Montreal Alouettes head coach Jason Maas says quarterback Cody Fajardo will once again be a game-time decision ahead of Saturday's meeting with the Ottawa Redblacks at TD Place.
Fajardo missed his first game Friday against his former team, the Saskatchewan Roughriders, due to a left shoulder injury sustained a week prior against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
He was a game-time decision and warmed up before the game, but backup Caleb Evans ultimately started, with Davis Alexander serving as QB No. 2. The Alouettes won 41-12 at home.
"Cody's practising, it'll be another game-time decision for us,” Maas said Tuesday outside the Olympic Stadium. "As you could see (from) last week, it will come down to the wire once again.”
All three quarterbacks took reps on Tuesday.
Fajardo was in full uniform and appeared to throw the ball without any issues. However, during a drill where quarterbacks threw to each other, Fajardo needed the help of offensive coordinator Anthony Calvillo to catch the ball for him.
Fajardo says he feels much better this week but won't know if he's ready to play until he goes through his pre-game routine on Saturday. He says he didn’t pass the contact protocol last week.
"(Feeling) a lot better. It's night and day difference, just being able to throw without pain was the big thing. Last week I kind of gutted through some pain stuff throwing," he said. "(But) it's the contact that held me out last game and that's gonna be the question all week and we're gonna go through the same protocol."
Fajardo says the protocol involves working with doctors, who put him through various game scenarios to test how it might impact his injury.
Through his first eight games in Montreal, Fajardo has completed 67 per cent of passes for 1877 yards, six touchdowns and five interceptions.
Fajardo says he didn’t want to rush back to play early last week with 11 games still remaining, especially after playing injured last season in a down year that saw him lose the starting QB job in Saskatchewan.
"We didn't want to make any hasty decisions, try and push it too early,” he said. “I stated my concerns about last year, playing injured and not playing up to my best potential.”
The Alouettes are one of several CFL teams dealing with a starting quarterback injury this season.
Ottawa’s Jeremiah Masoli is out for the year, Hamilton’s Bo Levi Mitchel is on the six-game injured list, Saskatchewan’s Trevor Harris underwent surgery last month and Winnipeg’s Zach Collaros sustained an injury last week. Toronto’s Chad Kelly played last week despite dealing with an ankle issue.
Amid Fajardo’s injury, Montreal signed 24-year-old quarterback Reece Udinski on Monday, adding a fourth QB to their roster.
Maas says signing Udinski, who threw for 3,612 yards and 29 touchdowns with the NCAA’s University of Richmond Spiders last season, is just insurance.
"Danny and I talked about bringing a fourth guy in at some point during the season and obviously with Cody hurt last week it felt like it was a good time to do that," said Maas. "He's in the door to learn our offence, so just in case down the road we need him, he'll be ready to play."
With Fajardo out, Evans went 8-for-13 for 149 yards, throwing one touchdown and one interception on Friday.
The Alouettes rushed the ball 33 times, with Walter Fletcher producing 73 yards in starting running back William Stanback’s absence.
Stanback says he was “a little tight in the hips” and needed the week off after playing every game to start the season, a run of play he hasn’t experienced in a while after missing most of last year due to injury and coming back in a limited capacity.
He expects to be back on Saturday.
"I feel really good,” he said. “I'm ready to go out there this week and go to war against Ottawa.”
After winning three straight, the Alouettes are second in the CFL’s East Division with a 5-3 record, two games up on the third-place Tiger-Cats. Ottawa (3-6) is fourth.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 15, 2023.
Daniel Rainbird, The Canadian Press