Cody Fajardo arrived in Montreal before the start of last season as an experienced quarterback with a few knocks on him.

Most notable was his struggle to complete deep passes, which can be a pretty significant liability in the Canadian Football League.

So seeing Fajardo as the CFL’s leader in passing plays of 30 yards or more this young season stands out more than his other impressive stats, which include a 73.1 per cent completion percentage to go with seven touchdowns and just one interception.

Fajardo is averaging more than 300 passing yards per game for the 3-0 Alouettes, and a lot of it has come in big chunks, including completed passes of 40, 49 and 51 yards in a win over Ottawa last week.

Three games into the season, Fajardo leads the CFL with eight passing plays of 30-plus yards, including three that have gone for touchdowns. He’s also completed the second-most throws of 20-plus yards, with eight.

Some of that has to do with the two outstanding young Canadian targets the Alouettes have in Kaion Julien-Grant and Tyson Philpot, whose abilities to stretch the field rank with the league’s very best.

But it’s also no coincidence that Fajardo set out to improve his deep-ball passing this past off-season.

“I was watching on tape, and I was like ‘Gosh, guys........

© TSN