Morning Coffee: Alouettes emerge as Grey Cup favourite at FanDuel

Brandon Aiyuk remains on the San Francisco 49ers roster.

That doesn’t mean it hasn’t been a tumultuous 24 hours for the team and its fans.

Reports suggested that the 49ers had potential trade frameworks with the New England Patriots and the Cleveland Browns in place on Tuesday, sparking the speculation that a potential trade was imminent.

One crucial element was missing: Aiyuk’s willingness to be traded to either one of those teams.

Aiyuk’s preference has always been to continue his career in San Francisco.

However, contract negotiations between the Aiyuk and the 49ers have stalled, and he has already made it clear that his second choice would be a trade to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

There remains a possibility that the Niners and Steelers could eventually agree to a trade.

However, Aiyuk still has one year left on his current contract with San Francisco, which is in no rush to move the star wide receiver until they find a suitable return.

Despite the uncertainty surrounding Aiyuk’s future with the club, the 49ers are co-favourites to win the Super Bowl at FanDuel, alongside the Kansas City Chiefs.

On Tuesday, we learned that San Francisco will be without another key offensive starter for the foreseeable future.

Running back Christian McCaffrey has been sidelined by a calf strain that will keep him out of practice for a couple of weeks.

Considering the heavy workload McCaffrey shouldered for the Niners last season, a training camp injury certainly isn’t a good sign of things to come.

Just ask all the fantasy football managers that were compelled to take him with the first overall pick based on what he did in San Francisco last season.

The 49ers might be contend for a Super Bowl without one of Aiyuk or McCaffrey in their lineup this season.

Losing both would be a significant blow to their Super Bowl aspirations.

This is the Morning Coffee for Wednesday August 7^th, 2024.

Alouettes Emerge As The Grey Cup Favourite At FanDuel

The Montreal Alouettes entered the 2024 CFL season as the third choice to win the Grey Cup at +500 at FanDuel.

After successfully navigating some key injuries while winning seven of their first eight games, the Alouettes have earned their spot as the new Grey Cup favourite.

Montreal is a league-best 7-1 entering Week 10.

Despite losing Cody Fajardo to injury a couple of weeks ago, the Alouettes have stayed hot with back-to-back wins led by third-string quarterback Davis Alexander.

In Week 8, Montreal trailed the Saskatchewan Roughriders by 13 points when Alexander took over for Caleb Evans.

Alexander threw for 178 yards and two touchdowns in relief to lead Montreal to a 20-16 win.

Alexander made his first CFL start in Week 9.

The 25-year-old threw for 262 yards and a touchdown in a 33-16 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

It’s one thing to cruise to the top of the CFL’s East Division with one of the top choices to win the Most Outstanding Player award at quarterback.

It’s another to do it with a third-string QB that had never started in the league before.

The Alouettes are down to +170 to win the Grey Cup from +500 at the start of the season.

Only two teams – Montreal and the BC Lions – have shorter than 5-to-1 odds to win it all right now.

The Alouettes opened as a 7.5-point favourite for this week’s rematch with the Tiger-Cats.

While underdogs have been excellent against the spread this season, Montreal has provided a notable exception.

The Alouettes are 4-1 ATS in their last five wins.

If the current line holds, Saturday’s game versus Hamilton will mark just the second time this season that Montreal is favoured to win by more than a touchdown.

Believe it or not, these same Alouettes were a 7.5-point underdog on the road against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers back in Week 1.

A lot has changed since then.

With Fajardo recovering from injury and the backup Evans sidelined for the season, Montreal addressed its quarterback depth on Tuesday.

If it’s up to Alouettes fans, Davis won’t see the field as the team’s starting quarterback at any point this season.

Elsewhere, the Ottawa Redblacks are a 2.5-point favourite for their clash with the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Thursday Night Football.

The Calgary Stampeders are -1.5 for the second half of their home-and-home against the Toronto Argonauts at BMO Field on Friday Night Football.

The Edmonton Elks are currently -1.5 for their showdown with the BC Lions in the CFL Week 10 finale on Sunday.

Obviously, the number for that game would look a lot different if Vernon Adams Jr. was healthy for the Lions.

However, Adams is week-to-week with an apparent knee injury, and Tre Ford looked good in his first start of the season for Edmonton in a 42-31 win.

Ford threw for 252 yards and two touchdowns while rushing for 46 yards as the Elks recorded season-highs in points scored and total yards.

Javon Leake rushed for 169 yards and three touchdowns while Justin Rankin chipped in with 60 yards on 10 carries against the league’s best run defence.

With Adams and Fajardo hurt, the door is still very much wide open for Ford to make a strong impression in the CFL Most Outstanding Player award conversation the rest of the way.

Ford is +2600 as the third choice to win the CFL’s MOP award at FanDuel this morning.

If the 26-year-old can deliver another solid performance and lead Edmonton to a victory over the Lions this weekend, that number will continue to get shorter.

Nobody wants to rush to crown Ford and the Elks after they secured their first win of the season in Week 9.

At the same time, football fans in Edmonton finally have reason for optimism, and it will be interesting to see if Ford can double down with another strong performance versus BC on Sunday Night Football.