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B.C. Lions cut Joey Elliott, reducing the QB experience they have behind Travis Lulay

andrew bucholtz

It's rare that you see a 6-3 CFL team making significant personnel changes, and cutting your most experienced backup certainly qualifies as one of those. That's what the B.C. Lions appear to have done, though, as Lowell Ullrich of The Provincereported late Wednesday night that the team plans to axe veteran pivot Joey Elliott Thursday. Thomas DeMarco is further solidified as the second-stringer now and Chris Hart will be elevated to the third string role for the moment, but it sounds like the Lions are looking to bring in extra competition there. From Ullrich's piece:

In a surprise move, the Lions said they will release Elliott on Thursday and will instead hand a plane ticket to Hamilton for the first time in the regular season to Chris Hart, though [B.C. GM Wally] Buono made it clear the rookie shouldn’t get too comfortable on the active roster.

A replacement presumably with NFL training camp experience will be on the way if the Lions complete a contract in the not-too-distant future, Buono said. Elliott never got on the field during the regular season with the Lions, but Buono said his coaching staff told him there was insufficient progress in his development.

Elliott, you’ll recall, threw for 2,101 yards last year for Winnipeg and paid his own way to a Lions tryout camp in order to continue his career over a college coaching offer. The quarterback still has huge ties to his Purdue alma mater, serving as an online moderator at a newly-created website, huddlepass.com.

In the last couple of weeks, Hart has been receiving considerably more work ahead of Elliott at practice, but Buono said it is not the Lions’ intention to accelerate his development. If anything, the move suggests that minimally the Lions will need more depth at the position and to others might prompt discussion that Travis Lulay might need a push with a series of difficult divisional games looming. A lot may have changed in the Lions' thinking with what might be considered a minor move.

While this may seem relatively minor considering that Elliott didn't play a regular-season down for the Lions, Ullrich's quite right that it could be more significant than that. This season's given us a lesson in the importance of backup quarterbacks, with guys like Kevin Glenn, Zach Collaros, Drew Willy and Justin Goltz all pressed into duty, and even some of those who started the year as third-stringers (Bo Levi Mitchell, Tanner Marsh and Max Hall) have seen plenty of playing time. Injuries happen, as do ineffective performances, and while the Lions don't have much cause to worry about the latter with the very solid Lulay under centre for the forseeable future, they do need to have a plan in case Lulay takes a hit and goes down. After all, that happened just last season, providing current Eskimos quarterback Mike Reilly the opportunity to show the skills that earned him a starting slot in Edmonton. Having the right quarterbacks in your system is crucial even if they aren't playing; you want to develop them and have them ready to go in case the worst happens. Thus, worrying about the second-string quarterback is justified.

At first glance, this would seem like an immediate downgrade for the Lions. While Hart and DeMarco have both shown potential at times, they're in their first and second seasons in the CFL respectively, and are still adjusting to all the differences from American football (including the three-down game, the 12-a-side routes and defensive schemes and the bigger field). If B.C. is going to bring in another CFL newbie, that leaves them without anyone who looks competent to go in right away if Lulay gets hurt. By contrast, Elliott at least had enough CFL experience over his time with Winnipeg that he seemed like a reasonable backup option on the depth chart. Buono seems to have decided that Elliott didn't show the team enough, though, and he's elected to go with players he considers to have higher upside. That's a sensible long-term strategy, and it may work out in the short term too if Lulay can stay healthy. That's a big if, though; Lulay isn't particularly injury-prone, but lots of injuries happen in this league. If he suffers one, the Lions may regret getting rid of their most experienced backup.