Edmonton Elks Mailbag: Quarterback Future and Playoff Hopes
Each week, we check in with our readers on social media and e-mail to see what's on top of their mind, explore the hot topics of conversation and answer hard-hitting questions about the Edmonton Elks. Here are some of the talking points from the past week.
If I'm the Elks, I like what I saw today, especially from their second-string players. Cody Fajardo didn't play much and was average, but Taylor Powell showed why multiple teams wanted him. He had a very strong game.
Edmonton didn't play their first-team players much, but they achieved what they were looking for against B.C.'s third-stringers. The Elks got their preseason schedule underway with a 34-16 win on Vancouver Island.
With Cody Fajardo entering training camp as QB1 this year, all eyes were on the new backup general manager Ed Hervey brought over from his time with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The 27-year-old Eastern Michigan product Taylor Powell completed 13 of 14 passes for 160 yards and a touchdown, while his lone mistake ended up getting intercepted.
You might remember the name from a game on Aug. 17, 2024, when the Elks sent Powell to the hospital for concussion imaging. That effectively cleared the way for Bo Levi Mitchell to put together a comeback season. Prior to that, Powell was lining up to be the Ticats quarterback of the future, which is exactly why Hervey lured him to Edmonton. Finding a true franchise QB has proven elusive since the departure of Michael Reilly in 2019.
I've seen enough; the Elks are going back to the playoffs. I have to agree, fully realizing the humour involved in uttering this phrase during a preseason-opening tilt against a Nathan Rourke-less Lions squad. But the statement stands. You could have uttered this on Day 1 of training camp, when we saw the manifestation of a roster featuring many returning players, something the CFL hasn't seen since GMs banded together to allow one-year contracts.
What has followed has been a field full of mercenaries year over year, with players in it for themselves to put up big numbers for their next contract. No longer are they playing for their city, which doesn't exactly have fans turning up to buy jerseys of players who might not be there in 52 weeks. But what we're seeing in Edmonton is a not-so-subtle shift back to the days of yore, where the core of a roster was built and sustained, and young up-and-comers were developed in-house.
This flies against the league-wide trend, but if the first couple of off-seasons under new ownership are any indication, the Elks may just begin building a new blueprint. One that looks a lot like an old EE blueprint.
