TBURGESS

Nathan Rourke, B.C. Lions (N) Hard money: $624,200 Maximum value: $624,200 Chad Kelly, Toronto Argonauts (A) Hard money: $615,000 Maximum value: $615,000 Zach Collaros, Winnipeg Blue Bombers (A) Hard money: $600,000 Maximum value: $600,000 Vernon Adams Jr., Calgary Stampeders (A) Hard money: $465,000 Maximum value: $465,000 Trevor Harris, Saskatchewan Roughriders (A) Hard money: $399,700 Maximum value: $453,700 Dru Brown, Ottawa Redblacks (A) Hard money: $354,700 Maximum value: $390,700 Bo Levi Mitchell, Hamilton Tiger-Cats (A) Hard money: $323,800 Maximum value: $374,800 Davis Alexander, Montreal Alouettes (A) Hard money: $258,000 Maximum value: $336,000 Tre Ford, Edmonton Elks (N) Hard money: $257,000 Maximum value: $367,000 Cody Fajardo, Edmonton Elks (A) Hard money: $180,000 Maximum value: $262,000 Tells the same story. Takes longer to source.

Hard money or total contract. It doesn't matter. Both tell the same story. Money is the discussion. What is inconsequential is who could take his place, but Adams and Faj-JJ were both available in 2025, would have cost half the money, and played significantly better. This year the pickings are slim, but that doesn't mean that Collaros is being paid properly.

Picking players who may or may not have signed with us is pretty much the definition of a baseless argument. There is not and cannot be any evidence to base that argument on. The basis of the argument that we paid him too much is the way he played last year. It's the amount that other teams paid their QBs, many of whom were better than Collaros last year. It's that no other team would have paid him as much and that no other team would have resigned him for this year before seeing how he played for at least half a season last year. IMO Arbuckle and Ford were the only 2 starting QB's who were worse than Collaros last year, & Edmonton replaced Ford halfway through the season. You might want to add Dru Brown to the list, but that's mostly due to injury. Here is the ranking of the top 9 highest-paid CFL quarterbacks for 2025 based on hard money: Nathan Rourke – B.C. Lions – $624,200 Chad Kelly – Toronto Argonauts – $615,000 Zach Collaros – Winnipeg Blue Bombers – $600,000 Vernon Adams Jr. – Calgary Stampeders – $339,450 Trevor Harris – Saskatchewan Roughriders – $299,781 Dru Brown – Ottawa Redblacks – $259,931 Bo Levi Mitchell – Hamilton Tiger-Cats – $236,374 Davis Alexander – Montreal Alouettes – $188,340 Tre Ford – Edmonton Elks – $187,610 How can you possibly say that Collaros was paid appropriately?

I didn't say every player is overpaid. I said Collaros is overpaid. Rourke is the face of the league and its best QB. He should be the highest-paid player. Of course, we're not talking about Rourke. You're just bringing him up to try to change from the Collaros was obviously overpaid conversation that we are having. Offering Collaros as much as we did was a mistake. Full stop. You and others are trying to justify the obvious mistake.

Missing the point as always. We didn't have to pay Collaros what we did unless there was another bidder willing to pay more. If you think there was, show your work. Maier was terrible, but the comparison isn't Maier vs Collaros at the same price. It's Maier + $300k or more to spend on other players vs Collaros and his salary. $300K would go a long way to fix our O and D lines for example. No one is talking about gambling the future on any QB.

First off, what other QB's were available is a red herring. What other QB's are available only matters if another team was willing to pay Collaros more than we did. We could have offered less and still signed him, IMO. For yucks though... Let's say we decided to go younger with Maier or Powell. Then we'd have $300K extra to upgrade other parts of the team. You can debate if $300K with a lesser QB is better or worse for our playoff chances if you want.

We only made the playoffs last year because Edmonton chose the wrong QB to start the season.

A better question is who else would have paid him that much? Or... is he really the 3rd best QB in the league?

It's still way too much money.

Zach was horrible last year yet he got paid like a top tier QB. Personally, I didn't want him back this year, let alone the one after that.

Does transferring his rights transfer his bonus?

It was a very good day. Happily surprised that Ceresna signed here.

Crum is an example of running until you learn to read and he's thrown as many picks as TD's. I'd take him over Powell, not that it matters now that Powell signed with Edmonton.

Willy J used to be that beast until we changed the way we play D line & I didn't say Ceresna doesn't get double teamed, that's something you just made up.

Your theory is that pocket passers are the only successful QB's in the pro game & mobile QB's give the ball away too much. Let's test your theory using the stats for the 2 players in question: Gives the ball away too much? Powell - 12 TDs, 9 picks in 352 attempts, 1 every 28. Ford 29 TDs, 19 picks in 534 attempts, 1 every 39. Can't throw? Powell - Avg completion 7.8, yards 2752, Comp 69% . Ford Avg 8.7, 4651 yards. (Take away Fords extra year & he's still over 4000), Comp 67% . Rushing is is for running backs? Powell - Avg rush 7.4 for 257. Ford 9.1 for 1129. Powell gives the ball away more often, he throws for fewer yards on average, and the running isn't even close. Ford has a 2% lower completion percentage but beats Powell on every other stat. Tre has been the more successful QB so far. Sounds like they had a horrible coach to me.