QB injuries change landscape
Reilly, Durant lost for long haul, but Mitchell believes backups can hold fort
CALGARY — One snap of an Achilles tendon, one caved-in knee, and the complexion of the CFL’s West Division changed in the blink of an eye.
First, it was Toronto Argonauts defensive lineman Cleyon Laing barrelling into the left knee of Edmonton Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly on Saturday afternoon, followed closely by Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Darian Durant rupturing his Achilles tendon in the evening.
Two franchise quarterbacks, two season-ending injuries — Reilly hasn’t officially had his 2015 campaign scrapped, but many are expecting the worst — and two teams thought to be firmly in the West Division mix now wondering what to make of their seasons just one game in.
The Calgary Stampeders were always seen as the favourites heading into their defence of last year’s Grey Cup championship, but this seems to put them even further ahead of the pack.
“The easy answer is yes,” Stamps quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell said when asked if those injuries significantly changed the West Division landscape. “That’s two great quarterbacks.”
But Mitchell knows the stand-ins well, following the Esks’ Matt Nichols as the starter at Eastern Washington University, before spending two seasons behind the Riders’ Kevin Glenn in Calgary.
The importance of good quarterback play was emphasized last season when Durant went down with a season-ending elbow injury and the Riders fell of the face of the map after an 8-2 start to finish 10-8.
With Reilly sidelined for the Labour Day series against the Stampeders last year, Nichols struggled to move the Esks offence, save for a 24-point fourth-quarter outburst in the rematch.
Mitchell believes it’s different this time around.
“You saw what happened to Sask last year when they didn’t have Durant,” Mitchell said. “I think they have some good guys backing him up now, though. Obviously, with KG over there, I don’t think they’re going to dip like they did last year. The (Eskimos) situation is tough, but Nichols is good and (James) Franklin looked good to me in the pre-season. I know Nichols is a great quarterback and he’ll make sure he gets that team in the right position.”
With an endless list of quarterback injuries over the past couple of seasons affecting just about every CFL team, having a capable backup is absolutely essential.
It’s the reason the Riders went out and signed Glenn.
It’s the reason the Esks didn’t trade Nichols last season when some thought they would.
It’s also the reason Stampeders backup Drew Tate isn’t about to be auctioned off to the highest bidder.
He might be the most important insurance policy in the league and the Stamps feel they can win a Grey Cup with him if something were to happen to Mitchell.
Stamps GM/head coach John Hufnagel doesn’t take chances with the game’s most vital position.
“I don’t have to see (those injuries) to feel good about having Drew Tate on this football team,” Hufnagel said.
Saturday was a bad day for the Riders, the Esks, as well as the league as a whole. Throw in a season-ending shoulder injury to Montreal Alouettes’ Dan LeFevour and three of the 27 quarterbacks in the league on active rosters are no more.
“It’s awful,” Hamilton Tiger-Cats GM/head coach Kent Austin said.
“Those guys are really good football players for a reason. They’re talented, but they also work hard and they prepare hard. You just hate to see that for them, individually, for their teams and overall for the league. It’s not good.”
No one in Stampederland was cheering, either, even if it conceivably made the path back to the Grey Cup a little easier to navigate.
“I feel bad for them, no doubt,” Stamps offensive co-ordinator Dave Dickenson said. “I’m thankful ours didn’t (get hurt), but I feel bad for those guys, especially because you work so hard.
“I’m not rooting for anyone to get hurt or anything like that. I would rather the best guys play and the best team wins.”
While Durant’s Achilles failing him is a freak injury, Reilly’s is a little different.
There’s a reason Mitchell wears a brace on his left knee, and New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft has even asked Tom Brady to wear a brace, especially after watching his franchise QB lose a full season to a torn ACL on a play that looked very similar to the one that took out Reilly.
It was hard for Mitchell to watch on Saturday.
“Man, honestly ... I can’t even put it into words,” said Mitchell, who had a close call last year but escaped without any major damage when his knee bent awkwardly underneath him in a mid-September game against the Toronto Argonauts. “It was rough to watch, just knowing everything they’ve tried to do to say they’re going to protect the quarterback and things happen like that, especially for Durant, not even a contact play, and the Mike Reilly one was tough. It’s something that happened to Brady, obviously, and that’s why guys like myself, I’m wearing the knee brace because of it. Guys in this league are going hard and they’re going to fall at your feet, sometimes.”
“You just hate to see that for them, individually, for their teams and overall for the league.”
— Kent Austin