Durant leads new-look Alouettes into season
MONTREAL — After missing the playoffs for a second straight year, the Montreal Alouettes were due for a shakeup. What they got was more like an earthquake.
A new general manager, a new quarterback and a load of new players.
“It’s football,” said linebacker Chip Cox, one of the few veterans still with the club. “It’s just what happens.
“When new front-office people come in, they want different people. That’s what it is.”
Owners Bob and Andrew Wetenhall gave the club its first jolt by firing Jim Popp, the team’s only GM since rejoining the CFL in 1996. Then they handed the job to special teams co-ordinator Kavis Reed on the understanding that he keep Jacques Chapdelaine, who replaced Popp as head coach last September.
Then Reed made three major off-season moves, acquiring veteran quarterback Darian Durant from the Saskatchewan Roughriders, all-star tackle Jovan Olafioye from the B.C. Lions and star receiver Ernest Jackson from the Ottawa Redblacks.
But to rebuild the offence, he took apart one of the CFL’s best defences. Mainstay linebackers Winston Venable and Bear Woods, defensive linemen Alan-Michael Cash and Aaron Lavarius and safety MarcOlivier Brouilette were let go.
Unproven Anthony Sarao is the new middle linebacker, between aging returnees Cox and Kyries Hebert, while CFL veteran Keith Shologan moves in as defensive tackle.
The club’s all-time sacks leader John Bowman is back for a 12th campaign.
Acquiring Durant was the boldest move. The Als have not had a proven top-level QB since Anthony Calvillo retired in 2013, going through more than a dozen pivots since then. Signing veteran Kevin Glenn in 2016 didn’t pan out, but now they’ll try again with Durant.
The 34-year-old spent his first 11 seasons with the Roughriders, winning a Grey Cup in Regina in 2013. He’s had injury troubles the last three seasons, passed for nearly 4,000 yards on a last-place team last year.