{"id":523241,"date":"2026-03-08T21:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-08T21:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/523241\/"},"modified":"2026-03-08T21:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-08T21:09:10","slug":"jason-maas-believes-backup-qb-status-symbiotic-for-dustin-crum-montreal-alouettes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/523241\/","title":{"rendered":"Jason Maas believes backup QB status symbiotic for Dustin Crum, Montreal Alouettes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Andrew Mahon\/CFL.ca<\/p>\n

There will be no quarterback competition in Montreal this season, but Alouettes head coach Jason Maas still believes that his organization has something to offer new backup Dustin Crum.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think every quarterback coming here understands\u00a0that you\u2019re going for other positions than number one. But the best part about Davis (Alexander), about Cody (Fajardo), about the starters I\u2019ve always been around is they don\u2019t\u00a0ever believe that. They always go in saying I\u2019ve gotta compete too, and no matter what,\u00a0nothing\u2019s gonna be given to me. That\u2019s the type of guys we have in our room,\u201d Maas told the Montreal media this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think\u00a0it\u2019s still a great opportunity for anybody to come in here and play for an organization\u00a0that I believe is up there at the top with everybody culturally \u2014 how we do things, how\u00a0we handle our players, the progressions of what we teach. You\u2019re gonna get something\u00a0out of being here, and you\u2019re gonna add value to it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Crum signed with the Alouettes in CFL free agency<\/a>, inking a one-year deal worth $140,000 in hard money. He arrives with the understanding that the team already has a franchise quarterback in budding star Davis Alexander, who helped propel the team to a Grey Cup berth last season.<\/p>\n

However, few organizations understand better than Montreal the importance of a quality insurance policy. In his first season as the anointed starter, Alexander was forced to miss 10 games due to a nagging hamstring injury<\/a>. McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Caleb Evans, and James Morgan were all forced into action at different spots and struggled to varying degrees, but did enough to keep the team afloat.<\/p>\n

None of that trio is returning in 2026, leaving Crum as the lone experienced backup if disaster should strike again.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe supportiveness and being there for the next guy is what our quarterback room is\u00a0really all about,\u201d Maas said. \u201cThey have to understand, and Dustin, I think, gets this, that we\u2019ve won\u00a0with our backup quarterbacks the last couple of years. That\u2019s one of the reasons we\u2019ve\u00a0stayed competitive when our starters have gone down, is because of how prepared that\u00a0guy is, the next guy is, the next man up. You need that in our league.\u201d<\/p>\n

Crum has spent the past three seasons in Ottawa, where he was immediately thrust into action as a rookie in 2023. The Grafton, Ohio, native made 14 starts that season for the Redblacks, winning three of them while throwing for 3,109 yards, 10 touchdowns, and 12 interceptions. He also rushed 97 times for 741 yards and nine scores.<\/p>\n

After being used primarily as a short-yardage option in 2024, the 27-year-old was called upon to grab the wheel once again in 2025. He made six starts in place of an injured Dru Brown and won two of them, completing 70.9 percent of his passes for 1,771 yards, six touchdowns, and two interceptions. The Kent State product also ran 78 times for 429 yards and 11 touchdowns.<\/p>\n

A former backup himself, Maas believes Crum has the requisite intangibles to thrive while playing second fiddle.<\/p>\n

\u201cCompetitiveness, I can say that. When I watched Dustin play over the last couple\u00a0of years in Ottawa, that guy competes on every single play. That\u2019s the competitive\u00a0nature he has, which fits very well to what we are. I love his poise in the pocket \u2014 I\u00a0think he worked a lot on that, I can see improvements from that \u2014 and then he is tough as it comes,\u201d Maas said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s been an accurate quarterback, being able\u00a0to throw. I know what he\u2019s done in college as well, which is a bigger piece that you\u00a0get to see. But as far as the CFL, I love the competitiveness, the toughness that he\u2019s\u00a0shown, mentally and physically, because it\u2019s hard when you\u2019re not winning a ton of games,\u00a0and you\u2019re not the guy every single week, and you\u2019re having to come in and out of the\u00a0lineup. That takes a lot of mental toughness. To be able to see it, and I\u2019ve seen him win\u00a0games on the road, which is never easy to do, I just love those attributes that he\u2019s\u00a0possessed.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a perfect world, the Alouettes will never have to test Crum\u2019s attributes, but knowing they have someone with experience coming off the bench provides peace of mind. Even if he never leaves the sidelines, Maas feels the relationship will be mutually beneficial.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just a backup\u00a0 \u2014 you\u2019re gonna have a place on our team, and feel good about that. I think\u00a0that\u2019s what excites Dustin, having talked to him,\u201d he said. \u201cHe knows he\u2019s gonna get\u00a0developed, he knows he\u2019s still an important piece of what we do, and ultimately, it\u2019s his\u00a0job to be ready for it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Andrew Mahon\/CFL.ca There will be no quarterback competition in Montreal this season, but Alouettes head coach…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523242,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[173755,166835,166836,50470,3179,206166,49,48,7028,521,522,520,50475,14971,527,50472,2002,2338,20739,70504,82],"class_list":["post-523241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-rnation","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-alouettes","tag-als","tag-backup-qb","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-davis-alexander","tag-dustin-crum","tag-football","tag-jason-maas","tag-league","tag-montreal","tag-ottawa","tag-redblacks","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523242"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}