There’s no guaranteed formula for winning Grey Cups. The quarterback position, though, is a pretty good place to start.

For Chris Jones and the Riders, everything appears to be falling into place — with one question mark. When it comes to that critical position, Jones knows, like all of us, that time is of the essence.

Just look at the list of the last 10 Grey Cup-winning quarterbacks. Henry Burris, Mike Reilly, Bo Levi Mitchell, Darian Durant, Ricky Ray (3), Travis Lulay, Anthony Calvillo (3), Kerry Joseph, Dave Dickenson, and Damon Allen. Most of them will be Hall of Famers when all is said and done.

The Riders’ boss is stopping at nothing to find an answer under centre, from advanced stats in practice to shuffling bodies in and out of camp (it took only a couple of days for Jones to drop Maty Mauk and replace him with Marquise Williams — coincidentally the afterword to Darian Durant at North Carolina).

So maybe it shouldn’t surprise us that when asked about Bryan Bennett, one of the five quarterbacks vying for a starting job at Riders’ training camp, Jones had both an answer and the numbers to back it up.

“Right now he’s second in completion percentage and he’s also second in accuracy to Kevin,” Jones told a group of reporters earlier in the week. “We do completion percentage and we don’t take drops away from them — if they throw a good ball and the receiver drops the football then we don’t count that as a bad ball.

“And then any route under 15 yards,” he added, “any of the shorts or intermediates, we look for accuracy and we have a grading system on that.”

Jones wasn’t the general manager when he came to Edmonton, Ed Hervey was. But Jones, a South Pittsburg, Tenn. native and a football mad scientist with his intricate network of American scouts, no doubt had a hand in uncovering the talented, young internationals that helped the Eskimos go from 4-14 to Grey Cup Champion in the span of two years.

But when Jones left his post as the Argos’ defensive coordinator for his first head coaching gig, quarterback was one position he didn’t need to fill. In Edmonton, Jones helped build a roster of young and supremely talented athletes around one of the league’s top quarterbacks.

In Saskatchewan it’ll be the opposite. The chicken-before-the-egg debate reversed.

In only two off-seasons, Jones has drastically improved his Canadian content and secured a strong core of young and talented Americans. A group that, you could argue, compares to the rest of the competition in the West.

Like he did in Edmonton, Jones built an overpowering defensive front seven and, on offence, a receiving corps, led by Naaman Roosevelt and Duron Carter, that’ll give defensive coordinators all they can handle (while Jones inherited Roosevelt, he still identified him as a talented receiver that can be a CFL No. 1).

Jones even hasn’t been afraid to scrap his own projects. Last year, the Riders’ coach brought in Mitchell Gale, G.J. Kinne and Jake Waters, among others, to develop behind Darian Durant. But today, every quarterback that was in camp for the Riders a year ago is gone.

Kevin Glenn is a good, proven veteran quarterback. But winning his first Grey Cup in his 17th CFL season at age 37 would be a rare accomplishment in this league. Kerry Joseph, mentioned above, was 34 when he won MOP and his first Grey Cup in 2007. Glenn was a year younger when he missed on his best opportunity in 2012 with the Stamps.

If it’s not Glenn, maybe it’s the Canadian, Brandon Bridge. Or the former NFL Pro Bowler, Vince Young.

Maybe it’s Bryan Bennett. Bennett has been the talk of camp in Saskatoon with his strong arm and ability to move the pocket with his legs.

“He’s got a little bit of Mike in him,” said Jones. “He’ll take off running with that thing, he’s not slow. He’s a guy that we can put on our punt team kind of the way we used Jordan in Edmonton so he’s another versatile athlete that can do multiple things.”

Some tidbits on Bennett: the 25-year-old was originally recruited by Oregon and played behind Marcus Mariota before transferring. And at the NFL Combine in 2015, Bennett tied the all-time record for the fastest velocity on a throw at 60 MPH.

Maybe, a year from now, it’s none of these guys. Riders fans have fantasized about James Franklin coming over next off-season when, it’s been well reported, Franklin could become a free agent. That makes sense, especially considering it was Jones who originally scouted and signed Franklin two years ago.

But that scenario, all hypothetical and far from certainty, is at least a year away from unfolding. Jones won’t twiddle his thumbs in the meantime. He can’t afford to.

What Jones needs is his new version of Mike Reilly. And it needs to happen sooner rather than later.

The Riders’ coach and GM was afforded a mulligan in his first season in green and white. Although the Riders improved throughout the season, they still finished 5-13, last in the West Division. At the same time, Jones and the Riders have paid multiple fines for roster violations.

In football, we often look at things in a vacuum and that simply isn’t fair. Like the coach needs support from the GM who needs support from the owner, a quarterback is nothing without time to throw and an open receiver. That much is unequivocally true.

But then we’re brought back to a reality in football that seems to always hold true: Quarterback play trumps all. And we’re reminded, once again, of all those great Grey Cup-winning quarterbacks over the course of history.

The list of championship teams without an all-world quarterback, in comparison, is virtually non-existent.

Chris Jones uncovers and recruits talent south of the border like few others. For now, though, more than ever, he needs to uncover a quarterback. Because history just doesn’t favour great teams without a great one.

– With files from Riderville.com