Alouettes QB Davis Alexander pulled from preseason for ‘precautionary’ reasons, still expected to start Week 1

Courtesy: James Paddle-Grant/CFL

Alouettes franchise quarterback Davis Alexander saw his first action of 2026 during Friday night’s preseason opener in Montreal. Unfortunately for him, it lasted only for 15 minutes before he exited the game with an apparent right knee injury suffered after getting clipped from behind.

On his last drive, Alexander was seen rubbing his knee. After getting to the sidelines, he removed his equipment and left for the hospital with the head doctor, Vincent Lacroix, to undergo more tests.

“I had never been tackled like that before. I was falling backwards, and my legs went up in the air. It was kind of doing a surprise leg press,” Alexander said post-game. “I felt a little weird, but we got X-Rays done, and I’m good to go.”

Despite the minor injury, Alexander is expected to be ready to start the Als’ regular-season opener in two weeks in Hamilton. Asked if he could still have played in this game, Alexander didn’t hesitate.

“I was just being precautionary. Right away, there was never a scare for me, but it was more of a scare for everybody,” he explained. “I saw RDS posted something on my way back. It was in French, so I couldn’t understand it all, but I saw my name and Doctor Lacroix’s name and said, ‘Oh, that’s not good.’”

Alexander’s first drives of the year weren’t convincing, as the offence struggled to get going. After a first-down pass to Tyson Philpot, he only completed two more throws, finishing with 17 yards total. Regardless, that’s the last we’ve seen of Alexander for the preseason.

“We were not planning to play him (next week in Ottawa), we will not play him,” Alouettes’ head coach Jason Maas told the media. “That will be the last you’ll see from him until Week 1.”

Asked about the steps that led Alexander to get X-rays, Maas said they only wanted to be precautionary. That fear likely stems from the fact that the quarterback dealt with a hamstring injury for all of last season, which limited him to eight regular-season starts and held him back in the team’s Grey Cup loss.

“Obviously, he goes down and starts limping a little bit; the worst scenarios get in your head,” Maas admitted. “I know he’ll play through things, but tonight was not the time for that. Once we knew he was ok, we took him out, and he’s perfectly fine. The plan wasn’t to play him much more than that anyway.”

The Alouettes will wrap up the preseason on Friday, May 29, in Ottawa. Final roster cuts are due on Saturday, May 30, after which the team will play its first regular-season game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Thursday, June 4.