For the second time in 16 days, the Saskatchewan Roughriders have worked out a deal that involves quarterback Zach Collaros.
On Friday, the Roughriders announced they had signed Collaros to a new contract for the 2018 CFL season. That move was first predicted Jan. 3, when the Roughriders revealed they had sent a second-round pick (10th overall) in the 2018 draft to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for Collaros.
While announcing the trade on Jan. 3, Jeremy O’Day — Saskatchewan’s assistant vice-president of football operations and administration — said the team and Collaros’ agent had started discussing a new deal. Two days later, Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones echoed those words.
“After we got our agreement done (with the Tiger-Cats), we had conversations with (Collaros’) agent and I feel confident that we’re going to get something that’s very pliable to both sides,” Jones said while discussing the trade. “We’ll get him to where we can manage our cap, basically.”
When Collaros met with the Regina media on Jan. 9, he said the contract talks were between his agent and Jones. Collaros told reporters that he hadn’t asked any questions about the deal but was confident things would be worked out.
“It seems like everything is going well,” he said.
The announcement Friday confirmed that.
Under the terms of his previous contract, Collaros reportedly was to receive a salary in excess of $500,000 in 2018. Terms of the new contract weren’t released, but there’s little doubt that the Roughriders will pay Collaros a lower stipend than that.
The 29-year-old product of the University of Cincinnati is a veteran of six CFL seasons. After spending his first two campaigns as a backup with the Toronto Argonauts, Collaros signed with Hamilton as a free agent in January of 2014.
Over his four seasons in Hamilton, Collaros started 43 games and completed 930 of 1,396 pass attempts for 11,342 yards with 66 touchdowns and 32 interceptions. He also started two playoff games and the 2014 Grey Cup contest and was Hamilton’s nominee for the award as the CFL’s most outstanding player in both 2014 and ’15.
The 6-foot-0, 219-pound product of Steubenville, Ohio, dealt with a variety of injuries during his time in Hamilton, including a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee in September of 2015 that derailed an MOP-calibre season. That injury forced him to miss the rest of that season and nearly half of the 2016 campaign as well.
In 2017, Collaros lost his starting job to Jeremiah Masoli after the Tiger-Cats got off to an 0-8-0 start. Masoli led Hamilton to a 6-4-0 record the rest of the way and Collaros subsequently was deemed expendable.
Jones has a history with Collaros — the Roughriders’ head coach was on the Argos’ staff when the quarterback broke into the league with Toronto — so it wasn’t a surprise that Saskatchewan made the move to acquire Collaros from Hamilton.
Kevin Glenn and Brandon Bridge shared the Roughriders’ quarterbacking duties in 2017 and combined to throw a league-high 35 touchdown passes. But the acquisition of Collaros prompted Saskatchewan to release Glenn on Jan. 4; he since has signed with the Edmonton Eskimos.
Despite Collaros’ time as a starter in Hamilton, he hasn’t been guaranteed the No. 1 spot in Saskatchewan.
He’ll compete with Bridge — who also signed a new contract with the Roughriders this off-season — and three younger quarterbacks (Vernon Adams Jr., Marquise Williams and David Watford) for the starting job.
