B.C. Lions’ quarterback Rourke aims to reduce sloppiness, maintain audacity this season

“You could see times where I was forcing it and being a little sloppy with the football,” said Rourke, who threw for 5,290 yards, 31 touchdowns and 16 interceptions in 16 regular-season starts last year. “What Buck [Lions’ head coach Buck Pierce] talks about is being aggressive but not sloppy.”

Finding that balance is the hard part.

“He wants to protect the ball better,” said TSN broadcaster Farhan Lalji, who was at Lions’ training camp this week in Kamloops. “Every quarterback should want to do that. For me, though, I always say if you want the greatness of Nathan, sometimes you’ve got to be able to live with a level of risk. The best of Nathan is being greedy. I want to see him take those chances. That’s what makes him a special player and an MOP.”

Pierce said each interception in 2025 will be analyzed individually, noting Rourke has room for improvement in many areas, including decision making.

But his star pivot will be encouraged to play with freedom.

“Interceptions are going to happen,” Pierce said. “You want Nathan to be Nathan. You want him to play with the decisive nature that he is. I’m never going to hold him back from that.”

Rourke said he will aim to be more patient this year: “It’s about not trying to get more out of a play than what’s there. We want to continue to have the mindset where I feel like I can fit the ball into any area and take shots when you need to, but you have to pick and choose.”

Pierce, now in Year 2 at the helm, said there is room improvement in the quarterback-play caller relationship.

“Making sure that we’re on the same page,” said Pierce, who is also offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach for the Lions. “Physically, he can do all the things. How do we continue to funnel information for him? As an offensive co-ordinator, how do we make his job a little bit easier and continue to push the envelope on what he can do?”

Rourke was asked if there were any specific growing pains in the relationship last year.

“I wouldn’t say so,” he said. “It’s just hard when you’re getting to know people. If you’re starting a job and you have a new boss, you’re trying to figure out what their communication style is, how to best communicate with them. I would say we have a pretty good relationship. He’s been extremely cool to work with. I think he’s doing a fantastic job.”

Rourke said there were growing pains on offence last season, with Pierce, formerly offensive co-ordinator for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, bringing his system to the Leos.

“More often just because you’re trying to take an offence that was working so well with certain people in the last system and trying to copy and paste it to a new system with new personnel,” Rourke said. “It’s just learning what our strengths are as players and people, and trying to see how we evolve the offence, change it and mould it to what we want to be, but take what they did well. That took us a little bit of time, but we found it. We were on a hot streak there at the end.”

Rourke, seen putting in extra work after practise wrapped up on Tuesday, will take the field with his team for the next camp session, which is slated to run from 2:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. on Thursday [May 14] at Hillside Stadium.

“He’s a guy that is highly critical of himself,” Pierce said. “The best players want to be coached. Not to take away with what he did last season, but we need to start faster than we did last season, as well.”

by Marty Hastings

B.C. Lions’ quarterback Rourke aims to reduce sloppiness, maintain audacity this season

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