Veteran NFL quarterback Josh Freeman got most of the off-season attention after signing with the team in January, but he was released just a week into the main camp after reportedly struggling in off-season work, leaving Drew Willy and Matthew Shiltz to duke it out for the No. 1 spot.

Willy, 31, is a six-year CFL veteran who started his career with the Saskatchewan Roughriders and has also played with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts. He signed with the Als last season to back up Darian Durant and appeared in six games, throwing 54-of-79 for 547 yards and one touchdown to two interceptions.

The 25-year-old Shiltz also signed with the team last year after impressing at their mini-camp and appeared in four games, throwing 35-of-61 for 385 yards and one touchdown to four interceptions.

In the team’s first preseason game against the Ottawa Redblacks, Willy went 4-of-6 for 53 yards while Shiltz threw for 114 yards and an interception on 8-of-13 passing.

The Als, who haven’t found a long-term solution at the position since Anthony Calvillo retired in 2013, have maintained it’s an open competition in training camp this season and one that should carry over into the regular season.

“It’s going to be the best guy, whoever that is when the dust settles,” new head coach Mike Sherman told TSN 690 in Montreal. “Because we don’t have a definite starter to start the season it’s kind of an open-ended book where we want to take it into the regular season and sort it out from there.”

Free agent frenzy

It should come as no surprise the Alouettes, who finished last season with a league-worst 3-15 record, were the most active team this past off-season. And the team’s additions were peppered with big ticket names.

Among the new and notable brought in via free agency this season include former Calgary Stampeders defensive backs Tommie Campbell and Joe Burnett, a 2016 CFL All-Star and 2012 West Division All-Star respectively; Mitchell White, a member of the past two Grey Cup champions, and Jamaal Westerman, the 2015 West Division Most Outstanding Canadian.

Brought in via trade were veteran Chris Williams, an East Division All-Star as both a receiver and kick returner, and offensive guard Ryan Bomben, an East Division All-Star the past two seasons.

The new additions said they hope to bring both on-field production and off-field attitude to their new team.

“From a personal standpoint what I like to bring to the team is a winning mentality,” said White. “Not that these guys don’t have it because a lot of these guys have won everywhere they’ve gone and we’re all professionals, but I want to exude a winning mentality through adversity.”

“I just bring a competitive spirit. Every day I compete to get better; every game I’m going to compete not to lose,” Campbell explained. “And that’s the mindset you have to have.”

“We’re a part of something that’s new,” Burnett said. “We have to erase the past and begin right here. It’s like a new start for us.”

Mike Sherman in charge

The Alouettes have had just as hard a time finding a long-term solution at head coach as they have at quarterback since the glory days of Calvillo and Marc Trestman. Since Trestman left for the NFL after the 2012 season – one year before Calvillo hung up his cleats – Montreal has blown through five head coaches, including two interim tenures for then-GM Jim Popp.

Sherman, the long-time NFL and NCAA coach who was hired by GM Kavis Reed in December, will be the next candidate to try and break the curse. Sherman has a long and impressive coaching resume – including stops as head coach of the Green Bay Packers and Texas A&M – but hasn’t coached in the professional ranks since 2013. His last job was with Nauset Regional High School in Massachusetts.

After the success of former NFL head coaches Trestman, who returned to the CFL with the Toronto Argonauts last season, and June Jones, who helped turn around the Hamilton Tiger-Cats midway through last season, Reed and the Alouettes hope they’ve landed the next veteran tactician who can transition smoothly to the Canadian game.