For the past five weeks or so, Zach Collaros has had his nose buried in books — but not playbooks.
“I read a lot of books,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ quarterback said Monday when asked what he had been doing since going on the six-game injured list June 27. “I was very bored.”
Collaros seems poised to start reading defences again instead of books. The CFL’s Roughriders announced Monday that they had activated Collaros off the six-game injured list early, meaning the 29-year-old pivot could play Thursday when Saskatchewan visits the Edmonton Eskimos.
Collaros left Saskatchewan’s game June 21 against the host Ottawa Redblacks with a concussion. On Monday, he revealed he had “some other issues going on” other than just his head, noting the injury was caused by “more of a whiplash-type deal.”
He’s now recovered.
“For these last two, two and a half weeks, I’ve really felt like myself and back to normal,” Collaros said.
“He asked last week, ‘What are the opportunities?’ ” added head coach-GM Chris Jones. “I’m never going to put a guy out there who I feel is injured or who can risk further injury. He seemed extremely good and our trainers assured me that he was fine, so that’s why we made the decision.”
Collaros has dealt with concussions before in his seven-year CFL career, but he said the symptoms this time seemed to linger a little bit more than they had on previous occasions.
Then Collaros offered a mea culpa.
“It was really a carryover of something that had happened prior and something that I should have talked to the training staff about in the pre-season, something that I sustained in that game (June 8 against the Calgary Stampeders),” he admitted. “I kept it a secret and kind of just took a couple of touches in Ottawa and things went a little haywire for me.
“I told Coach (Steve) Walsh, ‘I don’t think I can keep going in this one. It’s not safe.’ I talked to the training staff, they took me inside for protocol and told me that was the deal.”
Collaros’ actions go against everything football leagues have been trying to do for players who have sustained concussions and he agreed that he had broken the rules by not saying anything to the Roughriders’ medical staff.
“As a competitor, it’s hard to not want to be out there with the guys,” said Collaros, whom the Roughriders acquired from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in January.
“In a new setting and a new situation as the new guy, I just wanted to be out there with my teammates. I probably pushed it a little bit too much and paid for it by having to miss a couple of weeks.”
Collaros won the job as Saskatchewan’s starting quarterback in training camp, beating out Brandon Bridge and David Watford to be No. 1 on the depth chart.
Collaros got the win in the Roughriders’ season-opening, 27-19 victory over the Toronto Argonauts on June 15, completing 18 of 25 pass attempts for 203 yards with a touchdown.
He went 4-for-10 passing for 106 yards with a touchdown and two interceptions before leaving the 40-17 loss in Ottawa in the second quarter.
In his absence, the Roughriders tried a rotation of Bridge and Watford and then gave Bridge the majority of the snaps. Saskatchewan’s offence has struggled, however, and enters Thursday’s game in Edmonton with just six offensive touchdowns this season.
The Roughriders had 14 first downs, 147 yards passing and 239 yards of net offence in Saturday’s 34-22 loss to the visiting Stampeders. Bridge’s longest completions were a pair of 17-yarders and he didn’t try a single pass that travelled beyond 20 yards.
He has attempted 104 passes this season, only 10 of which have exceeded 20 yards. He has completed four of those for 125 yards, with one touchdown and one interception.
By contrast, Hamilton’s Jeremiah Masoli leads the league with 45 attempts of 20 or more yards. Edmonton’s Mike Reilly leads the CFL with 20 completions of 20-plus yards, accumulating 725 yards with a league-high eight touchdowns and five interceptions.
On Monday, Saskatchewan offensive co-ordinator Stephen McAdoo said the Roughriders have long passes in their arsenal, but the goal was to take what the Calgary defence was surrendering — and that meant short passes.
“What I do as an offensive co-ordinator is try to play to our guys’ strengths, so I didn’t want to put them in a situation where we were turning the ball over and just throwing it up for grabs and things of that nature,” said McAdoo, whose offence is second in the league in rushing (122.2 yards per game) but ninth in passing (191.0 yards per game).
“(The Stamps’) defence is going to back off and invite you to throw the ball deep, so our philosophy was to take advantage of what they were giving us underneath, keep moving the chains and eventually get in the end zone.”
Unfortunately for the Roughriders, the offence didn’t reach the Calgary end zone. Brett Lauther kicked five field goals and defensive end Tobi Antigha added a major on an interception return.
McAdoo said the offensive philosophy won’t change greatly with Collaros at the helm. The majority of his 35 attempts this season are short- to mid-range throws (28 attempts); he has tried only seven passes of 20-plus yards, completing three for 112 yards with a touchdown and an interception.
On Monday, Collaros wasn’t concerned with anything other than getting back on the field.
“I’ve been out here throwing with the training staff and it has been good,” he said of his time on the injured list. “It was nice to throw to some live receivers again, to get out here with the guys and be in some competitive situations.”
