Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
VANCOUVER — Ask Jonathon Jennings to explain how the 2017 season went for him personally and he’ll do anything but sugar coat it.
“Last year was terrible,” Jennings said candidly at Mark’s CFL Week in March. “Honestly, I’m a very hard critique. It wasn’t anything that was hidden. I started out the season fine but then I got hurt in the fourth game, that was pretty crazy. (After that) we were playing well as a team, I came back, had one of the worst games of my life.”
Jennings hurt his shoulder in Week 4’s contest against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and sat out three weeks before making his return in Week 8. That self-proclaimed worst game was against the Saskatchewan Roughriders where he threw four interceptions, three of which were picked off by Riders defensive back Ed Gainey.
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“There’s nothing you can do but take it, accept it, learn from it and you’ll grow from that,” Jennings said, explaining how to move on from a game like he had in Saskatchewan. “Just keep on pushing forward one step at a time and eventually, as I’m sitting here today, you’ll feel better about it and you’ll understand that it’s just a part of your past.”
The 25-year-old had statistically the worst year of his young CFL career, throwing for 3,639 yards, 16 touchdowns and 19 interceptions in 15 games. And to top it off, his team ended the year at the bottom of the West Division with a 7-11 record, their worst finish in recent memory.
“It was a very tough year for me, personally, and as a team,” he said. “I think one of the biggest things was that feeling of letting your team down and you don’t want anybody to think that it was your fault that you guys are losing because of you.”
He didn’t lay the blame on his quarterback for how things went, but veteran receiver Manny Arceneaux spoke candidly about the 2017 season and how he felt Jennings performed.
“He’s gotta figure it out,” said Arceneaux during the CFL’s biggest off-season event in Winnipeg. “The past is the past but you know this is a ‘what have you done for me lately?’ profession. Hopefully he has his mind right and trust in the skillset and special gifts that he has. And it’s on him.
“He plays the quarterback position. You can’t give him any pep talks. Either you got it or you don’t. And apparently he’s got it but he just needs to know that.”
“I’m going to tear him down and then try and build him back up,” continued Arceneaux, explaining how he helped Jennings through last season. “That’s what you have to do. You have to humble a guy. He has an off game or something (I’d say), ‘bro, you really played like trash and I know that’s not you.’ You have to tell guys the truth.”
Jennings missed three games in 2017 with a shoulder injury obtained in Week 4 (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
Arceneaux had an open relationship with his quarterback last season and if he felt like Jennings wasn’t performing up to the pivot’s abilities, the receiver would let him know.
“He’ll come back, it might have been after the Sask game, that we must have had about three picks or something,” remembered Arceneaux. “I come back like, ‘man, you played like trash’ and he’ll tell you, ‘bro, I was horrible.'”
And does Arceneaux think having those conversations work?
“They have to work,” he said. “I don’t like to talk about guys outside that guy being present. I don’t entertain those kinds of conversations. I go straight to the source. I want him to hear it from me and understand what it is I think.”
Heading into 2018, Jennings is optimistic he can get back to his 2016 form where he was considered one of the best pivots in the game by taking the struggles from the year previous and using that as motivation.
“I’m just focusing on my mindset,” Jennings said, explaining how he’s preparing for the new CFL season. “I think that your mind plays such a big part in this game. It’s one of the biggest parts, actually. I’m working on preventative injury stuff. Making sure that my body is (healthy) and that I don’t have to go through another shoulder injury as much as I can prevent it myself.
“As a hard critic on myself, I’m like, ‘yeah, okay, I need to get better at some things and be better.’” he continued. “It (last season) was really good motivation for what’s to come and I’m really excited about the future.”
