Calgary Stampeders’ quarterback Jake Maier hasn’t lived up to the preseason expectations in his first year as a full-time starter, but head coach Dave Dickenson believes that his star is trending in the right direction.
“He’s improving, he really is. He’s making some good throws, he’s moving around well in the pocket, he’s got command of the huddle,” Dickenson told the Calgary media on Thursday. “He just needs to make sure that we reserve the right to punt if it’s not there.”
Maier is the CFL leader in passing yardage entering Week 9 with 1,928 and sits third with eight passing touchdowns. However, he also leads the league with a whopping 11 interceptions through seven games and boasts a disappointing 61.3 completion percentage. Only three starting quarterbacks this season have been less accurate — Taylor Cornelius (58.4), Bo Levi Mitchell (57.7), and Nick Arbuckle (55.4) — two of whom have already lost their starting jobs.
The 26-year-old has yet to play a turnover-free game and has often struggled with decision-making in critical moments. Three of the Stampeders’ five losses have come in one-score games, twice in overtime and once on a walk-off interception.
Despite the urgency required by their place in the standings, Dickenson says he is keeping with the laid-back approach he uses whenever a quarterback is attempting to do too much.
“I let them be themselves. I try to give them hints and let them play football and then give them an idea,” he explained. “If a situation comes up again, and you’ve given them hints, gone ‘Hey, this is what might be best on this situation,’ the players that are the best and are pros usually don’t make the same mistake twice.”
After posting his two best performances of the season in back-to-back games, Maier’s issues resurfaced in a seven-point loss to Montreal in Week 8. After gifting his opponent the margin of victory with a pick-six in the first half, the quarterback threw a bad cross-body interception into traffic while marching to tie the game late.
Even when handed another opportunity to even the score from the red zone in the dying seconds, Maier sent his pass sailing high of his endzone target on third down to end the game. The quarterback appeared to have space to run for a fresh set of downs before attempting the panicked pass and Dickenson hopes that in addition to protecting the football, he’ll make better use of his legs going forward.
“The other thing for me would be if it’s not clean and he feels like he’s broken the pocket, he has the right to run to get those four or five or six yards or more,” he said, warning it might not be possible this week against Toronto.
“Let’s see how they play us, they might actually come down and take him out of the game and over-blitz us, we’ll see. But it’s kind of one of those things where we have to be better.”
Maier has never been much of a scrambler, boasting just 36 carries for 123 yards in three seasons with the Stampeders. His production as a passer has been much better in the past, however.
In nine starts after taking over for long-time face of the franchise Bo Levi Mitchell in 2022, the UC Davis product completed 74.7 percent of his passes for 2,389 yards, 14 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. In two fewer appearances this season, he has already more than doubled his previous career total of giveaways. That will need to change for Calgary to claw back into the playoff race.
“The main thing is to take away that catastrophic play that seems to kind of bite us when we look back at the game,” Dickenson stressed.
The Stampeders (2-5) will host the Toronto Argonauts (6-0) on Friday, August 4 at 9:00 p.m. EDT.
