Rakeem Cato to start for Alouettes, but who will he be throwing to?

There's a quarterback change ahead for the Montreal Alouettes, but the new guy's in an awfully tight spot. As per TSN, regular starter Kevin Glenn will miss Friday's game against Hamilton (thanks to an inflamed left eye that's seen him miss four practices this week), with Rakeem Cato stepping into the void. Getting a start is a good sign for Cato, who was Montreal's regular starter for a while last season but fell out of favour once they traded for Glenn, and he'll certainly be eager to get the ball. However, there are big questions about the receivers he'll have to work with.

With S.J. Green gone for the season and Kenny Stafford on the six-game injured list, the Alouettes are down two of their top receivers. Fortunately for Cato, it looks like a third will be available after all, with Duron Carter expected to play while his suspension is on appeal. There are questions about why the headaches Carter has faced this week haven't been considered to be concussion symptoms, and questions about if he should be playing given those, but Cato will certainly be happy to have him in the lineup. We'll see how effective Carter can be if he's still battling injury, though, and if the pending suspension will weigh on him at all.

Beyond that, Cato has two veteran receivers in Nik Lewis and Samuel Giguere, but they're 34 and 31 respectively and have been playing more supporting roles lately. Lewis had a nice bounce-back year last season with Montreal, collecting 70 catches for 743 yards, but that followed two seasons in Calgary where he was frequently a healthy scratch and finished with 400 and 327 yards respectively. He's been pretty good so far this season, making 15 catches for 165 yards in two games, but will he be able to succeed with defences focused on him instead of Green and Stafford? Meanwhile, Giguere had just 368 yards in 18 games last season, and has just three catches for 22 yards this year. He hasn't been a featured option for the Alouettes, but we'll see if that changes with the attrition they're facing.

After those guys, the Montreal receiving corps gets much less proven. They're now turning to B.J. Cunningham (who's been on the active roster, but was a healthy scratch last game) and two guys activated from the practice roster in Chandler Jones and Corbin Louks. Cunningham's in his second CFL season and had 23 catches for 308 yards last year, but recorded just one for 27 yards in the Alouettes' first game this year before being scratched for their second game. Jones is also in his second CFL season, but spent all of last year on Montreal's practice roster and hasn't recorded a regular-season stat yet. Louks has a fascinating story of playing quarterback, safety and then receiver in college, and he's had some NFL cups of coffee, but only signed with the Alouettes earlier this year. Cato's target out of the backfield is less experienced, too, as Tyrell Sutton's on the six-game injured list, forcing Brandon Rutley to step in.

Sure, any of these guys could seize the opportunity and have a great game, but there's not a lot of CFL experience here. That might make what's already a tough test for Cato even harder. He's making his first start of the year, and doing so without two of the team's top receivers and its top running back. We'll see how that goes Friday night in Montreal.