Perry Lefko

Perry Lefko keeps you connected to all the news in the CFL on Sportsnet.ca.

A new CFL rule to help develop Canadian QBs could help Brannagan get on the Argos practice roster.

Danny Brannagan won't play in the final preseason game for the Toronto Argonauts, but that may not be the end for the aspiring Canadian quarterback.

There are already whispers Brannagan will be offered a spot on the team's practice roster, which pays only $500 a week but will be considered a significant stepping stone for the Burlington product's development.

The Argos' other three quarterbacks -- Ken Dorsey, Cleo Lemon and Dalton Bell -- have no experience playing in a CFL regular-season game, and head coach Jim Barker will use the last preseason game this Saturday in Montreal to better evaluate his quarterbacks.

Were Brannagan another American quarterback, his status wouldn't even be an issue. But the celebrated Queen's product represents a far bigger picture: he is the latest Canadian quarterback trying to play in the CFL, which up until this year has done nothing to promote homebrew QBs.

That changed when the CFL instituted an initiative allowing teams to bring a Canadian quarterback to training camp without it affecting the 68-man roster. It was a positive move because teams didn't want to give away a roster spot for the goodness of promoting a cause: it's all about winning.

According to Larry Jusdanis, who is the most recent Canadian-born quarterback to start a game in the CFL when he did so with Hamilton in 1996, Brannagan had a fair shot when he was given a quarter with the starting offensive line in the Argos' preseason game last weekend against Hamilton. Brannagan completed only three of 11 passes for 31 yards, had one pass picked off and was sacked once.

Jusdanis, who played for Acadia University, is now a high-performance trainer. His company, Sports Specific Training, has worked with many Canadian athletes, and he has helped Brannagan develop since junior high school. Jusdanis was at the Ticats-Argos game to watch his project play.

"The first two throws were nervous, I could tell by the flight of the ball. It wobbled out of his hand," Jusdanis said. "Actually, he made good decisions, but he was a little off on his throws. On the interception, he had him wide open but he just threw it inside. He made good decisions and that's three-quarters of the battle."

Barker, who has spoken well of Brannagan since signing him and shot down the suggestion he did it for publicity purposes, is merely doing what he needs to do by playing the other three quarterbacks.

"In the Argos' defence, they need to figure out who's going to be No. 1 right off the bat," Jusdanis said. "Unfortunately it's not like a Doug Flutie situation where you can sit him and watch the other guys play."

At best Brannagan would have cracked the squad as the third-stringer, and that would have been considered an accomplishment. The practice roster is a positive step for any player, moreso one who is Canadian and trying to overcome a bias.

None of the Argos quarterbacks received as much hype and publicity going into training camp and, more specifically, the preseason game. As Jusdanis noted, Brannagan was a "novelty." Not unlike Jusdanis was in trying to break the Canadian quarterback barrier.

"People were probably rooting for him. My question is what would happen if he threw two touchdown passes? What would they have done?"

He didn't, and while none of his competitors really stood out, the coaches are eyeing them more.

Will Brannagan be the first of many Canadian quarterbacks to get looks by CFL teams now that the new rule is in place?

"I don't know if there are eight good (Canadian) ones," Jusdanis said. "It's not the CFL's responsibility to develop them, either. Yeah, once they get there, but before that coaches do a great job in university or the minor leagues. You're starting to see that; better and better football throughout. We're already starting to catch up in that respect."