Ryan Dinwiddie: Dru Brown became ‘little bit of a distraction’ for Ottawa Redblacks

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

Ottawa Redblacks head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie blew up his team’s quarterback room on Tuesday, trading Dru Brown to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and signing free-agent veteran McLeod Bethel-Thompson.

On Wednesday, he explained why he made both moves, revealing that Brown requested to be released before the regular-season even got underway.

“When I made the decision to go with Jake (Maier as starting quarterback), I explained that to Dru. Later on that day, he wanted to talk. We had a chat and he asked for his release. Obviously, we’re not going to do that — we were investing money into him,” Dinwiddie told the media in Ottawa.

“We’d been looking at different avenues to how we were going to handle that solution. Winnipeg came up with an offer that we really liked, and I really liked to get McLeod in here, so we made that decision.”

The former CFL Coach of the Year initially praised Brown when he was hired in Ottawa, though he ultimately chose Maier to be the team’s starting quarterback. The decision was made after Maier threw for 155 yards and two touchdowns during the team’s first preseason game — a matchup for which Brown didn’t dress.

Dinwiddie felt he didn’t need to see Brown play in the preseason to make the call.

“There’s a lot of evaluation that comes in practice, and so we want to be able to push the ball down the field, and that’s one of the things that I think Jake gives that opportunity. McLeod does as well,” he said.

“The marriage (with Brown) didn’t work. We tried to make it work. He wasn’t happy with the (backup role). We tried to make it work and we got a good offer, and so we felt that was best for both parties.”

“It probably was a little bit of a distraction, just how (Brown) went about it, but I thought he did his best to support Jake. He wanted to go someplace else, so we gave him that opportunity to do that.”

When asked if arm strength is a factor in the ability to push the ball downfield, Dinwiddie indicated it is.

“A little bit of it has to do with arm strength, obviously, and some mechanics that lead into arm strength. You look at last year, there wasn’t a lot of opportunities to push the ball down the field,” he said.

“It was one thing that we wanted to get changed this year, so schematically, we put that in our play-action stuff. Now does the defence give us those looks? We’ve gotta be able to start running the football and be able to push the ball down the field.”

For what it’s worth, Maier has averaged 6.3 yards per attempt over his first two starts with the Redblacks, the lowest mark in the league. Last year, Brown averaged 8.7 yards per attempt.

Brown also has a significant higher career passer efficiency rating (102.7 to 92.7), winning percentage (.462 to .396), and yards-per-attempt (8.8 to 7.7) than Maier.

Maier indicated that he and Brown had many private conversations during their time together in Ottawa, describing them as healthy and candid.

“I love Dru, I wish Dru the best. I wish his family the best, I got to know his family pretty well in the last month or so,” said Maier.

“We’re going to be boys forever, so long as we’re both up here in this league and then even beyond that. I’m just happy for Dru that he gets to take the next step in his career, and I pray that him and his family have a very safe and efficient move, and everything goes well.”

Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea told the media on Wednesday that he has spoken to Brown since the trade was executed, saying the quarterback is “pretty excited” to be returning to Winnipeg.

Brown has not spoken publicly since the trade, as he remains in transit. He will not dress for Winnipeg’s game against the Edmonton Elks on Thursday night.

Bethel-Thompson struggled with the Montreal Alouettes last season and hasn’t taken a snap in six months. Despite that, Dinwiddie believes he’s in shape and will get up to speed quickly when he joins the team next week.

“I believe in him, I know he can get it done,” he said. “I think he’s still playing at a good level. Montreal’s a different system for him, I didn’t think he really fit that system — I think he’s more of a spread guy — so we’re looking to bring him in and he’ll be available if Jake goes down.”

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.