Collaros to play ‘a bunch’ against the Esks, Bridge ‘a bit’

Even with Zach Collaros back in the picture, Roughriders head coach Chris Jones doesn’t seem to want to commit to a starting quarterback.

Or at least to admit it publicly.

Collaros returned to Roughriders practice on Monday after being removed from the six-game injured list two games earlier than expected. Collaros suffered a concussion in the game against the Ottawa Redblacks in week two, but the quarterback admitted that the concussion was likely compounded from a preseason injury he hid from the team.

“In a new setting, a new situation as the new guy, I just wanted to be out there with my teammates and probably pushed it a little bit too much and paid for it there,” Collaros explained when asked why he decided to hide it.

Jones seemed to understand the explanation.

“These guys – they’re kids. They’re young men and certainly we don’t ever want any of players to do that because quite honestly, the game is important, it’s my job, it’s my livelihood, but at the same time these guys are people (too) … so we’ve warned all our guys against doing that,” the head coach said.

Collaros said he had started to feel better in the last couple weeks and in the days leading up to Monday, he got the impression that he was going to be activated.

How much play time he’ll see is still a bit of a question mark, however.

Jones said Collaros “is certainly going to play a bunch” when asked by reporters Tuesday, but also mentioned Brandon Bridge was likely to see time.

“I know for sure Zach Collaros will play and Brandon Bridge I’d say will probably play a bit too,” Jones said.

Bridge saw significant time in Collaros’ absence with mixed success. The Riders did win back-to-back games against Hamilton but dropped games against Calgary and Montreal.

All told, the Roughriders are currently three and three and headed into a tough matchup against the Edmonton Eskimos on Thursday night.

With Collaros back in the fold, Jones hopes he can find some of his old magic.

“He’s been a guy that plays a lot of football so hopefully he can come back and rekindle that,” Jones said.