The Montreal Alouettes are making bold changes, but will those translate to team success?

This season's been a disaster so far for the Montreal Alouettes, who are 1-5, last in the East, and have scored the fewest points (98) in the CFL while allowing the second-highest total points against (189). To try and turn it around, the team has made several bold changes this week; they've shuffled their coaching staff, firing receivers coach Erik Campbell and giving most of their array of consultants more tightly-defined roles, and they've announced there will be changes at quarterback, with Alex Brink taking over from Troy Smith as the starter for Saturday's game against Saskatchewan, Jonathan Crompton and Tanner Marsh reportedly sliding up the depth chart, and the potential for a two-quarterback system. Will these moves help the Alouettes get back on track, or will they further complicate the issue?

The coaching staff changes actually make a fair bit of sense. Heading into this week, the team had three high-profile consultants in vague roles. Now, Jeff Garcia is specifically the quarterbacks coach and Turk Schoenert is specifically the receivers coach, replacing Campbell. Don Matthews remains a consultant without portfolio, but that's a role that makes sense for a 75-year-old Hall of Fame coach, one who's done well in a consultant's role before and one who's comfortable offering advice to any unit. Having more specific roles for Schoenert and Garcia seems logical.

They should succeed in those roles, too. Garcia in particular knows tons about the quarterback position from his successful NCAA, CFL and NFL career, and he's skilled in developing quarterbacks thanks to his time running a quarterback camp over the last several years. Schoenert's primary experience is also as a quarterback and a quarterbacks coach (both in the NFL), but he knows offensive football and should be able to help improve the teams' receivers. Moreover, the team now has a formal offensive coordinator, former quarterbacks coach Ryan Dinwiddie. He was already calling the plays, but having the title makes much more sense, especially as the Als haven't had an official OC since firing Rick Worman in training camp. There are now clearer responsibilities and lines of communication than there were, and that should help the Alouettes' offence. Expect Matthews, Garcia and Schoenert to still be involved in developing the offensive strategy, but it should hopefully have a more coherent direction going forward. What their offence really needs to do is make life easier for whoever's in at quarterback; run the ball and focus on high-percentage short passes, putting the ball in the hands of Montreal's talented offensive players and asking them to make plays. We'll see if they can get there.

The quarterback changes are a little more unsettling. Yes, Smith has been awful this year, completing just 47.7 per cent of his passes, throwing for just 989 yards and throwing four touchdowns against four interceptions. A lot of that's been on the poor offensive design, though, which has seen him gunning the ball down the field at every given opportunity. Smith needs to be better and much more accurate, but the offence hasn't been in position to help him succeed much, and he still has a ton of potential, as he showed last year. Giving up on him doesn't seem all that promising, especially considering that Brink hasn't yet shown he deserves to be a starter in this league, and neither have backups Jonathan Crompton or Tanner Marsh. Moreover, the team's discussion of a two-quarterback system may not work out either; while that can work with experienced pivots, all of their quarterbacks haven't played much and need as many reps as they can get.

Overall, you can't blame Montreal for trying something different. The plan so far clearly hasn't worked out, and there's lots to like about this new approach. Defining more specific roles for Garcia and Schoenert should make the offensive approach less chaotic. It's still to be seen if Dinwiddie (a former quarterback in just his second year as a CFL coach) is the right choice at offensive coordinator, but at least he has the title now and not just the job description. The planned changes at quarterback could also pay off for the Alouettes; if Brink, Crompton or Marsh catches fire and shows more than they have in this league to date, that's a fix for Montreal's biggest issue to date, poor passing offence. However, it may be too early to move on from Smith, especially with only relatively-inexperienced other options. This is a bold strategy; let's see if it pays off for them.