When it comes to the defending CFL Grey Cup champions, the Toronto Argonauts, TSN SportsCage analyst Glen Suitor wonders how teams will fare against Nick Arbuckle, given that Chad Kelly is currently dealing with an injury.
"Nick Arbuckle showed us in the Grey Cup that he's more than capable," Suitor said to the SportsCage.
"But it's different; I think when a team has one week to get ready for a quarterback like Nick coming off the bench, they have one week to get ready for him. That was the Bomber situation in the Grey Cup week. But now teams will have a whole training camp."
Kelly was injured in the CFL East Final against the Montreal Alouettes last year on November 9, 2024.
Moving along, Suitor knows that the Alouettes defence will be fine but wonders about how their quarterback, Davis Alexander, will do.
"There's only two teams in the league that have the same OC and DC from last year. The Riders and Montreal Alouettes are the only teams, and the Alouettes are going to be great on defence again with Noel Thorpe. They give offence fits. I don't care how well you prepare for them.They're a tough defence, and they will be again," Suitor explained.
"The question for me in Montreal is still Davis Alexander. He's not new to their team. But because this is year four, he knows the system, he knows [Jason] Maas, and clearly, they didn't want to lose him.They said we can let Cody Fajardo go because we're not going to lose this young man. So they've put the chips in the middle with him, and there's a lot to like there, but he's played and attempted to pass in 10 of the possible 54 games in the last three years. A lot of those guys were like mop up or end of game garbage time."
Suitor pointed to a similar concern that he has with the Ottawa Redblacks that he said with the Alouettes.
"Look at the Ottawa Redblacks, and you see a developing Dru Brown who checked a big box.
He got his team to the playoffs in his first year as the full starter and the guy in charge with the keys to the car. They didn't win a playoff game. We won't know that till the end of the year this season, but he has to continue to improve and take another step," Suitor said.
"He's still a question mark to me, by the way, because he's still one of the youngest, and Davis Alexander in Montreal, still two of the youngest quarterbacks in the league that are sort of anointed starters."
The moves that the Redblacks made in the off-season have given Suitor hope for Brown's progression as a quarterback, and he knows that the Saskatchewan Roughriders might have trouble in week one of the CFL season.
"They added Eugene Lewis, and they added William Stanback. All of a sudden now, with a receiving core that they already had, and then you add those two names, the defence has got a challenge to face right there," Suitor details.
“Dru Brown can make all the throws in the CFL. So this is a quarterback that's going to come in with more confidence than last year with better and more weapons and the big play guy in Eugene Lewis for those jump balls. That's a big challenge for the Riders' defence."
According to Suitor, he knows the offence of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats will be fine but offers a hypothetical on how they can be even better.
"The balance of the run game, I'm not sure, but I think, was the eighth worst run game in the league last year," Suitor recalled.
"So if you even improve that by four steps in the rankings and get up to fourth, you now have Bo Levi Mitchell throwing for five thousand yards, and you have Kenny Lawler as a free agent signing in Hamilton, and if you can get a run game from Greg Bell, fifth in the league, that team could be something to deal with."
The question that Suitor raises for the Tiger-Cats will have to go with their defence when they hired Bret Munson in the off-season, who replaced Chris Jones.
They couldn't get pressure on the quarterback enough; that was their Achilles heel last year. And this is one you'll hear a lot in the regular season," Suitor said.
