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His Canadian Football League statline is 40-for-81 for 391 yards, with a touchdown and three interceptions. As the short-yardage quarterback, he also rushed for five touchdowns. He started two games for the Redblacks, with both starter Trevor Harris and backup Drew Tate injured.

It wasn’t his stats, though, that made him so popular in Ottawa — with fans and teammates. Lindley was a great fit in the locker room, calling himselfSteve Vachon as he grew close to some of the team’s francophone players and became a member of the “French Mafia.”

With both Lindley and Tate now gone, the Redblacks have Dominique Davis, Danny Collins and Will Arndt behind Harris. Collins and Arndt have no CFL game experience, while Davis completed 33-of-54 passes for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers during the 2015 and 2017 seasons.

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“It becomes a function of trying to fit everything we can under the (salary) cap, also giving as much opportunity to our younger guys as possible,” said Redblacks general manager Marcel Desjardins. “It’s a combination of that. It’s something we’ve been contemplating. We were trying to figure out a way maybe not to have to do it, but at the end of the day, we just feel this is best.

“It doesn’t mean we’ll go into camp with what we have, but we’re prepared to do that. Dominique’s been in this league a long time, I think he’ll bring a different element to the table in terms of his skillset. We have to give the younger guys as many reps as we can, that’s part of the reasoning behind this decision. We think they have the attributes to potentially be viable options for us down the road. It still has to play out that way, but they certainly have that skillset, that mentality and that desire.”