{"id":201591,"date":"2026-09-09T05:17:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T05:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/201591\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T05:17:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T05:17:09","slug":"ottawa-redblacks-committed-to-jake-maier-but-bryson-barnes-will-play-at-some-stage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/201591\/","title":{"rendered":"Ottawa Redblacks committed to Jake Maier but Bryson Barnes will play ‘at some stage’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto: Gord Weber\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Redblacks will not be making a change under centre this week, though head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie is planning for rookie quarterback Bryson Barnes to see the field before the year is done.<\/p>\n

\u201cJake (Maier) has done some good things. There\u2019s some plays we want back, absolutely, each week. I just don\u2019t feel like Jake\u2019s necessarily our problem right now,\u201d Dinwiddie told the media on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve gotta score more points, we\u2019ve gotta keep them out of the end zone as well, and find ways to make plays on special teams \u2014 get (Kalil Pimpleton) loose, a strip fumble, something like that. We\u2019ve gotta get the run game going to help out Jake as well.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWe\u2019re going to let Bryson see the field at some stage. He\u2019s growing but we didn\u2019t want to throw him to the wolves too quickly, that\u2019s why we got him out there last week. He missed a few things but that\u2019s gonna happen with young quarterbacks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maier has completed 68.6 percent of his passes for 3,097 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 14 interceptions through 11 starts this season. He set a new CFL record in Ottawa\u2019s most recent loss, becoming the first quarterback in league history to begin a season with 11 consecutive losses as a starter.<\/p>\n

Barnes took over from Maier in a relief role, and completed five-of-five pass attempts for 57 yards. The 24-year-old native of Milford, Utah has seen limited action this year, his first in the professional ranks. In 2025, he was named second-team All-Mountain West at Utah State.<\/p>\n

Despite sticking to the status quo at quarterback this week, the Redblacks made sweeping changes to their roster on Monday, releasing six players<\/a> and signing five<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The big-name cut was defensive lineman Habakkuk Baldonado, who made eight defensive tackles, two tackles for loss, and two sacks over eight regular-season games this year.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-four, 251-pound defender signed with the team in February, when he became the highest-paid Global player in CFL history<\/a>. His contract was worth $185,000 in hard money, making him the league\u2019s eleventh-highest-paid defensive lineman<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were hoping for more production. Coming off a Grey Cup run there in Saskatchewan, he was very productive in their defence,\u201d said Dinwiddie.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes, things don\u2019t work out. As an organization, we can\u2019t make the same mistake twice. We have to acknowledge when we make a mistake and then move on. If you continue to act like it ain\u2019t there, that\u2019s gonna fester into bigger problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dinwiddie indicated that two or three brand new defensive linemen will make their debut this week, while veteran Cleyon Laing will return from injury.<\/p>\n

The 45-year-old native of Elk Grove, Calif. also said that C.J. Reavis will miss four to six weeks with a hamstring injury. The veteran strong-side linebacker has made 38 defensive tackles, two special teams tackles, one tackle for loss, and four pass knockdowns over 11 regular-season games this year.<\/p>\n

Ottawa is set to visit the Toronto Argonauts on Saturday, which will mark Dinwiddie\u2019s first trip back to the city where he won two Grey Cups before departing in December. It doesn\u2019t appear he\u2019s on an impassioned revenge tour, as he instead wants to focus on the Redblacks earning their first win of the season.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be different being a head coach this first time not being the head coach there,\u201d he said. \u201cRight now, we\u2019re just focused on getting the win, that\u2019s where we\u2019re at.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d rather do that for our players and the organization. It\u2019s not about me wanting to get a win because it\u2019s my ex-team, we\u2019ve just gotta get a win and get going in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Ottawa Redblacks (0-11) will visit the Toronto Argonauts (6-6) at BMO Field on Saturday, September 12 with kickoff scheduled for 1:00 p.m. EDT. Last week, the Redblacks were on bye while the Argonauts won the season series against Hamilton with a 37-22 victory in the Labour Day Classic.<\/p>\n

The weather forecast in Toronto calls for a high of 24 degrees and sun. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS in Canada, and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune-in on TSN 1200 in Ottawa or TSN 1050 in Toronto.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Gord Weber\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. The Ottawa Redblacks will not be making a change under centre this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":201592,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,350,25229,351,352,354,25235,61,12837,12838,1593,63330],"class_list":["post-201591","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-bryson-barnes","tag-canadian","tag-cfl","tag-football","tag-jake-maier","tag-ottawa","tag-qb","tag-quarterback","tag-redblacks","tag-utah-state"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201591","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=201591"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/201591\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/201592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=201591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=201591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=201591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}