Checking The Maple Leaf QBs
Looking for a quarterback prospects always has NFL teams looking under every rock and pebble for talent.
Right now, it doesn’t look like there’s any top talent in the Canadian Football League’s that’s worth a look. Or in the case of almost all of the top CFL quarterbacks, a second look.
The Chiefs signed Casey Printers out of the CFL several years ago. He’s back north of the border after failing to make the Kansas City roster out of training camp in ’07. His numbers are not much different than they were with the Chiefs in the pre-season.
The league’s best quarterback this year is 36-year old Anthony Calvillo (left) of the Montreal Alouettes. He’s thrown for nearly 5,500 yards, 42 touchdowns and only 12 interceptions. He’s a 15-year CFL veteran, who played his college ball at Utah State. He’s 6-1, 200 pounds and has never had a shot at NFL football.
There are two weeks left in the CFL season. Montreal has wrapped up the East Division with its 1-5 record. Out in the West Division it’s still to be determined as Calgary, British Columbia, Saskatchewan and Edmonton are separated by only two games.
Here’s the numbers on the CFL’s top quarterbacks after 16 games.
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| Name |
Team |
Rating |
|||||||
| Anthony Calvillo | MTL | 646 | 453 | 70.1 | 5433 | 81 | 42 | 12 | 109.5 |
| Ricky Ray | EDM | 562 | 389 | 69.2 | 5260 | 66 | 24 | 15 | 101.9 |
| Henry Burris | CGY | 547 | 353 | 64.5 | 4702 | 85 | 36 | 12 | 104.5 |
| Kerry Joseph | TOR | 469 | 265 | 56.5 | 3591 | 91 | 9 | 13 | 75.9 |
| Kevin Glenn | WPG | 422 | 269 | 63.7 | 3350 | 92 | 17 | 19 | 83.0 |
| Buck Pierce | BC | 305 | 198 | 64.9 | 2571 | 79 | 16 | 7 | 99.2 |
| Michael Bishop | SSK | 232 | 133 | 57.3 | 2110 | 72 | 8 | 9 | 83.1 |
| Jarius Jackson | BC | 272 | 147 | 54.0 | 2008 | 76 | 14 | 10 | 79.7 |
| Casey Printers | HAM | 207 | 118 | 57.0 | 1562 | 54 | 4 | 9 | 69.3 |
| Quinton Porter | HAM | 151 | 100 | 66.2 | 1284 | 86 | 9 | 4 | 101.5 |
| Ryan Dinwiddie | WPG | 142 | 83 | 58.5 | 1177 | 85 | 4 | 6 | 77.1 |
| Darian Durant | SSK | 129 | 77 | 59.7 | 1122 | 67 | 7 | 6 | 86.8 |
| Richie Williams | HAM | 100 | 60 | 60.0 | 984 | 63 | 3 | 5 | 82.3 |
| Marcus Crandell | SSK | 128 | 67 | 52.3 | 924 | 73 | 7 | 3 | 84.3 |
BC-British Columbia, EDM-Edmonton, MTL-Montreal, TOR-Toronto, CGY-Calgary, WPG-Winnipeg, SSK-Saskatchewan, HAM-Hamilton.
OK, what you need to know about these quarterbacks. All are products of American college football. Most have had a short cup of coffee in the NFL.
Short is the key word with almost all of the top 14 quarterbacks; nine are 6-1 or smaller. The big exception is 6-5 CFL rookie Quinton Porter out of Boston College who is with Hamilton where he’s sharing time with Printers. Porter was the starter at B.C. before he was replaced by Matt Ryan in ’05. He spent training camp time with the Houston Texans in ’06 and was on the Carolina practice squad in ’07.
Because of the wider field, CFL teams prize QB mobility more than height and weight. That gives smaller passers who can run a real chance to play. Tyler Thigpen might be a very good CFL quarterback with his physical skills.
A familiar name to local fans is Michael Bishop (right), who is the starter in Saskatchewan and has thrown eight TDs to nine INTs.
One of the CFL’s best quarterbacks is Henry Burris who plays at Calgary and is a nine-year veteran. He spent a season several years ago with the Chicago Bears but did not stick there. Over his career north of the boarder, Burris has thrown 174 TD passes to 104 interceptions.
The B.C. Lions have Jarius Jackson out of Notre Dame, who had a short stay with the Denver Broncos. Jackson is 6-1, 232 pounds.
Conclusion is this: there is not any obvious quarterback help in the CFL.
Sounds like! LOL
what about the arena league. Rumour is their is a 2 time MVP the chiefs are interested in, but he is also old.
Has any one looked at Merritt to fill in as in blocking and third and short,I heard when hes got the ball, hes hard to bring down. what can you lose ? FB – RB .
I hear the Japanese are doing great things with robots. Any possibilities there?
Nice one ILChiefsFan! Nearly dropped my mocha on myself after reading that!
Thanks for the CFL update Bob. It is interesting because, as a big draft geek, I remember most of these guys. Glad Michael Bishop has had a nice long career up there. Sounds like that Porter guy is the only one worth taking a look at but I tend to agree with findthedr on this one, Arena league QBs are more intriguing to me because they have to make such fast reads and deliver the ball quickly. But as you said Bob, the Chiefs can’t afford to leave any stone unturned right now.
Also, the Chiefs have had some luck with the CFL. Printers didn’t work out but WR Marc Boerigter had his moments before injuries cut his career short. The Arena League gave us DE R-Kal Truluck who had a nice season here (5-6 sacks I believe) before we traded him to the Packers for some late round picks. Keep searching scouting staff!
I’m just going to remove every thing within reach of me (That is small enough to throw) sit 10 yrds back from my PC so I can’t punch my screen out, shut my windows so the neighbors don’t hear my raging fits of profanity when MY BOY Thigpen (and any other player or Coach, referees, broadcaster or anyone else who in my judgement, does the dumb things that he/they are certain to do.
And of course that is all dependent on if I can find the game streaming if not I guess it’ll be Lenny, Mitch, and me watching the screen saver w/pictures of Chiefs (Current and Former) players scroll by.
GO CHIEFS!!!!
There seem to be quite a few Chiefs fans who frequent Bob’s blog that live outside the Chiefs broadcast area, the following link shows what games(Sunday, noon/3o:clock games only)are aired in your area on Fox and CBS.
Hope it is useful to some.
http://the506.com/nflmaps/index.html
John do you not just love Thigpen’s happy feet, his throwing without setting his feet, and his special ability of throwing high to really stretch out his WRs
JohnN,
Thanks for the link. We stopped getting regular Chiefs broadcasts in my area 6-7 years ago. Used to get them all the time in the late 1990′s.
I bit the bullet and got DirecTV/NFL Sunday Ticket in order to follow the Chiefs.
ILChiefsFan, I loved when I had NFL Sunday Ticket but it’s just gotten out of my price range.
It tells us all that you are a hard core Chiefs fan. And Lord knows there few and far between right now.
Sunday Ticket is outrageously overpriced. But at least when I complain about the Chiefs I can say I’ve got some “skin in the game”. Not season ticket holder-level skin, but something.
How do you see the games in Dallas? Judging by the crews that work them I don’t think Chiefs games are currently high on the CBS NFL pecking order.
Tmess,your right Thigpen does get “happy feet” but hopefully thats something that can be corrected.
ILChiefsFan, I have to find a stream on the internet, and of course the worse the Chiefs get the less options I find. And I also listen to it on kcfx
ILChiefsFan, I think Junior, Peterson, and every member of the Coaching staff should have to sit through a game being streamed and just read the chat in the rooms, It is HARD to sit with NO ammunition to even fire back at some of the things that are said about this team and franchise.
It’s a humbling no ck. that, It’s down right humiliating.
Ricky Ray for the win.
print ‘em .
Plus he has a history with Herm.
JohnN -
There are a few facts about the Chiefs that I like to keep handy, based on some number-crunching I did before the season started.
Chiefs since 1990:
Regular-season winning %: 57.64 (only the Broncos are better)
Winning seasons: 12 (only the Steelers, Dolphins, and Packers have more, with 13)
Playoff appearances: 9 (which puts them among the top 11 teams in the league over this period)
Yeah, we’ve done lousy in the playoffs, and things are dismal right now, but for close to 20 years this has been one of the NFL’s most successful franchises.
So let people laugh while they can; soon we’ll be back to beating their team on a regular basis.
ILChiefsFan, That is the only thing I can say to refute some of the things ppl say but then I am either living in the past or just stupid. LOL
You can always adopt the attitude of the old-time Eagles fan (I grew up in Philly)that cheering for a losing team builds character; therefore, the more my team sucks the more superior to you it makes me.
LMAO, thats good!
JohnNdallas-I know a good place for you to watch the chiefs games. Wizards over on 75 and Spring Valley, right on the service road. They have Chief tailgate parties there. My brother goes there and I occasionally. I have the ticket just for Chief games that way I don’t miss the games. I live in Garland.
Thanks cico,I know exactly where that is, my ex wife works at Blue Cross/Blue Shield.
There is a sports bar here in Addison, that used to have a huge Chiefs following also, I assume they still have, but it’s difficult for me to go.
I think you are talking about outer marker by Addison airport, but they no longer show the Chief games there. But yeah Wizards is a good place to go or just go to chiefsfansofdallas.com and it might have other venues of where to go.
That would be the place, it’s changed names AGAIN apparently, the last time I was there it was Slapshots, I think.