On Monday, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats made me consider that guardian that perks up from their seat once they notice issues are slightly too quiet at house.
The Ticats had been virtually eerily silent by means of this low season when it comes to signing gamers forward of the free agent market opening at midday ET on Feb. 14. When the dearth of signings got here up throughout group president and GM conferences earlier this month in Kananaskis, all that president of soccer operations and head coach Orlondo Steinauer supplied was that work was being executed they usually’d continue to be quiet about it.
When a guardian acknowledges that silence, they’ll stroll right into a room stuffed with marker artwork all around the partitions, or a laundry detergent-fuelled slip-n-slide hallway. What the Ticats supplied on the finish of their silence was way more productive, as they introduced on Tuesday that they’d come to phrases with Bo Levi Mitchell on a three-year deal.
Mitchell’s signing was a prolonged course of that, as he revealed at his introductory press convention, concerned visiting with Ticats’ CEO Scott Mitchell whereas they have been each in Hawaii on trip. Mitchell had contact with officers from a number of ranges of the group earlier than he put his title to that contract.
There have been conversations with Steinauer and he wished to make certain that coordinators Mark Washington and Tommy Condell can be on board this 12 months. He talked about a dialog with assistant GM and director of participant personnel Spencer Zimmerman, who laid out the salaries of current Gray Cup-winning quarterbacks.
As one Ticats exec mentioned after Bo had been launched and met with the media, this was a prolonged and vital course of for them. With that cannonball into the free company pool, anticipate the Ticats to proceed to make some waves as we get nearer to Valentine’s Day.
The Ticats’ information on Tuesday ought to have a ripple impact on the free company market. Listed below are a couple of of these ripples and different issues I’m watching.
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The place will Dane Evans play this 12 months?
With Mitchell signed, sealed and feted in Hamilton on Tuesday, the query ultimately got here to Steinauer: What about Dane Evans?
“Dane’s beneath contract with us,” Steinauer mentioned. “We’ve had conversations since we’ve acquired the rights (to Mitchell). Proper now he’s a Hamilton Tiger-Cat and the subsequent steps might be decided within the close to future.”
Evans is poised to be a really attention-grabbing piece of this low season, despite the fact that he’s beneath contract by means of 2023. If the 29-year-old have been to depart the Ticats it might be by means of a commerce or an outright launch. From a Ticats’ perspective, a commerce makes probably the most sense.
With Mitchell off the market, groups (cough, cough, Saskatchewan) which can be quarterbacks might look to pending FAs Trevor Harris and McLeod Bethel-Thompson as skilled starters. Or they may give Steinauer a name about Evans.
I’d wish to see the REDBLACKS make that decision. Positive, Evans might not need to take the demotion and certain subsequent pay reduce required for this, however we’ve seen that Jeremiah Masoli and Evans are a wonderful 1-2 punch. In Ottawa, Evans might present the skilled backup QB depth GM Shawn Burke is in search of.
“I’m optimistically delusional, and I’ll all the time wager on myself,” Evans posted to his Instagram story Tuesday night.
Maybe Ottawa is an unlikely cease for Evans at this level, nevertheless it’s one I see as an excellent match.
What is going to the Argos appear to be?
The Gray Cup champions are inching nearer to free company with a number of questions nonetheless within the air. Does McLeod Bethel-Thompson name it a profession after main his group to the highest of the CFL mountain? In that case, does backup Chad Kelly get the keys to the offence or do the Argos search for a extra skilled starter?
Which method do vets Henoc Muamba and Andrew Harris lean when they give thought to their already closely adorned soccer careers on the heels of a storybook ending to 2022? Brandon Banks, the third vet in that group, was launched by the group however hasn’t formally introduced something about his intentions but. Within the state of affairs that MBT, Muamba and Harris all return, the Argos might go into full run it again mode. In the event that they don’t, common supervisor Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons and his employees must roll out a a lot totally different wanting group for its Gray Cup defence this 12 months.
Vernon Adams Jr. heads into a wonderful alternative in BC this 12 months after Nathan Rourke made his transfer to the NFL (Christian Bender/CFL.ca)
My candidate to have a giant 2023? Vernon Adams Jr.
Little question, there’s a void left behind within the wake of Nathan Rourke‘s lightning-in-a-bottle season with the Lions. As I wrote after the information of Rourke’s signing with the Jacksonville Jaguars, although, the Lions prevented a ton of low season turmoil once they traded for Vernon Adams Jr. when Rourke was injured final 12 months. There’s no leaping into the QB fracas this winter for co-GMs Neil McEvoy and Rick Campbell. They don’t must envision what their offence would appear to be beneath Dane Evans, Cody Fajardo or Trevor Harris. Their Plan B was Plan A-good all alongside and he can seamlessly step in and carry out for the Lions.
At his finest in Montreal, Adams was a galvanizing power of massive performs, massive comebacks and massive wins. I believe McEvoy, Campbell and the Lions present the proper setting for VA to get again to that and to guide this group into one other good season.
Possibly we’re all sleeping on Cody Fajardo
Proper now, Cody Fajardo jogs my memory of Agent Michael Scarn at his lowest level in Menace Stage Midnight. No, Fajardo didn’t have an evil president conspire along with his best enemy to make him America’s most wished prison. However Fajardo does roam the pending free agent panorama with an identical vibe, with what he as soon as knew to be his environment stripped down round him.
He was sacked dozens of instances in a disappointing season whereas combating by means of a knee damage. He was benched the week of the Riders’ must-win recreation in Hamilton in Week 20. By means of all of that, he misplaced the boldness of the followers that had so fervently backed him when he grew to become the group’s starter in 2019.
Final 12 months’s Roughriders gave up a league-worst 77 sacks by means of 18 video games. Reduce that quantity in half and the way way more productive is the Riders’ offence? What number of extra performs does Fajardo make? What number of extra touchdowns are scored and what number of extra video games are gained? If Fajardo can get the safety that any quarterback wants, what’s his ceiling?
In that 2019 season, he led the league in passing yards. In each 2019 and 2021, the one factor that stopped the Riders have been the eventual Gray Cup champion Blue Bombers. Fajardo was third in passing within the shortened 2021 season, with 2,970 yards, behind Bo Levi Mitchell and Michael Reilly. I really feel like that model of Fajardo is the one {that a} group might signal subsequent month. A contemporary begin may very well be simply what Fajardo must get his confidence again on observe (something however The Scarn Dance).
