Pre-Season Game: Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Toronto Argonauts

[OV Argo]

I’d bet there’s a couple of teams that would love to get their hands on Cody Fajardo.

Which ones?

Every team in the league (except the one that got rid of him for money reasons) - IF they had brains in their heads for evaluating QB talent; he led his team to first place last season and a GC win the season before - playing all season long mostly. Do you honestly think that, for example, Ottawa with Schlitz or the Ticats & Bombers with nothing or BC with oft injured vet Masoli are in better shape for a #2 QB ?

[AngeloV]

I think Kelly is going to be activated for Friday to be honest. Cutting Dukes was the correct move. He was the worst of the QB’s in the scrimmage and the pre season. To be clear, I had no problem with your opinion, it was the fact you were so sure he would not be cut that I disagreed with.

Happy to admit that I was wrong (obviously). I stand by my concern that if Kelly is on IR this wk, we are one hit away from going with a QB who has barely opened the playbook. If Kelly's activated and stays healthy, the concern goes away and we can stash Horn on IR for the season to develop him. To be fair, we had even less experience behind Kelly two years ago than we do behind Arbuckle now, and that worked out OK. But had Kelly got hurt that season, we were basically screwed. We're less vulnerable than that, at least. I'm intrigued to see what Doege can do on short-yardage, and he definitely is bigger and has a stronger arm than Dukes so if it came down to one or the other (as it surely must have), I can see why they did it, although I'd have preferred to give Doege a full camp plus a few months in the off-season to learn the playbook.

To me, the fact that we do have Arbuckle, coupled with with the lack or progress Dukes had shown is why I was pretty sure Dukes would get cut.

[AngeloV]

I’d bet there’s a couple of teams that would love to get their hands on Cody Fajardo.

Which ones?

Every team in the league (except the one that got rid of him for money reasons) - IF they had brains in their heads for evaluating QB talent; he led his team to first place last season and a GC win the season before - playing all season long mostly. Do you honestly think that, for example, Ottawa with Schlitz or the Ticats & Bombers with nothing or BC with oft injured vet Masoli are in better shape for a #2 QB ?

To me, Montreal is the team that made the mistake in releasing him. The only teams that would make sense for him as a #2 is Edmonton and Montreal. Teams that don’t have big money allotted to their starters. Obviously Montreal made the decision to go with Alexander and probably felt it would be awkward to keep Fajardo under those circumstances. Edmonton was the place for him.

[paulwoods13]

I’d bet there’s a couple of teams that would love to get their hands on Cody Fajardo.

Which ones?

Every team in the league (except the one that got rid of him for money reasons) - IF they had brains in their heads for evaluating QB talent; he led his team to first place last season and a GC win the season before - playing all season long mostly. Do you honestly think that, for example, Ottawa with Schlitz or the Ticats & Bombers with nothing or BC with oft injured vet Masoli are in better shape for a #2 QB ?

This is a pointless argument if the response is "every team if they weren't all idiots." No mas.

[paulwoods13]

To me, the fact that we do have Arbuckle, coupled with with the lack or progress Dukes had shown is why I was pretty sure Dukes would get cut.

I agree on both points, but again, if Arbuckle has to be the man for any length of time -- I know you expect Kelly back imminently -- and gets injured, we're down to Doege (who has thrown 68 CFL passes) and Horn (who has thrown zero). Again, that's more experience than we had behind the starter in 2023, but it's still risky.

[OV Argo]

Which ones?

Every team in the league (except the one that got rid of him for money reasons) - IF they had brains in their heads for evaluating QB talent; he led his team to first place last season and a GC win the season before - playing all season long mostly. Do you honestly think that, for example, Ottawa with Schlitz or the Ticats & Bombers with nothing or BC with oft injured vet Masoli are in better shape for a #2 QB ?

This is a pointless argument if the response is "every team if they weren't all idiots." No mas.

So, basically, you aren't able to discuss or evaluate individual QB talent from your own personal observations, but are good with what whatever CFL GMs - who "just want to win" - will do ?

[argolio]

I'd have preferred to give Doege a full camp plus a few months in the off-season to learn the playbook.

The fact he settled in right away tells me he likely absorbed the playbook pretty fast. QBs with that ability tend to have longer careers.