{"id":561828,"date":"2026-03-26T10:14:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:14:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/561828\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T10:14:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T10:14:13","slug":"jack-coan-has-leg-up-in-saskatchewan-roughriders-wide-open-backup-qb-competition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/561828\/","title":{"rendered":"Jack Coan has ‘leg up’ in Saskatchewan Roughriders ‘wide open’ backup QB competition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/p>\n

The Saskatchewan Roughriders have four quarterbacks on the roster behind 112th Grey Cup MVP Trevor Harris and Jack Coan has been there the longest, which gives him an advantage in the backup QB competition that will take place in training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think\u00a0it\u2019s anyone\u2019s job right now, but I think\u00a0Jack has a leg up with\u00a0being here. We\u2019ve invested two years in Jack. When we looked at it, knowing that Jake [Maier] was going to move on,\u00a0we had the conversation, \u2018Do we feel like we\u2019ve got\u00a0the guy in the building already?\u2019 The answer to that was\u00a0yes. It\u2019s up to Jack to go out and perform,\u201d general manager Jeremy O\u2019Day said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s between all four of the guys\u00a0we have, to be honest \u2014\u00a0I think that\u2019s what it should be. Jack has been here longer\u00a0than the other guys.\u00a0Tommy [Stevens]\u00a0has\u00a0experience in our system for a number of years. That\u2019s really going to be up to Marc [Mueller] and coach [Corey Mace]\u00a0how that shakes down. We\u2019re trying to bring in good players that\u00a0will\u00a0have a future in our league. Hopefully there\u2019s a good competition\u00a0in training camp.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Coan signed with the Riders in March 2024. He\u2019s since completed 12-of-29 pass attempts for 138 yards with one touchdown across for 23 regular-season CFL games.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-three, 218-pound passer signed a one-year contract extension with Saskatchewan in January. With Harris being year-to-year, the Roughriders know it\u2019s time to prepare for life after he retires and find an heir apparent at the most important position in football.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u00a0haven\u2019t had a conversation and said, \u2018Trevor, is this your last year?\u2019 We haven\u2019t had a conversation saying that this is probably Trevor\u2019s last year. It\u2019s\u00a0strictly\u00a0based off\u00a0how the season goes,\u00a0how he feels, and how we feel. Certainly not something that we would\u00a0discuss\u00a0before the season, we haven\u2019t even taken a snap in 2026,\u201d O\u2019Day said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur plan is to go to camp with\u00a0the guys that we have. We haven\u2019t communicated with anyone outside\u00a0the organization\u00a0as far as any veteran-type players at this point. That\u2019s our plan. We got to start preparing for\u00a0life after Trevor [Harris]\u00a0and that will be determined as time goes. Hopefully he plays great. We\u2019ll see where it goes, but as far as the backup \u2014\u00a0that\u2019s\u00a0going to be wide open.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old Harris, who will turn 40 on May 31, missed one game due to a head injury in 2025. He was able to stay healthy despite his advanced football age after missing 13 and six games in 2023 and 2024, respectively. O\u2019Day has been a football executive since 2011 and knows his team has to be ready for any scenario regarding possible injuries to a franchise quarterback.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look back at our history,\u00a0even back in the days when Darian [Durant] was our quarterback,\u00a0your starting quarterback gets injured, you want to be\u00a0in position that you have a guy that can step in,\u00a0play, and win games for you. You don\u2019t really know when it\u2019s\u00a0going to be the players\u2019 last game. Trevor\u2019s not 30 years old where\u00a0you feel comfortable knowing that he\u2019s going to be your quarterback for a long time,\u201d O\u2019Day said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s\u00a0having comfort for that season\u00a0knowing that\u00a0we got a really good quarterback\u00a0that understands what\u00a0our team\u2019s about and\u00a0prepares\u00a0like crazy to be successful. More so comfortable knowing he\u2019s our quarterback, but I\u2019ve been in a position where we\u2019ve lost our starting quarterback\u00a0three plays into the season\u00a0for the year. Hopefully we keep him\u00a0healthy and\u00a0we can have the same conversation again next year.\u201d<\/p>\n

American quarterback Jordan McCloud was signed by the Green and White in January<\/a>. The 26-year-old was productive in one season at James Madison University and his senior year at Texas State University.<\/p>\n

The Tampa Bay Buccaneers invited him to rookie mini-camp in 2025, but did not offer him a contract after it was over. The Bucs brought him back for a workout in July<\/a>, however, the team decided against signing him at that time as well. Meanwhile, the Washington Commanders and Kansas City Chiefs had the six-foot, 210-pound QB in for a workout in August and December.<\/p>\n

\u201cA\u00a0lot to like, he\u2019s\u00a0a guy that can do it with his arm and with his legs. Very successful in college. He actually came to one of our free agent camp workouts at the end of last year, so we could actually see him in person,\u201d O\u2019Day said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s\u00a0bounced around with some workouts in the NFL over the last season. Evaluating him, success that he had\u00a0down in college football,\u00a0his ability to\u00a0do multiple things, similar systems to what we play in the CFL\u00a0he was in, and we\u2019re excited about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Riders are \u201canxious\u201d to see how McCloud performs at training camp in Saskatoon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders have four quarterbacks on the roster behind 112th Grey Cup MVP Trevor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561829,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,49,48,7028,521,522,520,60449,177963,107929,107930,131099,216951,169854,10599,45083,55574,24373,4400,82,11140,11135],"class_list":["post-561828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-corey-mace","tag-darian-durant","tag-jack-coan","tag-jake-maier","tag-jeremy-oday","tag-jordan-mccloud","tag-marc-mueller","tag-regina","tag-riders","tag-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-sports","tag-tommy-stevens","tag-trevor-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561828","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=561828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}