Intangibles more important than drops in assessing Elks’ Austin Mack: Cody Fajardo

Photo: Edmonton Elks

Austin Mack is battling a bad case of butterfingers, but that won’t stop his quarterback from buttering him up with compliments.

The 28-year-old receiver currently leads the CFL in dropped passes with four, according to analytics firm ProFootballFocus. Two of those came in Week 4 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, including one on the game-winning drive. However, Cody Fajardo isn’t worried about his top target.

“I’ve got the most respect and faith in Austin Mack. It’s part of the reason why he’s here, and why I called him so much in the offseason, because I know when the lights shine brightest, he shows up,” Fajardo told reporters this week. “He did it for us on that drive. He caught a few balls, and yes, there were a few questionable ones, but he still was always in the right spot at the right time.”

Mack was acquired by the Edmonton Elks this offseason following his unceremonious release by Montreal. The move reunited him with Fajardo, with whom he had enjoyed the most productive season of his career in 2023. The pair combined 78 times for 1,154 yards and four touchdowns that year, propelling the Alouettes to a Grey Cup title.

Thus far, the connection has been fruitful in Edmonton, though not overwhelmingly so. Mack leads the Elks with two receiving touchdowns and is tied for second with 12 receptions through three games, but sits fourth in receiving yards with 132. The five-catch, 58-yard outing against Winnipeg marked his most productive game yet, even if the pair of drops placed him under a microscope.

Fajardo believes those uncharacteristic errors weren’t indicative of Mack’s ability, but rather the byproduct of a second-half stallout by the Edmonton offence as a whole.

“I think game flow dictates a lot. For receivers, if you don’t touch a ball for a quarter or two quarters, you just kind of fall out of rhythm. A lot like a quarterback, where you feel like you haven’t completed a ball down the field in two series or three series, you just fall a little bit out of rhythm. I think that was it,” he explained.

“He caught a lot of balls early on; he was in great rhythm in the first half, and then obviously our second-half blunder just kind of set our whole receiving corps back a little bit, because nobody was really touching the ball, and then we had a few drops that got us off the field. It’s just a rhythm thing, and it’s something that I can be better with, maybe throwing balls to the guys on the sideline, just to get them that physical touch when you haven’t felt like you touched the ball in like 30 minutes.”

It was rookie receiver T.J. Luther who ultimately played hero, catching an eight-yard touchdown pass from Fajardo with 56 seconds remaining to put Edmonton back in front and secure the victory. However, in Fajardo’s opinion, that play would not have been possible without Mack’s presence.

“I think what Austin Mack does for this receiving room is more so not what he does on the field, catching the ball, scoring touchdowns; it’s what he does with those guys in the room, talking to them, talking to them about being a veteran, sideline demeanour,” he said.

“When things aren’t going our way, he’s not losing his mind. He’s calm, cool, and collected. The young guys see that, and they’re like, ‘Well, there’s our WR1 who’s not freaking out. Why should I be freaking out?’ There’s a lot of things that he did in that game that didn’t affect us boxscore-wise, but made us the reason why we won that football game.”

The Edmonton Elks (3-0) will visit the B.C. Lions (0-3) at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna on Saturday, July 4, with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT. The Elks are coming off a 23-18 come-from-behind win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, while the Lions lost the first of two games in the Okanagan against the Calgary Stampeders.

The weather forecast in Kelowna calls for a high of 26 degrees and a mix of sun and cloud. The game will be broadcast on TSN in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on 880 CHED in Edmonton or 730 CKNW (English) or Sher-E-Punjab Radio AM 600 (Punjabi) in B.C.