48 Hour Primer | Dru Brown to start

Blue Bombers head coach Mike O'Shea confirmed the quarterback change for Friday's home date against the Toronto Argonauts after Wednesday's closed-to-the-media practice.

"He will not be in; he's out for this game," said O'Shea when asked for an update on Collaros' status. "... It's the same thing we talk about with anybody -- this is why we have teammates because they have an opportunity now to step in and honour a guy who can't play."

Collaros, the Blue Bombers QB1 and future hall of famer, was injured in the third quarter of the club's 19-6 over the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Banjo Bowl while attempting to chase down defender Seyi Oladipo, Jr. after throwing an interception.

He left the game under his own steam, but when the team returned to practice on Monday following their final bye week of the regular season, it was Brown at the controls with Collaros in attendance, but not participating. He has been listed on the daily injury report as having a 'head' injury.

That means Brown will make his fifth start of the season for the club after he was acquired in a trade with the Ottawa RedBlacks in late June. The Blue Bombers are 2-2 in Brown's previous starts, including a 30-21 win over the Argos in July, as he has completed 70.2 percent of his passes for 1,148 yards, with five touchdowns against five interceptions.

"Dru is confident -- quiet confident," said veteran receiver Nic Demski. "He commands the huddle and he knows and is comfortable with what he sees out there, which is an amazing from the quarterback position.

"He knows looks very well and is confident in it and so he takes his drop and gets the ball out of his hand. We need to do a good job of being there for him as a receiving corps and the O-line will make sure what they can to make sure he's protected and the running backs will do their thing as well.

"We're all just trying to support him and make our plays as an offence."

The elephant in the room and the question without an answer as this team makes its playoff push is what the quarterback picture in these parts looks like beyond this week and into next season.

Collaros, now 38, is missing his fifth start of the season and did not finish two other games while working on an expiring contract. Brown is 14-16 in his career as a starter here in Winnipeg (4-3) and Ottawa (10-13) while rookie Taylor Elgersma came off the bench after Collaros went down earlier this year in a game in Hamilton and helped guide the team to a victory.

Bryce Perkins, who came north with NFL and UFL experience and has operated the short-yardage package to near perfection this year, has attempted only one pass all season and turns 30 in December.

That makes this game massive for Brown in the moment, but also in terms of how it might impact the team's QB picture going forward.

In the here and now, this team has oodles of faith in the 29-year-old and that's a big part of why the team sent a first-round pick in next year's CFL Canadian Draft and a conditional 2028 second rounder to acquire Brown along with a second-round selection next spring.

"It's just his presence. And when you have somebody who can step in and there is no drop off, that's super important," said receiver Tim White. "He's extremely calm. He knows how to get the play out and that's important for us having young guys in the offence this week.

"You can just tell Dru has been there before. He's poised and you can see it in the way he goes about his business in the locker room and on the field."

"Dru is a good football player," added O'Shea. "We brought him in for a reason. We had him for a number of years and that's why we brought him back.

"We really liked him when he was here (2021-23) and it was just he got an opportunity (to start in Ottawa) that we couldn't match. He had an opportunity to step in and lead a team, and he had to take it, otherwise I don't know that we would ever have wanted to let him go."