Ottawa Redblacks name McLeod Bethel-Thompson starting QB against Calgary Stampeders

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The Ottawa Redblacks have named McLeod Bethel-Thompson as their starting quarterback this week.

“He deserves his opportunity,” general manager and head coach Ryan Dinwiddie told the media on Tuesday. “He’s been sitting here being patient. Trying to find some answers.”

The 38-year-old came on in relief of Jake Maier in last week’s 26-23 loss to the Toronto Argonauts. He completed 16-of-23 pass attempts for 192 yards and one touchdown.

“Sitting here at 0-12, I know the quarterback shoulders a lot of the blame outside of our building. I feel like we needed a new change. Jake’s had some opportunities, I still believe in Jake, I feel like he was the right guy for us. But at this stage, we gotta try some things. I thought Mac had a good game last week when he came in. It was a good spark for the locker room,” Dinwiddie said.

The native of San Francisco, Calif. signed with Ottawa in June after Dru Brown was traded to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.

“We’re trying to get a win. That’s one of the reasons we made the change to Mac. We can’t treat them all like preseason games and letting everybody play, we’re going out there to win some games,” Dinwiddie said.

Last year, Bethel-Thompson started eight regular-season games for the Montreal Alouettes. He completed 63.8 percent of his passes for 1,746 yards, nine touchdowns, and nine interceptions, rushed 11 times for 62 yards, and went 3-5 as a starter.

“It’s the time to find a way to get a win,” Bethel-Thompson told the media. “Every week we feel like it’s going to come. We should’ve gotten two or three or four or five or six already. Of course we feel like the dam is going to break. We have to show up with hope, otherwise what are we doing? Yes, we do feel we should have got it last week, we should have got it a couple weeks before that.”

The six-foot-three, 230-pound passer has played 114 regular-season CFL games with the Toronto Argonauts, Edmonton Elks, Alouettes, and Redblacks, completing 66.7 percent of his passes for 19,050 yards, 104 touchdowns, and 70 interceptions.

Bethel-Thompson has won two Grey Cups, including one as a starter in 2022, the same year he led the league in passing yards.

Maier started each of Ottawa’s 12 regular-season games to start this year. He completed 68.6 percent of his passes for 3,139 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions.

The Redblacks (0-12) visit the Calgary Stampeders (5-8) at McMahon Stadium on Saturday, September 19 with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT. Last week, Ottawa suffered a narrow loss to the Toronto Argonauts, while the Stampeders got blown out by the Edmonton Elks.

The game will be broadcast on TSN in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on TSN 1200 in Ottawa or 770 CHQR in Calgary.