Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
“Right now, the only defence capable of slowing down Adams is the Lions’ Week 8 opponent, which happens to be their first open date.”
That correct assessment on Vernon Adams Jr. is from Brandon C. Williams’ CFL Fantasy projections article looking ahead to Week 6.
Yes, it is early so we must temper out expectations, but it is fair to start to look at the historic implications of what Adams Jr. and the BC Lions’ passing game is accomplishing. Heading into Week 6 he has thrown a CFL leading 1,752 yards which averages out to just slightly over 350 yards per game. At that pace VA would finish the season with 6,307 passing yards.
There are several reasons why he may not hit that number. It can range from his own health to the health of his top receivers, to late-season colder weather reducing passing numbers and if the Lions win the Division with a week or two to spare, who knows if he’ll be in the starting lineup to hit that magical number. The flip side to that coin is the Saskatchewan Roughriders are still undefeated and the Lions’ quarterback played in every game last year.
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If Adams Jr. continues at this pace for the next month everyone will be bringing up the possibility of 6,000 passing yards and the reason is a simple one: it almost never happens. It has been 38 years since the CFL expanded to 18 regular season games and in that time span only four quarterbacks have ever hit that number.
That list is an interesting one as it includes two passers you would expect to hit that milestone: Doug Flutie (did it twice!) and Anthony Calvillo, another in Kent Austin who didn’t put up the same numbers as those other two but had a borderline Hall of Fame career. Last but not least is the curious case of David Archer, who burst onto the scene in 1993 with the expansion Sacramento Goldminers and hucked it up over 700 times for 6,023 yards.
It has been two decades (Calvillo in 2004) since a quarterback had a 6,000-yard season and the closest anyone has come to that number is when Michael Reilly came up 170 yards short in 2017. If by Labour Day Adams Jr. is still even close to his current pace this will be one of, if not the top story in the CFL. As you can see, this level of production is both incredibly rare and has been done by either Hall of Famers, near Hall of Famers and that brief fireballer David Archer.
Getting away from all the numbers to the eyeball test, I picked four different highlights from this season to showcase the aerial pyrotechnics we have seen from Adams Jr. and his receivers.
WEEK 1 AT TORONTO
On first glance this looks like an easy completion with how wide open Travis Fulgham is right as he collects the pass. I appreciate that Adams Jr. stays in the pocket going through multiple progressions until he spots Fulgham right as Jared Brinkman is about to hit him.
WEEK 2 VS. CALGARY
You have to admire the bravery here to take such a wicked shot from the 262-pound James Vaughters, all in the name of a 21-yard touchdown strike. I imagine his teammates appreciated the effort as well.
WEEK 3 AT WINNIPEG
Air raid in full effect! I love the aggressiveness on this play as Adams Jr. pump fakes Alexander Hollins open, hits his receiver in stride and then Hollins does the rest.
WEEK 5 AT HAMILTON
I included this play to give a shoutout to the league’s leading receiver, Alexander Hollins, who turned Jonathan Moxey inside out on his way to a 69-yard score. As for the quarterback, Adams Jr. has never hit even 400 yards rushing in a season, but his ability to break from the pocket and give Hollins an extra second played a big part for his fourth touchdown pass against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
You could argue the best statistic Adams Jr. has produced is the number one, as in the number of interceptions he has thrown in 169 pass attempts. Since his second quarter interception in the team’s Week 1 loss to the Toronto Argonauts, Adams Jr.’s ball security has been perfect.
Before the start of the year the Lions’ quarterback was asked what he wanted to improve on. His answer: “Interceptions. We all know that.” No quarterback threw more picks than VA’s 18 in 2023 and no quarterback has a lower interception percentage in 2024 than Adams Jr.
What makes that number even more remarkable is the Lions are not some conservative, dink and dunk offence. They led the league in passing yards per attempt and as you saw in the above highlights, Adams Jr. has the green light to go deep whenever the opportunity presents itself. This is a recipe for both high scores and high interception totals as well, but so far he’s living up to his stated goals.
At the beginning of the year all the CFL.ca writers were asked if a quarterback would exceed 5,000 yards passing. I answered yes that it would be Adams Jr. as he led the league in passing the year prior and had the weapons around him to get it done. But not in my wildest dreams did I think he would be approaching such a monumental number.
