Two Montreal Alouettes’ playmakers are feeling confident heading into the 2025 season, Austin Mack and Tyson Philpot believe four different receivers can reach the 1,000-yard mark.
“Jason Maas in 2015 had four 1,000-yard receivers. If there’s a year to do it, I think this could be that year,” Mack told 3DownNation. “I think it’s very tangible that we could do, I don’t see why not. Every single one of us if given the opportunity, we can make that happen.”
According to CFL stats guru Steve Daniel, only four teams have ever had four 1,000-yard receivers in the same year. The Alouettes accomplished the feat in 2004 and 2005 and the Ottawa Redblacks did it in 2015 and 2016. Maas was Ottawa’s offensive coordinator in 2015 when Chris Williams, Greg Ellingson, Ernest Jackson, and Brad Sinopoli each went for 1,000 yards then left to become Edmonton’s head coach in 2016.
Mack declined to identify which four Montreal receivers he believes could reach 1,000 yards this season, but teammate Philpot was more forthcoming, predicting himself, Mack, Charleston Rambo, and Tyler Snead will hit the milestone. He also suggested Cole Spieker, the team’s big-bodied interior slotback who does a lot of blocking, might come up just short.
“Cole can have 999,” Philpot said with a chuckle. “Cole knows how it is. Cole’s going to get his yards the dirty way. … But if Cole wants to get 1,000, he can go get 1,000.”
Mack earned All-CFL honours after his rookie season in 2023 when he caught 78 passes for 1,154 yards and four touchdowns, which led to an NFL opportunity with the Atlanta Falcons. He rejoined the Als last August following his release from the Altlanta Falcons and dressed for three games, recording 10 receptions for 145 yards.
With a new starting quarterback in Davis Alexander, Mack feels confident Montreal will be able to attack downfield more than when Cody Fajardo was under centre.
“We have a guy that can get us the ball anywhere on the field,” Mack said. “Not to throw shade at my guy [Fajardo] but it was more ‘everything is underneath, everything is more controlled.’ We’re going to be able to open this playbook up and almost be unguardable. There’s five guys on our team at receiver that the ball can go to them in an isolation situation and they’re going to execute.”
“One thing about Davis is that he’s not scared to throw that deep ball,” Philpot said. “I think Davis showed a lot of that in practice when he would get his opportunity to play with us and even when he had his little four, five-game stretch, we were hitting the deep ball and that’s something that we talk about as a receiver group that we want to do more of. No knock to Cody — he’s super efficient, he made great throws — he did go underneath, and it was high-percentage completions. I think Davis is going to add a new dimension to the offence.”
The Alouettes had no 1,000-yard receivers in 2024, though Philpot was on pace for over 1,500 yards when he suffered a season-ending foot injury at the midway point of the season. The 24-year-old told 3DownNation he’s currently 80 percent through his recovery and plans to ramp up toward training camp. He “looking good” for the start of the regular season.
If he stays healthy in 2025, Philpot seems likely to reach the 1,000-yard mark for the first time in his young career. Whether or not three teammates join him remains to be seen.
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