Early indications are the money spent by the Calgary Stampeders and B.C. Lions on their quarterbacks aren’t giving them quite the return they had hoped.
The Stamps and Lions changed the pay structure of quarterbacks, with annual raises of more than $200,000 to Bo Levi Mitchell and Mike Reilly.
But in the salary-cap era, that money has to come from somewhere, and you saw several talented players leave both places to make room.
Depth wins, and the Lions and Stamps are struggling in that regard, especially Calgary, which has lost a handful of offensive linemen, and now their marquee quarterback.
The Stamps were nearly 0-2, but they gritted out a win over the Lions, who now are 0-3.
The biggest problem for these two teams is they took a gamble that there could be a bump in the salary cap. Nope. A little blip, but not nearly enough to give them much wiggle room.
I said it’s early, and of course things can turn around in this crazy league, but as injuries pile up — and surely they will — I’m curious to see if either team can get by.
And even more interesting is next year, when the minimum salary rises and squeezes them even more.