Zach Collaros addresses uncertain status for East Final, provides little clarity

Photo: Blair Takahashi/COACHTAK/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

The fog of war surrounding the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ quarterback situation remains so strong ahead of the East Final that Zach Collaros had to answer the first question about his status at Friday’s pre-game press conference with one of his own.

“Did he tell you?” the 37-year-old asked with surprise when the subject of him starting was raised.

Of course, his notoriously taciturn head coach Mike O’Shea had not shared any meaningful information on the subject, prompting a sigh of relief and a knowing grin from Collaros. Crisis averted. Everyone is still successfully in the dark.

“I think we’ll see how tomorrow goes, how the rest of the day goes,” he said, gesturing to his backup Dru Brown. “I know both of us, how hard we prepare, we’ll be ready whatever, however that goes.”

Collaros and Brown may have been seated side-by-side at the microphone upon their arrival in Montreal, but the latter was asked only slightly more questions than the chair beneath him. All the focus was on the face of Winnipeg’s franchise, hours after he had been listed as a game-time decision on the team’s depth chart — the latest twist in his rollercoaster injury narrative.

“I feel better, much better. Our training staff did a really great job. Not just (director of health and performance Alain Couture), but everybody that works in that room and the strength and conditioning staff,” Collaros said. “I feel good with where I’m at. Obviously, yesterday I didn’t go, but the day before, I was able to get up and move around.”

For anyone concerned about Collaros’ health, that’s good to hear. However, verifying his progress as fact isn’t possible. For the second straight week after suffering a reported rib injury in the regular-season finale, the veteran pivot was a limited participant only during Winnipeg’s closed practice session, meaning nobody outside the team actually saw it.

Once the media was allowed in on Thursday, Collaros was back in street clothes, though he claims no setback occurred.

“A maintenance kind of thing,” he said when asked why he didn’t participate. “I thought the day before went well, and I felt good enough. The way that we practiced yesterday was a little bit different, and didn’t feel like I needed to go.”

Understandably, the opacity with which Collaros’ injury has been handled has led to accusations of gamesmanship. Could the Bombers, who are 8.5-point underdogs on Saturday, be looking to gain a competitive advantage by intentionally casting doubt about their starter until the last possible moment?

O’Shea remains adamant that is not the case, suggesting that no edge could possibly be earned from deception or misdirection. He just won’t tell you who his starter will be, or even what criteria Collaros will have to meet pre-game in order to play.

“I don’t know. That’s a decision that’s made with the player and with Al. I have an eye to it, but if they say they’re good, they’re good,” he insisted.

“This is the way we’ve operated for a long time is you give a veteran player, especially of that calibre, every opportunity to play until he says he can’t.”

Whatever the criteria is, Collaros didn’t meet it last week. After a similarly opaque string of practices and press conferences from the Blue and Gold, they didn’t dress their star signal-caller in the East Semi-Final and let Brown have the keys. The backup delivered with an upset victory over the Toronto Argonauts.

Collaros declined to provide any additional information about his injury, the extent of his limitations, or if he believed he should have played a week ago.

“I always feel like I can go, but we went another way,” he said simply.

“It’s tough anytime you miss a game. You play this game for these moments in the playoffs. It was certainly tough to sit back and watch, but it was fun watching him. Dru’s resiliency throughout that game, what he was able to accomplish there for our team, and what the whole team collectively did.”

If O’Shea is to be believed, then it will be up to Collaros to determine whether he is healthy enough to suit up against the Alouettes. However, for all the ambiguity around his status, the future Hall of Fame QB was quite clear about how he’d respond if asked if he can play.

“Nobody in this game is 100 percent at this point in the season. Obviously, I would love to be out there. If they give me the opportunity to ask me, I’m sure I’d say I’m ready to go no matter how I feel,” he said.

“It would mean a lot for sure to be out there again. You put all this time in the offseason, during the season. It’s kind of all that’s on your mind all the time, outside of family. To be able to go out there with the guys you did training camp with, and went through all the adversity with during the year would mean a lot, for sure.”

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (10-9) will visit the Montreal Alouettes (14-4) for the East Final at Percival Molson Memorial Stadium on Saturday, November 7, with kickoff scheduled for 3:00 p.m. ET. The teams met twice during the regular season, with both teams winning at home.

The game will be broadcast on TSN, CTV, and RDS in Canada and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on 680 CJOB in Winnipeg and TSN 690 (English) or 99.5 Montreal (French) in Montreal.