Photo courtesy: Dale MacMillan/Edmonton Elks
The timing of the Edmonton Elks’ quarterback switch ahead of Friday’s loss in Saskatchewan raises serious questions about just how thoroughly their decision was thought out.
To be fair, no quarterback who put up the stat line Tre Ford did in his last outing — four-of-12 passing for just 34 yards and an interception — deserves to complain about being benched.
Cody Fajardo, Ford’s replacement, did some really good things in the Elks’ 21-18 defeat at the hands of the Roughriders in Week 8, when he and his teammates wrestled the squad with the CFL’s best record in their own park.
Though not high scoring and at times lacking in energy, the outcome was in doubt until the very last play, usually good enough for a moral victory for cellar-dwellers like the Elks these days.
But before we all congratulate Fajardo on his 346-yard, two-touchdown pass, interception-free return to Regina, let’s consider the following: Tre Ford has a track record of burying the Saskatchewan Roughriders in their own backyard. That’s something Fajardo and most other active CFL quarterbacks do not.
To back this up, I could rehash Edmonton’s 42-31 victory in Saskatchewan last summer, which fully entrenched the Riders into what would become a seven-game winless skid. Or we could go through the Riders’ 36-27 loss to the Elks the year before that, which dropped Saskatchewan below .500 and contributed to then-Roughrider head coach Craig Dickenson losing his job.
On both occasions, the Elks left their hoof-tracks all over the Mosaic Stadium turf, rushing for 276 and 265 yards, respectively. Tre Ford was the ringleader, spooking the Riders’ defence with some help from Javon Leake and Kevin Brown. This was particularly evident in 2024, when the unimpeachable Corey Mace had his defence twisted into knots by the athleticism of a dangerous running quarterback.
It was a formula, though tried just twice, that the Roughriders had yet to produce an answer for. And it all begs the question, if the Elks needed to make a quarterback change, then why couldn’t they have waited an extra week to try and capitalize on Tre Ford’s proven track record of silencing the melonheads in Saskatchewan?
And what about Mace? Did the Riders’ head coach suffer any dread about having to solve Tre Ford or relief when he found out he wouldn’t have to?
“(Ford) brings a completely different dynamic. He can make you pull your hair out with some of the things he can do to create,” Mace admitted. “But I don’t want to take anything away from what Cody’s able to do. I thought their offence was efficient. He still went for (almost) 350 yards. That’s good quarterbacking, man.”
Some of the rationale for the switch can be pinned on the Elks coming off a bye week, which is usually ideal for making such a change. But even so, the coaching staff came out of the break not entirely sold on Fajardo being the better option. In fact, the first team reps were reportedly split between the two quarterbacks all week until Cody took over on the final day before leaving for Regina.
If the bye week wasn’t enough time for the coaching staff to make up their mind, then one might ask why the change happened at all. Was this not supposed to be the year that Tre Ford would get to develop and make his mistakes without constantly having to look over his shoulder?
If the Roughriders’ players had any thoughts on which quarterback they feared having to face more, they weren’t telling us, aside from a joke by defensive tackle Micah Johnson.
“Being a fat boy, I’m like ‘Good! I don’t have to chase Tre around,’” he chuckled after a two-sack night. “Both of them bring something different to the table.”
Malik Carney also dressed along the Rider defensive line that fateful August night last season when Ford ran roughshod. Like Johnson, he sacked Fajardo twice in this game and wouldn’t speculate on the Elks’ quarterbacking decision.
“I like Cody. I get a lot of sacks on him,” Carney grinned. “That’s their department. They felt like they made the best decision for them, and I’m going to let them handle that.”
For the record, Carney has now sacked Cody Fajardo nine times in the seven games they’ve faced each other, including the playoffs.
There were eight quarterback sacks surrendered by Edmonton in this game alone, with one of them fittingly coming on the final play of the game. We all saw the best and worst of Fajardo in this game, with his weakness being that he takes more hits than almost any other QB in the league. It was almost like Cody’s entire three years in Saskatchewan all wrapped up into a single game.
Scoring 18 points won’t win you much in the Canadian Football League. But through it all, Elks head coach Mark Kilam sounded like he’s committed to the new guy.
“Cody’s the starter moving forward,” Kilam said. “We did some things at times, but we totally turned off at times. I’m just going to watch the film.”
It wasn’t good enough for Edmonton this time. Maybe even worse for the Elks, it was a missed opportunity to continue their own odyssey to develop someone who might be a franchise quarterback.
Playing it safe didn’t work out for the Elks’ last head coach, Chris Jones. History can often provide a roadmap through situations like these, which is something Kilam and today’s Elks should consider.
