While Cody Fajardo left Montreal believing he was a victim of the business side of pro football, he also says he wasn’t presented with the opportunity to restructure his contract.
“The business side of it screwed me. It wasn’t personal,” the former Alouettes starting quarterback told The Gazette this week by telephone from his winter home in Reno, Nev. “I kind of could feel it coming. Lose the last game (when) your team is the best in the league. You feel like you should be in the Grey Cup, yet everybody’s questioning whether you’re going to be back.”
Fajardo, who led the Als to a Grey Cup win in 2023 and was named the game’s most valuable player, was traded to Edmonton on Dec. 17 for quarterback McLeod Bethel-Thompson, a potential free agent next month who remains unsigned. That move came after the Als signed Davis Alexander — Fajardo’s replacement — to a three-year contract extension on Nov. 27.
Fajardo was due a $200,000 signing bonus next week from Montreal, part of a 2025 contract worth a reported $482,000 — money that will never be seen. Fajardo might have been willing to return to the Als as Alexander’s backup under a restructured deal, but says no figures were ever presented to him by general manager Danny Maciocia.
“We never talked about any restructure or how this might work,” Fajardo said. “There was no contract offer. That was pretty telling.”
Reached Friday in Orlando, Fla., where he’s on a scouting trip, Maciocia painted a different picture, saying his intention was to best serve Fajardo’s interests. When Maciocia learned of the Elks’ interest he notified Fajardo, who approved a potential trade — something corroborated by Fajardo.
“It’s hard to present a figure when I asked him ‘what would you like?’” Maciocia said. “He wanted to go to Edmonton because he felt, at some point in time, he had an opportunity to play there. I granted him his wish. He never ever mentioned coming back to Montreal and restructuring his contract. He never presented that situation to us.
“I don’t want to go back and forth on this. We granted him exactly what he wanted. It was never presented to me that (coming) back in a backup role at a reduced salary was an option. Ever. Had he presented it would I have entertained it? Absolutely. Throughout the whole process I wanted to make sure we were doing him right. You tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it.”
The Als won their opening five games last season before Fajardo suffered a hamstring injury, opening the door for Alexander to seize his opportunity — although Caleb Evans was head coach Jason Maas’s first choice after the injury.
Alexander replaced Evans at halftime against Saskatchewan on July 25, rallied Montreal to a comeback win and never looked back, winning his next three starts before Fajardo returned. Alexander also won an Oct. 14 start against Ottawa while Fajardo, who played through a rib injury, returned home for the birth of his second child.
“It’s very difficult to be told you’re not going to be the guy and it’s not based off your play,” Fajardo said. “That’s what I felt. I didn’t have the longest runway in terms of playing. If I played terribly, we missed the playoffs and I threw a ton of interceptions, I could look myself in the mirror and say I flat-out didn’t perform and they’re making a decision.”
Fajardo passed for 3,105 yards and 16 touchdowns in 13 games, completing 73.6 per cent of his throws. He was intercepted seven times. Upon returning from his hamstring injury, he passed for 336 yards against Edmonton, but never came close to again approaching that figure.
Fajardo believes he was the victim of circumstance, not only playing through the rib injury, but never regaining his rhythm due to bye weeks in the schedule and not playing a full game the last two weeks of the season. He also understands Maciocia feared losing Alexander to free agency after the organization invested three years into his development. Alexander, 26, is six years younger than Fajardo.
“Davis got his opportunity and took off with it. That made the decision tougher,” said Fajardo, who signed a one-year restructured contract with Edmonton as Tre Ford’s backup before Christmas. “If I don’t have the injury it’s hard for Davis to have that time. He capitalized on a moment he got.
“It doesn’t matter what your relationship is with people. The business side always overrules.”