Taylor Elgersma’s signing in the Canadian Football League this week may have been inevitable.

It just took a lot longer than most would have imagined, after the Winnipeg Blue Bombers selected him with the 18th pick in last spring’s CFL Draft.

The dynamics of this story are absolutely unique.

For years there’s been a perception – not necessarily a reality – that the best homegrown quarterbacks would never get a chance to compete for the game’s most important position in the CFL – especially those stepping straight out of Canadian university football.

Whether it’s been a lack of talent or a lack of opportunity, there hasn’t been a single quarterback from a Canadian school hold down a franchise quarterback role in the CFL since Russ Jackson retired in 1969.

While the 6-foot-5 former Wilfred Laurier pivot was intriguing to CFL teams, Elgersma considered himself good enough to test the National Football League, declining an invitation to the CFL Combine last March and then signing a free-agent contract in April with the Green Bay Packers.

All of which seemed to rub some people in and around the CFL in the wrong way, a feeling that only grew stronger when he opted to play in the United Football League this winter rather than sign in Winnipeg, and only turned to the CFL when his work visa was denied this week.

The UFL isn’t a destination until itself. It’s a development league, specifically designed to help players accumulate game film to attract the NFL – the very thing that Elgersma lacks.

That said, he spent much of his introductory Zoom call with Winnipeg media trying to defeat the notion that the CFL for him is a last resort.

“It was time for me to come home and start this journey here,” he said.

It’s hard to knock Elgersma for wanting to exhaust every opportunity for another shot at the NFL, especially since he didn’t look out of place during last summer’s three pre-season games where he clearly outplayed Green Bay’s incumbent No. 3 Sean Clifford.

What that episode demonstrated is that landing a quarterback job in the NFL from a U Sports background may be all but impossible because the one thing NFL teams cherish more than anything in a backup is experience.

From the perspective of a head coach or general manager, it would have been a highly, highly risky move for the Packers to make Elgersma the No. 3.

Green Bay was considered a Super Bowl contender last season, in part because of the ascending play of quarterback Jordan Love. But in football, every team is one hit away from being without its starter for any length of time.

And in a scenario where the Packers keep Elgersma and Love suffered an injury, they’d be suddenly one hit away from playing a guy who was a Golden Hawk one year earlier, playing a different game in another country.

No general manager is ever going put his team in that position.

So, while Clifford played his way out of the No. 3 job, the Packers also cut Elgersma and opted to sign free agent Clayton Tune, a player with two years of experience as a backup in Arizona.

“Some teams want to lean towards a No. 3 that has more experience,” said Elgersma, “I know that a reason could have been choosing to have an experienced No. 3 over an inexperienced No. 3.”

So now comes the matter of what to expect of Elgersma in the CFL. He’s a Blue Bomber, and going to be competing for the No. 2 job behind Zach Collaros in a few weeks’ time.

While Elgersma has been tagged the heir to Collaros by some observers, history tells us that nothing should be assumed.

Elgersma has the size, the arm talent and the experience in three-down football to make it in the CFL.

And by his own evaluation, his NFL detour has helped make him a better quarterback than he was coming straight out of school.

Now he has what Canadian quarterbacks have always craved: an opportunity.

The rest is up to him.