{"id":590331,"date":"2026-04-08T13:57:12","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:57:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590331\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T13:57:12","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T13:57:12","slug":"edmonton-elks-believe-taylor-powell-can-be-franchise-cfl-quarterback","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/590331\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Elks believe Taylor Powell can be franchise CFL quarterback"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto courtesy: Edmonton Elks.<\/p>\n

The Edmonton Elks believe Taylor Powel has the traits required to be a franchise quarterback in the Canadian Football League.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think so. I think\u00a0there\u2019s a lot of strong feelings about that across the league. Good player, lives and breathes football. He\u00a0prepares the right way\u00a0and we\u2019re excited to have him on our team,\u201d head coach Mark Kilam said from the CFL Combine in the Alberta capital.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old Powell signed a two-year contract with the Green and Gold in CFL free agency<\/a>. He\u2019s a bonafide backup behind Cody Fajardo with starting abilities in case injuries happen. If Fajardo, who was weighing retirement<\/a> prior to signing a one-year contract extension<\/a> with Edmonton, moves on from football, the Elks feel the next man up at QB is in the building.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we signed him, we felt like he had the potential to be a starter in this league. Given the situation last year when Cody was talking retirement,\u00a0we can\u2019t be in a position where we\u2019re without a quarterback,\u201d general manager Ed Hervey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a player starts talking about retirement, they\u2019re usually halfway there. I\u00a0wanted to make certain that the organization was in a good place. We felt that Taylor was the appropriate guy and the best player that was available for us. We know him and we\u2019re\u00a0excited about having him within the locker room.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hervey was Hamilton\u2019s assistant GM in 2023 when Powell came to the CFL, then held the GM role with the Tiger-Cats in 2024. He\u2019s seen how the six-foot-one, 208-pound QB approaches playing quarterback as a professional, which gave him confidence to bring him to Edmonton as a possible heir apparent to Fajardo at football\u2019s most important position.<\/p>\n

Edmonton was one of the CFL\u2019s most active teams in free agency with key signings including quarterback Taylor Powell, receivers Austin Mack and Joe Robustelli, offensive lineman Coulter Woodmansey, and defensive lineman Malik Carney. The team\u2019s main departures included quarterback Tre Ford (Hamilton Tiger-Cats), receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr. (Hamilton Tiger-Cats), and defensive lineman Jake Ceresna (Winnipeg Blue Bombers).<\/p>\n

The Elks hold the third overall pick in the 2026 CFL Draft, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 28 at 7 p.m. ET. All CFL training camps are scheduled to open on May 10. Edmonton will play its first preseason game against the B.C. Lions on Saturday, May 23 and its first regular-season game against the Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday, June 6.<\/p>\n

In 2025, Edmonton finished fifth in the West Division standings with a 7-11 record, missing the playoffs for the fifth straight season.<\/p>\n

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Football insider, reporter and analyst.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Edmonton Elks. The Edmonton Elks believe Taylor Powel has the traits required to be a franchise…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":590332,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,901,49,48,7028,521,522,520,14973,13417,23752,13264,77213,527,3801,15655,13416,82,171513,43334,174757],"class_list":{"0":"post-590331","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-3down","9":"tag-3downnation","10":"tag-alberta","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-canadian","14":"tag-canadian-football-league","15":"tag-canadianfootballleague","16":"tag-cfl","17":"tag-cody-fajardo","18":"tag-ed-hervey","19":"tag-edmonton","20":"tag-edmonton-elks","21":"tag-elks","22":"tag-football","23":"tag-hamilton","24":"tag-hamilton-tiger-cats","25":"tag-mark-kilam","26":"tag-sports","27":"tag-taylor-powell","28":"tag-ticats","29":"tag-yeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590331","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=590331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/590331\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/590332"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=590331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=590331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=590331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}