From backup to rival, Alexander faces former teammate Fajardo in Grey Cup

Despite Fajardo throwing for 330 yards and three touchdowns in the 2024 East Division final, the Alouettes had enough faith in Alexander’s potential to trade the veteran quarterback to the Edmonton Elks.

Now, football fate has brought the mentor and mentee together on opposite sides of the field in Sunday’s Grey Cup.

The 28-year-old Alexander, in the prime of his career, will start a second straight Grey Cup game after he was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player this season.

The 34-year-old Fajardo has helped engineer Edmonton’s turnaround, with the Elks reaching the Grey Cup for the first time since 2015.

“I just knew when his opportunity came, he was going to go with it, and sure enough he has,” Fajardo said Wednesday at McMahon Stadium.

“It’s been pretty impressive to see a young guy like him take over the CFL the way he does, as fast as he has.”

Alexander texted Fajardo earlier this season to thank him for his mentorship.

“It was just a random, I think it was like a Tuesday or Wednesday, I just look at my phone and Davis Alexander’s texting me,” Fajardo recalled.

“When I got to reading it, I got emotional because you don’t know what impact you have in people’s lives unless they share it with you.”

Alexander sent the text because he felt Fajardo helped him become the quarterback he is now.

“He means a lot to me,” Alexander said. “He was a major, major part of me growing up as a person, growing up as a quarterback, growing up a leader.

“It can be uncomfortable for a starting quarterback to have somebody on your hip all the time and eager to learn from you, and he’d never bat an eye at it. He was like a coach to me. A coach that I could ask any detailed question, and he wasn’t going to hold any information.”

Alexander shook off this season the hamstring issues that limited him to seven regular-season games and hampered him in the playoffs in 2025.

He threw for 5,257 yards, which ranked second to Saskatchewan’s Trevor Harris (5,370), in 2026. Alexander’s 35 touchdown passes were second to Calgary’s Vernon Adams Jr. (36).

In the East Division final, the Alouettes’ quarterback threw for 373 yards and two touchdowns without an interception.

Fajardo had no regrets about taking Alexander under his wing three years ago.

“I gave him too much of the blueprint, I think,” Fajardo joked before continuing:

“He’s kind of ran with it, but that guy is a student of the game. All he did was every morning when I showed up, he’d sit in those meetings, take notes, and just listen. He’s leading his own way. But the amount of texts and the amount of back and forth we’ve had, he’s been so gracious about the way that I treated him when I was in Montreal.”

Alexander described Fajardo as the ultimate competitor.

“We used to battle in ping pong, cornhole, fantasy baseball, every single thing you could imagine,” Alexander said. “I know he’s going to leave it all out on the field as he did in ’23, as he did in ’24 for us in the East final.

“He’s a heck of a player, heck of a leader, fierce competitor, and it might end up coming down to whoever has the ball in their hands last.”

Edmonton won games down the stretch of Fajardo’s first season with the team to finish 7-11. He signed a contract extension in December.

Fajardo threw for 4,788 yards and 25 touchdowns and rushed for 517 yards and eight touchdowns in 2026.

He threw a touchdown pass and ran for another while passing for 274 yards in this year’s West final.

Fajardo said he won’t make a decision about his future without first consulting his wife Laura, who motivated him to return for another season when the couple watched last year’s Grey Cup between the Alouettes and Saskatchewan Roughriders.

“I remember my wife looking at me after the game and said, ‘You can get back there,'” Fajardo recalled. “That’s all I needed to hear, and that was the confidence I needed from her.

“This decision to come back wasn’t my decision. It was my wife’s decision. The sacrifice that she made, things were really hard. I had to take a huge salary cut.

“She’s a true football wife and football mom, and she understands it. When she gave me the green light, I was ready to go.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 11, 2026.

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press

by The Canadian Press

From backup to rival, Alexander faces former teammate Fajardo in Grey Cup

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