Breaking Down the Zach Collaros Trade

Breaking Down the Zach Collaros Trade

Published: Wednesday, Jan 3rd 2018, 9:01pm

By Greg McCulloch (@GregOnSports)

As predicted by our own Steve, Zach Collaros is a Saskatchewan Roughrider. Another major CFL Quarterback domino fell after the Riders acquired the CFL’s highest paid QB in a trade with Hamilton but what does this mean going forward.

What does this mean for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats?

Every CFL pundit and fan that was paying attention knew Collaros’ time in the Hammer was coming to an inevitable end. Collaros was highest paid QB in the league last year and yet lost the starting job to Jeremiah Masoli. With Masoli looking for a new contract or test free agency and the Ticats kicking the tires on Johnny Manziel, Collaros was the most expendable.

Sure, it was possible that the Ticats could have gotten Collaros to restructure his deal that would have allowed all 3 QBs to coexist. However, this would be a giant headache for Head Coach June Jones because no matter who he had behind centre, there would be a group wondering why one of the other 2 wasn’t playing.

Getting Collaros off the books now opens money that was earmarked for a bonus on Feb 1^st, they can give to Masoli and/or sign Manziel before his signing period expires. It also gets the Ticats something back in return for a player they were probably going to have to cut due to his salary.

The 10^th overall pick the Ticats picked is essentially another first-round selection and gives them 4 in the first 2 rounds. This allows them to either build up their depth or they can swap some of those picks so some assets that can help them in the immediate future in the weak East.

What does this mean for the Saskatchewan Roughriders?

Long story short, if Collaros sticks around the QB competition just got really stiff in Saskatchewan.

As of right now, the Riders have the following in QB talent under contract:

Kevin Glenn, Brandon Bridge, Vernon Adams, Zach Collaros, David Watford, and Marquise Williams.

And this is before free agency and mini-camps. There still may be a lot of moving parts in the next few months.

With this trade, Chris Jones has allowed the team to have a month of exclusive talks with Collaros and his agent to renegotiate his contract.  If they can get Collaros on a deal friendlier to the team and the cap, this is a trade that could cement the Riders at the QB position for years to come.

While they could have waited for the Ticats to cut him however they then would have to compete with everyone else in the league that was looking to bolster their QB corps. Similar to the reasons why Montreal traded that 2017 4^th round pick and the 2018 2^nd round pick to the Riders for Darian Durant.

Speaking of that Durant trade, those picks have become OL Eddie Meredith and Zach Collaros. Now that the emotion has worn off I think most Rider fans will look at that trade and are ok with it.

What does this mean for the rest of the CFL?

Toronto still doesn’t have any their top 3 QBs signed for next season yet, and the closer we get to free agency they will have to try to pull the trigger on some combination of James Franklin, Ricky Ray, and Cody Fajardo.

Montreal is most likely looking for an upgrade or at least competition at QB with new Head Coach Mike Sherman refusing to commit to Darian Durant.

Edmonton needs a new number 2 since they traded Franklin to Toronto, do CFL fans get what they have been hoping for and Kevin Glenn somehow ends up in Green and Gold to complete the whole CFL jersey set?

Either way, 2018 is only 3 days old and the CFL is already heating up.

Is it May yet?