Despite an 0-5 start to the 2026 season, head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie and the Ottawa Redblacks still have confidence in Jake Maier as the team’s starting quarterback.
“We still believe in Jake, we’re going with Jake again this week,” said Dinwiddie on Tuesday.
“I have a responsibility that if we feel like there’s a quarterback change that needs to be made to give us a spark, we’ll obviously look into that. I’m not going to put the pressure on Jake and say he’s got a short leash, but if I feel like McLeod [Bethel-Thompson] is going to give us an opportunity to win the football game, we’ll do that.”
It’s been a less-than-ideal start for Ottawa’s offence, which sits last in the CFL in multiple categories, including net offence per game (324.6), points for per game (23.8), rushing yards per game (57.2), and average yards per play (6.03).
Maier has also struggled, as the 29-year-old sits in the bottom two among qualified quarterbacks in completion percentage (66.8), interceptions (seven), efficiency rate (85.7), and passing yards per game (274.4).
“We got to find ways to play better football at the quarterback position, but again, we got to stay out of second and long,” said Dinwiddie. “We’re asking him to make all these throws in tight windows on second and forever, we got to get the run game going.”
Maier is now set to battle with former Redblacks starter Dru Brown, who is in line to start for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the team’s Week 7 clash on Sunday.
After starting the past two seasons in Ottawa, Brown became disgruntled and requested a trade out of the nation’s capital when the team brought in Maier this past off-season and subsequently named him the Week 1 starter.
Brown performed well in his first start of the season, filling in for the injured Zach Collaros in Week 6. The 29-year-old completed 25-of-31 passes for 339 yards and one touchdown, leading Winnipeg to the 30-21 win.
Dinwiddie is fully aware of the storyline that is brewing between his club and the former Redblacks quarterback.
“Yeah, I knew it was going to be coming weeks ago. You understand where the schedule is at,” said Dinwiddie. “Any game he’s going to want to play well, especially this game. He’s probably got an axe to grind, but again, that’s not in our control. I can only worry about the guys in this building, obviously we wanted to keep Dru around and it didn’t work out. He got a chance to go to Winnipeg, and we got McLeod in here.”
