The common belief inside the football locker room at TD Place is that the Ottawa Redblacks’ failures this season had more to do with the quarterbacking than the coaching.
Not that Dustin Crum didn’t perform admirably — the players have plenty of respect and love for the gutsy backup signal caller — but that starter Dru Brown was unable to live up to his end of the deal because of injuries.
Brown, who started and finished less than half of the Canadian Football League team’s 18 games, admitted on Saturday that he wasn’t always at 100 per cent even when he was on the field.
“If I choose to play, I feel like I can help us win,” he said. “But, unfortunately, at times, I was limited. That’s my decision, and I take responsibility for my performance when (I’m) not healthy because (of) that decision.
“It’s something that’s kind of new to me personally,” he added of having to deal with injuries. “So I just try to navigate that, I try to talk to people who kind of have been through that. It’s very frustrating, obviously, just like everything was at times this year. But you grow through it. Unfortunately, there are going to be years like this that you have to endure and try to take a step back and have some perspective and learn from it.”
For their part, the Redblacks have to decide whether they’ll continue to move forward with Brown, who has one year left on his deal.
“We’ve got to get him healthy, and we need to have a quarterback on the field for more games in the season,” general manager Shawn Burke said Saturday. “Eight out of 18, it just isn’t enough games for a starting quarterback. And that’s that’s not a Dru thing. That’s an organizational thing. We have to look at how we do things and what we do, through practice, through media or through medical, and through the off-season. So we’ll do that.”
Brown admitted the injuries were on his mind even when he was playing, and that distraction hindered his performance.
“Football is a lot of reactionary, impulse movement,” he began. “So I think, if someone told you that it doesn’t bother them, they’re full of s—. That’s just the reality. But, like I said, I made those decisions, and I’ll take responsibility for my performance when I said I was good enough to go. But we’re human beings, so, anytime something’s wrong, there are things that in that moment, you realize probably you can’t do to the best of your ability. That’s just part of playing the game.”
Redblacks quarterback Dru Brown throws a pass in the first half of a CFL game against the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Ottawa on Oct. 3.
Asked if, because he’s dealt with so many injuries over his two years as a starting QB, he’s questioned whether he’s durable enough to play the position in the CFL, the 5-11, 200-pound Brown said:
“I wouldn’t say I question it. Do I think about it? Yeah, but I don’t question it. I’ll continue to turn over every stone to control what I can control, trying different things, whether that’s in the off-season or in season, to be able to withstand playing the position in this league. But I don’t question it.”
While seven-year veteran Marco Dubois pointed at punt coverage as one of the Redblacks’ downfalls this season, he also noted that the team was behind the eight-ball without Brown at his best.
“If you don’t have a healthy quarterback, it’s really hard to win games,” said Dubois, a mainstay on special teams and a part-time receiver. “I don’t see a team with a backup quarterback playing in the playoffs. The guy who touches the ball every time, he’s got to perform, he’s got to be healthy, and I think we had bad luck with that this year. I think Dru showed that he can do it. He did it last year. But we had to do it this year, and it didn’t happen.
“I feel bad for Dustin Crum sometimes because he’s such a passionate guy, such a tough guy. He wants to win all the time. But he never really had a training camp to get chemistry with his receivers and his whole offence. It’s really tough for a quarterback to perform in that context.”
Redblacks running back Anthony Gosselin says, “It wasn’t just the quarterback, but we had a lot on special teams, so it’s tough to make all those changes and be on the same page.”
Fullback Anthony Gosselin, who has been with the Redblacks since 2017, expressed remorse over Dyce losing his job before answering a question about what he thought was the main problem with the team.
“He was such a good mentor for me and a good coach … the best coach I ever had,” Gosselin said. “And it’s gonna be, like, weird to not be with Coach Dyce the next couple of years. So it’s challenging.
“It’s tough when your quarterback is not healthy. It’s tough to play with a backup quarterback for most of the season. It wasn’t just the quarterback, but we had a lot on special teams, so it’s tough to make all those changes and be on the same page.”
Dubois expressed shame about the team’s record and how bad he felt for the fans.
“It’s very frustrating because I’m not used to that … I come from a winning program at Laval University,” he said. “We play this game with such passion. We sacrifice so much, and the end goal is to win a Grey Cup. And, when every year you come up short, you don’t even make the playoffs, and you have poor performances … If you’re not ashamed to be 4-14, there’s a problem with you.
“It’s hard for me to shake hands with the fans right now and look them in the eyes because they give us their money, they come here, they come watch us play, and we give them poor performances like that. It’s very frustrating, very disappointing.”
Ottawa Redblacks general manager and players held the team’s end-of-season media availability at TD Place on Saturday, Oct. 25, 2025.
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