Steve Calhoun is probably best known for being the longtime personal quarterback coach of Green Bay Packers star Jordan Love, who will be paid about $55 million this season.
But the California quarterback guru is just as proud of another QB he started working with nearly two decades ago — a guy who will make about $54.6 million less than Love this year.
Cody Fajardo, now the starter for the surging Edmonton Elks, was a sophomore at Anaheim’s Servite High when Calhoun was the team’s QB coach in 2007. These days, Calhoun is enjoying every moment of what has been an outstanding season for the CFL journeyman.
“One of the things I told him a long time ago and it’s kind of a little phrase I use with my quarterbacks, I say we’re going to turn big rocks into little rocks with a small hammer,” the founder of Armed and Dangerous Football said over the phone this week.
“The size of the rock might be the size of a house and the hammer might be the size of our thumb but we’re just going to start on the corner of the house and keep chipping away. That sticktoitiveness, that resiliency, that attention to detail, Cody possesses (it all) and he’s doing an unbelievable job.”
If the Saskatchewan Roughriders played in the NFL, chances are Fajardo would have signed a multi-million-dollar deal and been a franchise player for the team after being the West Division’s player of the year in his first year as a pro starter in 2019. Love, for example, got his mega-deal after his first season as a starter with the Packers in 2023.
But, of course, it just doesn’t work that way in the CFL. Saskatchewan was simply the middle of a winding journey through Canada after one training camp with the Oakland Raiders for the successor to Colin Kaepernick at the University of Nevada. A backup in Toronto and B.C. for three-plus years before arriving in Saskatchewan, Fajardo lost his job with the Roughriders in 2022 and signed with the Montreal Alouettes the next year — only after they couldn’t re-sign Trevor Harris, who went to Saskatchewan.
Fajardo then led the Als to the 2023 Grey Cup, but was dealt to Edmonton after a 2024 season in which Montreal lost in the East final. The Alouettes liked what they had in the younger Davis Alexander, who went 4-0 when Fajardo was out with an injury and has developed into one of the league’s top players.
Fajardo wasn’t even a starter when he went to Edmonton. But he replaced Canadian Tre Ford (now with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats) six games into the 2025 season, and hasn’t looked back.
The Elks, who haven’t had a winning campaign since 2017, are 6-1 and coming off a dramatic 36-34 win in Saskatchewan in which Fajardo threw for a career-best 510 yards against the reigning Grey Cup champs. He was named a CFL player of the week after notching a perfect passer rating of 158.3
Not bad for a father of two young sons who contemplated retirement before heading to Montreal and again prior to this season so he could spend more time with his family back in Nevada.
“I’ve been an underdog my entire life. It’s a role I’m very familiar with,” said Fajardo, 34, who wasn’t heavily recruited by top California colleges despite being L.A.’s player of the year in high school.
“Nobody expects anything from the underdog. It’s a good role to be in. More people have jumped on board here or there. But at the end of the day, it’s too late. The ship’s already left the station. I’m going to do what I’m going to do, no matter what.
“It is nice when people are recognizing the hard work that you put in and the stats you have and that kind of stuff. But at the end of the day, things didn’t change when I won a Grey Cup in 2023. A couple people said ‘hey, good job.’ But other than that, the respect I get around this league isn’t top tier. I don’t expect it to change anytime soon.”
Fajardo isn’t the only CFL quarterback to have had this kind of career timeline. Four of the other nine opening-day starting QBs — Zach Collaros of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Bo Levi Mitchell of the Tiger-Cats, Vernon Adams Jr. of the Calgary Stampeders and Saskatchewan’s Harris — also have played some of their best football in recent years after being discarded by other teams.
“I think it’s a couple things,” Fajardo said when asked why so many of the top CFL quarterbacks have succeeded after losing previous jobs.
“One, we’re competitors. We just want to compete. When someone believes you can’t do something, as a competitor, as a professional athlete, you want to do everything you can to prove them wrong. But more importantly, none of us are tied to an $100-million contract like you are down south. When things are not going the way they’re expected, the fastest way to make a change or get a spark is by benching your starting quarterback.
“We’ve all been part of it. If we were signing $100-million contracts and the money was tied to it, I think you’d see us being able to play through those tough times. But I think that’s what makes this league so unique, even the top players, even the future hall of famers are guys who have been benched or guys who have had to go elsewhere to find success. In those instances, you just have to believe in yourself, you have to believe in the body of work and what you’ve put on tape.”
With teams gearing up to stop running back Justin Rankin after his impressive start to the season, Fajardo and the Elks have turned to their passing game in recent weeks. The Elks have shown they can win in many different ways heading into the team’s biggest home game in years on Saturday against the Roughriders.
“I said it on Day 1 of training camp, everyone can go back and clip it. I believed that we had a Grey Cup-winning roster on Day 1, I believe it now,” Fajardo said. “Fortunately, now people are seeing that and people are starting to believe. Our team’s good and we’re talented. But things can change very quickly in the CFL. I know this. So 6-1 is exactly how we wanted to start, start fast. But things can change really fast so we have to stay humble and continue to grind.”
That shouldn’t be a problem for the Elks, considering their quarterback’s history.
Fajardo, who fights for every yard with his gritty style, is 55-37-1 as a CFL starter.
“Cody’s a warrior,” Elks head coach Mark Kilam said after last week’s win. “I just told him the key drive was in the third quarter. We were backed up, he scrambled a bit, we hit someone for a pass. He got blasted on a play, got up, went back to the huddle (and led the team on a touchdown drive).
“That’s Cody Fajardo, man. That guy just lays it out there, leaves his heart on the field every time he plays. That’s why I’ll ride with that guy forever.”
Calhoun feels much the same way.
Next month, he will go to Green Bay to watch Love and the Packers play a Thursday night game against the Atlanta Falcons before heading to Edmonton to watch Fajardo and the Elks entertain the Hamilton Tiger-Cats two days later.
“I’m so proud of him and happy for him,” Calhoun said. “Not only the football player, but the man and husband and father he’s turned into.”
B.C. Lions (1-5) at Winnipeg Blue Bombers (4-3), Thursday, 8:30 p.m. ET / 7:30 p.m. CT
Lions rookie QB Kaidon Salter makes his first career start with Nathan Rourke (shoulder) sidelined, while Dru Brown gets the nod for a fourth straight game for Winnipeg with Collaros (neck) still out.
Montreal Alouettes (6-1) at Ottawa Redblacks (0-6), Friday, 7:30 p.m. ET
The Alouettes edged the Redblacks 37-35 in Week 4 in Montreal.
Calgary Stampeders (3-4) at Hamilton Tiger-Cats (3-4), Saturday, 3 p.m. ET
The Stamps are staying in the GTA after this game for a short week ahead of next Thursday’s contest in Toronto versus the Argonauts.
Saskatchewan Roughriders (4-2) at Edmonton Elks (6-1), Saturday, 7 p.m. ET / 5 p.m. MT
After Vincent Blanchard’s walk-off, 57-yard field goal for Edmonton last week, the West heavyweights meet again.