Hamilton Tiger-Cats acquire rights to two-time Grey Cup-winning QB

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Published November 14, 2022 at 2:45 pm

Ten-year veteran quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell mightwill

A report from The Sports Network (TSN) on Monday indicated that the Hamilton Tiger-Cats have traded for the rights to the two-time Grey Cup-winning QB and former Canadian Football League most outstanding player winner. Mitchell, 32, has been planning to test the free-agency waters in February, but the trade gives him and Hamilton a chance to sign a contract.

Around 4 p.m. Monday, the Tiger-Cats confirmed that the ante headed to Calgary are two draft choices — a third next spring and a fifth-rounder in 2024 — and future considerations.

The CFL has a salary cap that generally means only one quarterback per team gets a big payday. Evans is slated to make $455,000 next seaason, according to 3DownNation. Adding Mitchell would likely require a roster move or a contract reworking.

The last Hamilton team to hoist the Grey Cup — back in 1999 — had a quarterback who had a career renaissance in his early 30s. Danny McManus was a 33-year-old when he arrived in Hamilton in 1998 and led the club to consecutive Grey Cup berths, with a last-play loss against Calgary presaging a decisive win in the rematch in ’99.

Two relatively recent Grey Cup champions had veteran quarterbacks. The Toronto Argonauts won in 2017 with 38-year-old Ricky Ray, and the ’16 Ottawa Redblacks got it done with 41-year-old Henry Burris. Mitchell and the Stampeders, though, were on the other side of those outcomes.

More recently, Mitchell played through a shoulder injury in 2021, then lost the starter job to Jake Maier midway through this season. He did not throw a pass in a game during second half of the regular season. Mitchell came off of the bench on Nov. 6 to briefly spark a Calgary run during an eventual West Division semifinal defeat against the B.C. Lions, completing 8-of-11 passes for 147 yards.

Evans, who turns 29 on Thursday, was on the other end of a midgame quarterback switch in a first-round playoff defeat. Evans was replaced by Matt Shiltz in the third quarter during Hamilton’s 25-17 defeat against the Montréal Alouettes in the East semifinal on Nov. 6.

That loss put a lid on an all-around hard-luck season for the Tiger-Cats. The club committed to Evans as the starter last winter after he and veteran Jeremiah Masoli (now with the Ottawa Redblacks) both had moments of brilliance as Hamilton ran the East Division and played in back-to-back Grey Cup games (sandwiched around a COVID-cancelled season) in 2019 and ’21.

The Tiger-Cats finished 8-10, including 6-9 with Evans behind centre. Evans passed for 3,883 yards and his average of 8.5 per attempt ranked fifth in the nine-team CFL. But the Tiger-Cats struggled with turnovers, with Evans throwing the most interceptions in the league (16, with 16 TD passes) and also being charged with the most fumbles.

Mitchell, a native of Katy, Texas, got on the pro football radar while playing with the Eastern Washington Eagles of the Football Championship Subdivision. (Eastern Washington’s most prominent football alumnus is Los Angeles Rams wide receiver Cooper Kupp.) He joined the Stampeders in 2012. Over his six seasons as the starter, the Stampeders reached the Grey Cup four times, winning twice.

The wins were in 2014 against the Tiger-Cats — the game where a penalty negated a Brandon Banks punt return for a touchdown that would have put Hamilton into the lead — and in 2018 against Ottawa. Mitchell was named most valuable player of both of those games. His MOP wins were in 2016 and ’18.

(Photo CFL.ca.)

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