Lions look to Lulay to right ship
Once tagged as quarterback of the future, Jennings is enduring an extended struggle
This tells you all one needs to know about the predicament in which the B.C. Lions find themselves.
Three games into their CFL season, the Lions are ready to bench 26-year-old Jonathon Jennings — who was thought to be the team’s franchise quarterback two years ago — in favour of Travis Lulay, a 34-year-old coming off major reconstructive knee surgery who’s also missed 57 of 72 starts over the last four seasons.
This week Lulay has expressed reservations about his readiness to assume the starter’s role, but the Leos’ key decision-makers are prepared to give him the job. That means they’re ready to live with the risk of potentially rushing Lulay back to live action.
That also means they’re ready to turn the offence over to Lulay after spending the off-season and training camp promoting Jennings as the starter. And that means, with 15 games left on their schedule, the Lions are prepared to change the direction of the franchise after watching Jennings perform in three games.
This is a monumental decision for the club, one that raises any number of questions about Lulay and the team’s future. But, intrigue aside, the most profound of these questions is this: What has happened to Jennings?
“I don’t know,” Lions head coach Wally Buono said. “This is something he has to work through. He’ll tell you, everyone will tell you, he hasn’t lost his confidence. But at this point his play doesn’t show that.
“Jonathon has great natural ability. At times that shows. At times, there’s hesitation. At that position, hesitation is fractions of a second. At that point it’s unacceptable.”
While Buono wasn’t fully committed to announcing Lulay as his starter against Winnipeg on Saturday, all signs pointed that way at the team’s practice session Thursday. The Montana State product took a slim majority of the reps.
It was the third consecutive day Lulay pushed himself in practice and afterwards declared: “I think I had a good week and it was another step forward.”
Buono thinks he’s ready, as does Lions team doctor Bob McCormick and offensive co-ordinator Jarious Jackson.
The only person who could change this, in fact, is Lulay, who would only speak in generalities when asked if he’s ready for live action. But, following a post-practice skull session with the parties involved, the indication seemed to be Lulay would start against the Blue Bombers.
That’s good news for the veteran, who’s endured three major injuries in the last five seasons. But it’s not necessarily good news for the Lions.
Looking back, Jennings’ fall from grace is as jarring as it is inexplicable.
When he took over the position in 2015 during a miserable season under Jeff Tedford, it appeared the Lions had stumbled into a franchise-changing player. He was young. He was dynamic.
Sure there was an element of risk to Jennings’ game. But that only made him more exciting and when he led the Lions to a 12-6 record in 2016 while throwing for 5,226 yards and 27 touchdowns, it seemed a superstar was in the making.
Then came last season and, for the first time, Jennings looked hesitant and confused.
By the midway point of 2017, he’d lost his job to Lulay, then had to step in when the former MOP went down with the right knee injury against Montreal.
The Lions would finish the season 1-7 under Jennings. This off-season, Jackson was brought in to install a new offence and rehabilitate the young pivot. But three games in, Buono has apparently seen enough.
At that position, hesitation is fractions of a second.
“Last year it was really good or not good at all,” Buono said. “We were hoping this year, with an off-season, with a training camp and pre-season, he would come back a little more confident. He probably did.
“But when he stepped on the field there was indecision and that’s such a scary thing at the quarterback position.”
And that’s the impression Jennings has left. Whether it’s Jackson’s new offence or his own frailties, the young gun slinger has given way to an uncertain, errorprone, turnover machine.
Want a stat? Of the 26 passes Jennings attempted in the 41-19 loss to the Bombers in Winnipeg last weekend, exactly two were for more than 15 yards. Late in the first quarter he launched a 40-yard pass to Shaq Johnson. In the third quarter, he tried a 19-yarder to Bryan Burnham. Both were incomplete.
“I’m frustrated in general,” Jennings said. “I’m frustrated we’re losing. I’m frustrated I’m not playing up to my standard. But I’m the one who has to deal with it.”
He was asked if he’s lost confidence, which seems to be a popular question these days.
“I know what I can do,” he said. “It’s just a matter of going out and doing it.”
And you hope it’s that simple because it would make things so much easier for Jennings and the Lions. You just know he’s facing a long, uphill battle to get back to the place he once stood.