The Edmonton Elks know who they want to be their starting quarterback next season, but the final decision is out of their hands.
Speaking to the media during locker room clean-up day on Saturday, head coach Mark Kilam made no attempt to hide his desire to see Cody Fajardo return as the face of the franchise.
“I would like Cody Fajardo to be under centre,” he said emphatically. “I think I really resonate with him as a human. I think the team feeds off that he has a chip on his shoulder when he takes the field.”
That feeling appears to be mutual, but there are other factors at play when it comes to signing Fajardo to a new deal before his contract expires in February. The 33-year-old signal caller told the media following the regular season finale that it would be a “disservice” to his wife to make any decision before carefully weighing the impact on her and his two kids.
Like so many CFL players, the quarterback spends his season away from family and appears set to seriously weigh retirement. However, if he gets the green light to keep suiting up, there is nowhere he’d rather be than Edmonton.
“If I play football next year, it’ll be here,” Fajardo stated. “I’ll say that barring something crazy that happens and there’s a lot of movement, but if everything goes as I would like it to go, and things go as expected, I would love nothing more than to wear the Green and Gold again and to be the starting quarterback for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs since 2019. To be a quarterback that can take this team to the playoffs, I would love nothing more than that.”
“I just don’t know at this point in time. I’ll have some good conversations. I’ll have some good pros and cons list, but it’s going to be an emotional and difficult offseason, I think, for me and my family.”
Even if he has to wait with bated breath for that decision, the man in charge of negotiating Fajardo’s next deal, general manager Ed Hervey, sees the QB’s endorsement of his franchise’s young core and future promise as a feather in their cap.
“I think that’s a big positive for us, because a lot of players would say in the past, ‘Don’t come here,'” he said. “I think that’s a big bonus for us. I think once Cody and I have a chance to talk and have a conversation and really start honing in on his future, I don’t see any reason why we can’t make that happen.”
“We would love for him to play here. I want to make something clear. Cody is exactly what we had talked about when we made the trade for him. This is the player that we said could provide stability and all this stuff. Did we know where this was going to take off? No, we did not.”
Fajardo was acquired by the Elks last offseason to be the backup to young Canadian Tre Ford. However, the former Grey Cup MVP was thrust into action after a disappointing 1-4 start to the season, starting every game for the remainder of the year. While the Elks still missed the playoffs for a fifth straight time, his insertion into the lineup seemed to fundamentally change their fortunes.
The Nevada product completed 282-of-385 passes for 3,408 yards, 14 touchdowns, and seven interceptions, while rushing for 319 yards and seven scores. Most importantly, he mustered six wins and kept the team in the postseason hunt until the penultimate week of the season.
“It’s not a secret that that changed the trajectory of the football team and the course of the season. That’s not a shot at anyone else,” Kilam said of Fajardo taking over as QB1. “He raised the level of play of everyone around him. He raised the level of the execution of the offence, and he gave our football team belief at a critical time in the year when we needed it.”
Hervey said that he has yet to speak with Fajardo regarding a new contract, but suggested that a deal could get done in a “short amount of time” once those conversations begin. Despite his obvious desire to see the pivot return, the typically surly negotiator made clear that it won’t be for a blank cheque.
“Of course, we’d love to have Cody back, but I want to also say that the roster still has work to do,” he stressed. “We still have areas that we need to address, so we will continue to address those, and we would love for Cody to be a part of that, but not at the sacrifice of continuing to build.”
Fajardo has played financial ball with the Elks before, agreeing to a restructured contract after his trade and embracing the backup title handed to him. He understands the volatility of the quarterback market better than almost anyone after unceremonious departures from Saskatchewan and Montreal, and knows the importance of a good fit.
He has found that in Edmonton, but it must mesh with the rest of his life as well. He insists that any contemplation of retirement has nothing to do with physical ability, but that he doesn’t take the privilege of determining his future lightly.
“I feel like I’m 33 years old, which means I’m at the ripe age for a quarterback. I feel like I got a lot of good football left in me. There’s still a lot left in the tank,” Fajardo said.
“A lot of guys are forced into retirement, whether it’s an injury or whether a club doesn’t want you. Having that power of knowing that whatever I decide, it’s in the best interest for me and my family and for our future just speaks to the volume of the work of art of my career, and how I’ve set myself up for that opportunity, which is pretty cool.”
The Elks hope that Fajardo signs that work of art like a painter — just so long as he does it on the dotted line.
