How does Vernon Adams fit into the Alouettes' crowded QB depth chart?

The Montreal Alouettes made a bold gamble this weekend, trading a 2017 first-round pick to the B.C. Lions for the rights to American quarterback Vernon Adams. For the Lions, this is a logical deal; they were unable to come to terms with Adams, it probably wasn't worth paying him what he wanted given that they have two established quarterbacks ahead of him (Jonathon Jennings and Travis Lulay), and they get a very good return for a player who hasn't played a CFL down or even agreed to terms. For the Alouettes, there's much more risk involved, but there's a chance of a huge payoff too. Much depends on where Adams winds up fitting in with the numerous other quarterbacks Montreal has under contract, though.

The Alouettes' quarterbacking situation might be the most interesting in the CFL at the moment. They have 36-year-old veteran Kevin Glenn, who they acquired from Saskatchewan at last October's trade deadline for a fifth-round pick. Glenn has the seventh-most passing yards in CFL history, and he played pretty well after being acquired by Montreal (756 passing yards, seven touchdowns versus four interceptions, and a 67.0 per cent completion mark in three games) last year, so he's likely the presumed starter heading into training camp, but he has perhaps the shakiest grip on that role of anyone across the league. That's partly to do with Glenn's age and the decent but not spectacular showings he's delivered in the last two years (with B.C., Saskatchewan and now the Alouettes), but it also has a lot to do with the impressive cast of characters looking to potentially replace him, which goes well beyond just Adams.

Montreal has two guys who have previously been counted on as the team's top starter, Jonathan Crompton and Rakeem Cato, and both had impressive college careers (at Tennessee and Marshall respectively). The Alouettes also have Brandon Bridge, a rare Canadian quarterback who played in the NCAA (at Division I FCS Alcorn State and  South Alabama) and received NFL interest, a rare Canadian QB to be drafted (in the fourth round of the 2015 CFL draft) despite the rules that hurt Canadian QBs, and a guy who showed off substantial potential in his first career start in last season's final game. Those are the primary contenders (especially with the team cutting Duke's Anthony Boone, another guy with potential, earlier this offseason), but the team also has another former NCAA star (Clemson's Tajh Boyd) who might make a push for a spot. (Crompton is coming off shoulder surgery and will come to camp on the injured list, but remains in the long-term QB picture for now.)

The Alouettes also announced this week that they signed two more Canadian quarterbacks from the CIS ranks, Saskatchewan's Drew Burko and Calgary's Jimmy Underdahl. Beyond that, they'll have a third (St. FX's Dante Djan) participating in training camp. Given the rule challenges, the Canadian QBs other than Bridge will likely be there just for training camp, the way many before have been. However, with an outstanding camp performance, one of them might be able to work their way into the crowded Montreal quarterback situation as well.

Of course, there are reasons to think that Adams may be able to rise above the crowd, and that it may well have been worth trading a first-round pick for him despite the team's depth at QB. While the Alouettes have a lot of quarterbacks, they don't have any who have really have dominated at the CFL level yet, so there's more opportunity and an easier potential path to a starting job in Montreal than there is anywhere else in the league. That also makes them more willing to pay a significant price for a guy like Adams, both in the pick they spent to get him and in the kind of money and term he reportedly wants. (Alouettes' general manager and head coach Jim Popp told Herb Zurkowsky of The Montreal Gazette “I’ve spoken to him and he’s gung-ho. I’m not worried about getting a deal done.") Thus, this looks like a potentially-good situation for both sides; Adams has wound up in perhaps the only CFL city where he could get a significant playing shot this season even without injuries to those ahead of him, and the Alouettes have added another high-profile quarterback, one with possibly even more CFL potential than the guys they already had.

Adams seems like a good fit for the league in a number of ways. For one thing, he put up college stats at a level that would normally draw major NFL interest, but went undrafted thanks partly to concerns about his size (he's only 5'11'' and 200 pounds). He did receive minicamp invites from the Seattle Seahawks and Washington Redskins, but didn't earn a contract with either. The NFL's adapted to some smaller quarterbacks (Seahawks' starter Russell Wilson is only 5'11'' and 215), but it's still largely a league that wants tall protoypical pocket passers. The CFL, which relies much more on shotgun and spread concepts than just standing directly under centre, has been much more historically fond of smaller guys, including 5'10'' guys like Doug Flutie and Glenn and even shorter guys like the 5'5'' Ron Lancaster. Thus, height won't be much of an issue for Adams.

One of the keys to quarterbacks' CFL success has often been accuracy, and Adams has that. In his college career at Division I-FCS Eastern Washington (which has also produced CFL quarterbacks Bo Levi Mitchell and Matt Nichols, plus other CFL players like B.C. DB Ryan Phillips and Edmonton LB J.C. Sherritt), Adams was particularly good in his final two seasons of 2013 and 2014, completing 65.6 and 66.1 per cent of his passes respectively while throwing for 4,994 yards (breaking Mitchell's 2012 school record of 4,009) and 3,483 yards with TD/INT ratios of 55/15 and 35/8. He also found great success after transferring to Oregon this past year, throwing for 2,643 yards with 26 TDs versus six interceptions and a 64.9 per cent completion rate. Adams has some mobility, too; he mostly rushed in short-yardage situations at Oregon (147 yards on 83 attempts) and his last year at EWU (258 yards on 100 attempts), but picked up more rushing yards in his first two seasons (342 on 62 and 605 on 132). That can be very useful in the CFL, as guys like Damon Allen have proven. So, while Adams is untested so far at the CFL level, he does have a record of college success that could potentially translate. He also received some very favourable comments from both Popp and B.C. GM/HC Wally Buono, as Zurkowsky writes:

So, there are a lot of people very high on Adams' CFL potential, and the price paid for him is evidence that Popp thinks he can rise above the crowded QB situation in Montreal. At the very least, his signing puts more pressure on those other guys to stand out. At the most, he might be able to become the team's starter for years to come. We'll see how it plays out.