Backup QB spot will be up for grabs at Roughriders’ camp

The battle for the backup quarterback spot could be a heated one come Saskatchewan Roughriders training camp.

While veteran Trevor Harris is pencilled in to be the starter for the 2024 season, there are three CFL veterans and one newcomer who will be battling for the No. 2 spot on the depth chart.

Mason Fine, Antonio Pipkin and Shea Patterson all have multiple years of CFL experience under their belts, while former Notre Dame Fighting Irish pivot Jack Coan is a rookie in the league.

“You want Trevor to be the guy, but you have to win today and you have to win in the future. I think everybody is in the right spot and the right position with a clean slate from the football side of it, in the office and on the field,” Riders head coach Corey Mace said earlier this week from the CFL combine in Winnipeg.

Three of the four pivots were with the Riders last year. Patterson dressed for 13 games, completing four of six passes for 32 yards. He was used as the team’s short-yardage quarterback to start the season, recording two touchdowns on the ground.

But with the short-yardage team struggling, Pipkin was signed to take over the duties in November. He ended the year in that role for the Riders.

Both Patterson and Pipkin were under contract for 2024 but a decision had to be made between Fine and Jake Dolegala.

Fine was the team’s backup to start the season last year and became the starter after Harris suffered a season-ending knee injury in Week 6 against Calgary.

Fine started four games before he suffered a hamstring injury in Week 10 against the Montreal Alouettes. In those starts, he threw for 896 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions.

Dolegala started the remaining nine games and finished with a 2-7 record. In his starts, he threw for 2,434 yards with 10 touchdowns and eight interceptions.

With Fine and Dolegala set to be free agents in the off-season, the Riders’ brass elected to sign Fine to a two-year contract extension while Dolegala was allowed to test the waters. He eventually signed a deal with the B.C. Lions.

“What we did was once we hired our new staff, we had a long meeting and watched a lot of film on the quarterbacks we had under contract. We had the input of our offensive co-ordinator (Marc Mueller) who is going to be installing a new offence and a new system from what we ran last year,” general manager Jeremy O’Day said.

“It was more of a collective decision where we all sat in the same room … and evaluated the quarterbacks. At the end of that, we wanted to come to a conclusion of who the quarterback would be that’s the best to move forward with to compete for the backup position.”

Mace echoed O’Day’s comments.

“There’s certain things that we look for in terms of how we want the offence run and how you want to read out defences and different intangibles like that that’s more important for us for an efficient offence,” Mace said.

“As we went through the checklist, it was clear for us in who the guy we wanted to roll with. We still have other quarterbacks who are on roster or just signed who are going to be in the battle or in the mix.”

The new face in the room this season will be Coan, who played three seasons with the University of Wisconsin Badgers and one with the Fighting Irish. He finished his NCAA career with 6,428 yards passing with 48 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

Coan signed as an undrafted free agent with the Indianapolis Colts in 2022 but was released. He then played eight games with the XFL’s San Antonio Brahmas, throwing for 1,403 yards, six touchdowns and six interceptions.

“He’s a cerebral quarterback, a smart quarterback.,” O’Day said. “He has good size. He’s not an overly mobile guy but he can adjust in the pocket when he needs to and if he has to run, he will run.

“He’s just a smart quarterback that’s had a successful college career. We’ve been tracking him for a while here trying to get him signed. He had a bout with the XFL there for a little bit and then really it was just waiting. He had some NFL interest he was working through and it just got to the point where he was excited about coming to Saskatchewan.

“We’re interested to see him get in the mix and for him to learn the playbook and the differences in our game. (It was important to) just add another quarterback who was a really successful college player that is smart and can play the position at a high level. We’re excited to get him in the mix and see how he does with the guys that we have.”

O’Day said the Riders will need to see how things shake out at camp to see how many quarterbacks they keep – or how many may want to stick around.

“It becomes more difficult the older they get (and) the more veteran they are because they want more opportunities to play,” O’Day said. “It’s just a matter of who comes out of that situation as the backup and then what are we going to do at No. 3.

“Are we going to stick with the same that we’ve done in the past with someone that’s more of a short-yardage guy or go back to something more typical we had five or six years ago where teams would have three quarterbacks and one of them would have to do short-yardage?

“It just depends on how our roster shakes down and how they do in the pre-season. It would be difficult to keep all four but we have found a way to do it in the past. I think the last two years we have found a way.”

Riders training camp begins in May.