BRADENTON, Fla. — Zach Collaros was sure of two things after his first workout with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Tuesday.
Asked if he, in his mind, is the Roughriders’ No. 1 quarterback, Collaros replied: “Of course.”
And asked if he thought there’s anything about his game that has to change in order for him to recapture his old form, Collaros replied: “Uh … no.”
It’s apparent, then, that the 29-year-old product of Steubenville, Ohio, is ready to stake his claim to the starting QB job with the CFL’s Roughriders. And he’s sure he can recapture the magic that had him in MOP conversations before injuries slowed him down.
Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones reiterated again that the No. 1 job is up for grabs — “Every position is going to be challenged and that’s the way that you create a great team,” he said — so Collaros will have to fend off Brandon Bridge, Marquise Williams and David Watford to lay claim to the starting job.
For Collaros, the secret to winning that job is simple.
“The offence here — and a lot of teams run the same thing — is pretty straightforward,” he said after the Roughriders opened their mini-camp at IMG Academy. “It’s pretty rigid at times, so it’s about doing what I’m asked, making sure my feet are right and my eyes are where they’re supposed to be …
“(It’s about) getting the ball out of my hands to the guys who get paid to make plays. If I can do that and do it well, that’s really all I can do.”
Collaros began his CFL career with the Toronto Argonauts in 2012, when Jones was the Argos’ defensive co-ordinator and current Roughriders offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo was Toronto’s offensive line coach.
That familiarity with McAdoo’s favoured offence has provided Collaros with a level of comfort as he begins his first season in Saskatchewan.
The 6-foot-0, 219-pound pivot played the 2013 season with the Argos before joining the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2014. He threw for 3,261 yards in 13 games that season, but his campaign was interrupted by a stint on the six-game injured list.
Collaros got off to a spectacular start in 2015, throwing for 3,376 yards with 25 touchdowns in Hamilton’s first 12 regular-season games. But he suffered a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee that September — and the injury derailed an MOP-calibre season.
Collaros returned for the seventh game of the Tiger-Cats’ 2016 season and passed for 2,398 yards and 18 TDs in 10 games. But in 2017, he lost his starting job to Jeremiah Masoli after Hamilton got off to an 0-8-0 start.
On Jan. 3, the Roughriders sent a second-round pick (10th overall) to Hamilton in exchange for Collaros. Saskatchewan subsequently released Kevin Glenn, who started 17 games in 2017, and added Collaros to the Bridge-Williams-Watford stable.
All four want to be No. 1, so the battle is on.
“Only one quarterback can play, so you approach it the same way you’ve been approaching it since you were a kid,” Collaros said. “Like Coach Jones says, it’s about competition. It’s about going out there and competing and trying to get the best out of yourself.”
Collaros was arguably the best quarterback in the CFL in 2015, but he hasn’t achieved that level of success since. He remains confident he can get back to that spot — and the Roughriders’ first-year quarterbacks coach believes so, too.
While Collaros didn’t think anything about his game had to change, Steve Walsh thinks some tweaking may by required.
“When (the Roughriders) hired me, I evaluated all of his throws from last year off the film and made a note,” Walsh said. “Some of it is fundamental, some of it is scheme.
“Like a lot of things, it’s just confidence as a quarterback. If you’re confident and the team is confident around you, good things seem to happen. He has showed me no signs that he’s not going to come in here and be a very confident quarterback.”
In Walsh’s mind, his pupil needs to focus on his lower body.
“Everything with a quarterback starts below their hips,” Walsh said. “A lot of times for him, he’ll drop his elbow a little bit, his arm slot will change a little bit and a lot of times that’s because his footwork is off.
“But I do know this about Zach: He’s an extremely hard worker, he pays attention to details and details are important to him, so wherever he can improve, he will improve.”
Collaros was impressive in Tuesday’s workout, especially while putting several long throws right on the money for his receivers. The veteran QB wants to keep working on his grasp of the offence for Wednesday’s final mini-camp workout as he continues preparing for training camp in Saskatoon.
“I felt good physically (on Tuesday),” Collaros said. “Mentally, I’ve been in a similar offence before so it’s all coming back to me. I’m in a good place.”
