Losing Darian Durant and Travis Lulay is a blow for not just the Riders and Lions, but also the league

The CFL lost two of its more-established quarterbacks for significant periods of time as a result of this weekend's games. B.C. Lions' quarterback Travis Lulay was hit near the end of their 7-5 win over Ottawa Friday, and the news came out Monday night that he'd dislocated his right (throwing) shoulder and has been placed on the six-game injury list; he could be out for much longer than that. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan Roughriders' quarterback Darian Durant took a hard hit in Sunday's Banjo Bowl (which the Riders won 35-30) on a play where the Winnipeg defence didn't hear the whistle, left the game with an injury, and tweeted Tuesday morning that he'll need surgery. His injury has been revealed to be a torn tendon in his throwing elbow, and he'll likely miss at least the rest of the regular season. The injuries to Durant and Lulay are big losses for their teams, but they're also substantial losses for the league, which is already having one of its worst seasons in years in terms of passing offence.

Both of these injuries are likely to take these quarterbacks out for a substantial amount of time. Durant will be out for at least the remaining regular season games, and his tweets don't sound optimistic about the postseason. The disclocated shoulder is the same injury that Lulay suffered last year and had offseason surgery for, but Lions' doctor Bob McCormack said the new injury means the surgery "has essentially been undone." It was difficult for Lulay to recover from surgery the first time; despite having the surgery in the offseason, he's missed most of the team's games to date completely, only receiving limited snaps in the last few, and Friday night was his first start of the year. Thus, it seems unlikely he's returning any time soon either.

The losses of Lulay and Durant mean two of the league's quarterbacking situations are worsened. The blow may be particularly bad in Saskatchewan, where they're going from a nine-year veteran in Durant to a second-year player in Tino Sunseri who only has 43 career CFL passes. However, at least the Riders have been winning games with their rushing attack and defence; losing Durant will hurt them, but they still have other strong elements in their favour. In B.C., the quarterbacking situation is better thanks to having experienced hand Kevin Glenn ready to step in (again), but the rest of the team looks worse. Going back to the overall quarterbacking picture, though, Saskatchewan now joins Hamilton and Montreal in the boat with no highly experienced options, and B.C. now has just one experienced option, a 35-year-old pivot who was dumped by two different teams this offseason. That's not good.

What's really problematic is that these injuries are coming when scoring and passing offence numbers across the league are already in the tank. We've seen incredible amounts of passing struggles this year, and although those haven't directly correlated with teams' success, they've helped to produce a CFL where high-scoring games have been few and far between. The losses of Lulay and Durant might make things even worse. It's concerning that two of the league's better younger quarterbacks (Lulay turns 31 later this month, Durant's 32) are likely gone for at least this season.

Yes, neither quarterback has done a ton this year (Lulay hasn't played much and Durant's numbers haven't been great), but both have the experience and potential to produce high passing totals. With them gone, and gone with serious injuries that could perhaps even affect them beyond this year, the CFL's quarterback situation doesn't look good. There are a few proven vets still out there (Ricky Ray, Henry Burris) and some young guns who have looked good so far (Mike Reilly, Drew Willy, Bo Levi Mitchell), but there are a lot of question marks as well. We'll see how passing offence totals develop as the season goes on, but the losses of Durant and Lulay don't bode well for the CFL's aerial attacks.