The 2015 CFL season should get its 20th different starting quarterback this week

CFL quarterback injuries have reached full-blown epidemic status this year, with last week's losses of B.C.'s John Beck (who started the year as a backup to Travis Lulay, now also injured) and Hamilton's Zach Collaros just the latest in a long string. As CFL head statistician Steve Daniel mentions in this week's Game Notes, clubs have started 19 different quarterbacks so far this season (Matt Nichols counts twice, as he's started for Edmonton and Winnipeg), and that's likely to rise to 20 this week (with Jon Jennings stepping in for Beck with the Lions) and 21 next week (when the Tiger-Cats return from this week's bye, Jeff Mathews is expected to be their starter). Moreover, 48 of the 104 QB starts so far this season (46 per cent) have been made by someone other than teams' expected #1 quarterback. Those numbers are remarkable on their own, but they're also the progression of a rising quarterback injury trend; Daniel told Judy Owen of The Canadian Press that QB injuries have risen every year from 2011 until now, and that we're fast approaching the 22 different starters in 2007 (the high from adds that from 2012 until now, we've only seen six seasons where a quarterback started all 18 games for his team, and four of those come from 40-year-old ironman Henry Burris, who's made 65 straight starts (albeit for two different teams). Why are we seeing so many quarterback injuries, and is there anything the league can do to avert them?

One possible cause is that teams were heavily relying on quarterbacks who were hurt at the end of last year. B.C.'s Travis Lulay, Saskatchewan's Darian Durant and Toronto's Ricky Ray all missed the end of last season with significant injuries that required surgery, while Edmonton's Mike Reilly played his team's final game with a broken bone in his foot. All of those players had suffered notable injuries in previous seasons, too, and all have battled major injuries this year (Durant and Lulay are likely gone for the season, while Ray hasn't played a game yet and is still working his way back and Reilly's just returned to the lineup after missing the first half of the season with a knee injury). They're all capable CFL quarterbacks, and CFL experience is so valuable and so hard to come by that it's hard to blame their teams for going with them, but that past record of injuries does perhaps account for some of why we've seen so many injury issues this year.

We've also seen plenty of QBs without notable recent injury pasts go down, though, including Collaros, Montreal's Jonathan Crompton, Winnipeg's Drew Willy and Saskatchewan's Kevin Glenn. Calgary (with Bo Levi Mitchell) and Ottawa (with Burris) are the only two teams that have had their top quarterback available for every game this year, and plenty of teams (Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Winnipeg, Montreal, and now B.C.) have utilized at least three different starters. Thus, this isn't solely about injury-prone quarterbacks.

So, what is behind this? Some might blame illegal hits, and there certainly have been plenty of those this year, with the league handing out regular fines. It's unclear if that level's above what we typically see, though, and it's also unclear if those illegal hits have been the ones leading to injuries. Perhaps a more interesting argument is one Cam Cole of The Vancouver Sun advanced a few weeks ago, wondering if the NFL's recent trend of grabbing top-tier Canadian offensive linemen has left CFL teams with less-stellar players that aren't up to the task of blocking pass rushers:

Neither of those comments really seems to hold up under further examination, though. Who's to say that "some kid from Queen's" (disclosure: I went there) isn't better than a NFL cut from Florida State? One current Canadian offensive lineman who played at Queen's is the Eskimos' Matt O'Donnell, who recently returned from a NFL stint and beat out plenty of products of big American schools while there; he's one of the better linemen in this league regardless of nationality. Conversely, look at the NFL's Kansas City Chiefs, where McGill product Laurent Duvernay-Tardif has been starting on the line recently and former #1 overall pick Eric Fisher hasn't been. Fisher plays tackle, while Duvernay-Tardif has been put at guard, so it's not a direct comparison, but school and/or draft pedigree isn't everything. The NFL's known that for a while, too; consider the 1986 draft, where Mike Schad (another "kid from Queen's" playing offensive line) was taken in the first round, 23rd overall and well ahead of offensive linemen from Texas A&M, Oklahoma State, UCLA and other big U.S. schools. The amount of top Canadian offensive linemen selected by the NFL has been on the rise recently, so the argument that some of the best Canadians aren't playing in the CFL may hold some validity, but it's not about the schools they come from. Moreover, the calibre of CIS instruction, assistant coaching, and weight training has all shot up over the years, so even if the CFL's not pulling all the top CIS guys (and some of the top ones, like O'Donnell, wind up in the CFL in a few years), they're getting CIS players arguably more prepared for the CFL than would have been the case decades ago.

Buono's comment that "the defence is winning" also doesn't seem accurate, at least compared to last year. Through 12 weeks last season, there were 271 sacks. Through 12 weeks this year, there have been 255. So, offensive lines would seem to be doing a better overall job of protecting quarterbacks. That doesn't always lead to health (B.C.'s allowed a league-low 16 sacks and is still on its third QB), but it does suggest that this idea that the OL-DL battle is stacked in favour of the DL isn't quite accurate. On average, teams have allowed 2.7 sacks per game this season, which doesn't seem too horrible.

So, maybe there isn't a real rhyme or reason to the amount of quarterback injuries so far. That doesn't mean the CFL can't do anything about it, though, and the rising trend over the last several years suggests they should do something about it. At the very least, the league should be examining how quarterbacks have gotten hurt this year and seeing if perhaps the current quarterback safety rules need to be evaluated further. Maybe general managers also need to focus more on protecting their quarterbacks with strong offensive lines, and perhaps offensive coaches need to draw up more plays that get the ball out quickly and don't expose the QB to as much risk. There's no one clear answer, but there are a variety of approaches that could be explored, and they should be; the numbers of QBs hurt this year is incredibly concerning for the CFL, and it's something that should be taken very seriously.