QB swap: Ottawa Redblacks cut Max Duggan, sign Nicholas Vattiato

Photo: Gord Weber/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

The Ottawa Redblacks have released American quarterback Max Duggan, the team announced on Monday.

The 25-year-old joined the team on May 11, two days after his release from the Toronto Argonauts. He dressed for Ottawa’s first two regular-season games in a depth role, throwing two incompletions and rushing twice for minus-one yard.

The six-foot-one, 207-pound passer originally joined Toronto’s practice roster partway through the 2025 season. He dressed for three regular-season games near the end of the year, completing 13-of-17 pass attempts for 109 yards and one touchdown. He also rushed six times for 46 yards.

Duggan was a seventh-round pick in the 2023 NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Chargers. He spent one season with the team but didn’t take any regular-season snaps, spending most of his rookie year on the practice roster. He was released by the Chargers near the end of training camp in 2024.

The native of Council Bluffs, Ia. played collegiately at Texas Christian University, where he threw for 9,618 yards, 73 touchdowns, and 28 interceptions over 47 games. He went 25-18 as a starter and rushed for 1,856 yards and 28 scores. In 2022, he finished second behind Caleb Williams in voting for the Heisman Trophy.

Duggan played for the St. Louis Battlehawks of the UFL in 2025, completing 57.3 percent of his passes for 696 yards, four touchdowns, and four interceptions. He also ran for 300 yards and five scores, going 5-0 as a starter.

In a corresponding move, the Redblacks have signed American quarterback Nicholas Vattiato. He was the longest-tenured player on their negotiation list.

The six-foot, 210-pound passer completed 61.2 percent of his passes for 2,150 yards, 16 touchdowns, and seven interceptions over nine games at Middle Tennessee State University in 2025, his final collegiate season.

The native of Plantation, Fla. spent his entire collegiate career with the Blue Raiders, completing 64.7 percent of his pass attempts for 9,674 yards, 62 touchdowns, and 37 interceptions. He also rushed for 516 yards and five scores.

The Ottawa Redblacks (0-2) will visit the Montreal Alouettes (2-1) at Percival Molson Stadium on Sunday, June 28 with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT. The Redblacks lost 44-24 to the Toronto Argonauts last week, while the Alouettes lost to the Edmonton Elks in overtime.

The weather forecast calls for a high of 28 degrees with a mix of sun and cloud. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS in Canada, CBS Sports Network in the United States, and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on TSN 1200 in Ottawa or TSN 690 (English) or 99.5 Montreal (French) in Montreal.