and the players that are going to help this team win football games are going to be sticking around this team,” Jensen added. “One of our goals is to make the playoffs and to make a run, and part of that is winning football games, taking one step at a time, game by game, and finding a way to get better every single day.”
O’Brien may be more accustomed to making adjustments. As a collegian, he went from Maryland to Wisconsin to Division II Catawba, working with five offensive coordinators in as many years.
The upside to being a second-year pro, O’Brien said Wednesday, is not having to adjust to the increased pace of the game at this level. As for how many quarterbacks end up going to training camp, that’s up to Campbell and Maas.
“What it means to me is absolutely nothing just in the sense that I have to prepare myself every day to prove that I belong on the team and I can help the team win games,” O’Brien said.
“However many they keep is out of my control, but I can control how I prepare and how I come to work every day and what I show on film.”