Bo Levi Mitchell was back on the Field at McMaster today, Without the Walking Boot

Listen to today’s episode of Ticats Today.

As promised, Bo Levi Mitchell was out there. And without the walking boot on his right leg.

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats quarterback, who began suffering swelling in his lower right leg during an off-season workout about three weeks ago, took to the field Monday for the first full practice of training camp. He threw about 30 passes in receiver drills and in skelly—where the six eligible receivers go against seven or eight defenders, with no one charging at the quarterback—and his arm looked strong. As a precautionary measure he didn’t take part in the full 12-on-12 drills. No one wanted any kind of accident.

Head coach Scott Milanovich said there is a plan to bring Mitchell up to full-speed incrementally, with input from the quarterback on how his leg is responding. You could see that he didn’t run full speed on the leg during some drills.

“I was working with Marcellus four hours a day and I wanted him to get credit,” Mitchell said, referring to his very demanding off-season workouts  with strength and conditioning coach Marcellus Bowman to help him recover from the fractured lower right leg he suffered in Week 8 last year in Ottawa. The workouts helped him strengthen and streamline his body, and also increased his speed.

“(The swelling issue) was unforeseen and it was frustrating for me mentally because I wanted to be here for the conditioning tests to show how good I looked at 34 coming out sprinting with the younger guys.”

Milanovich said that he expects Mitchell to be ready to start the season opener in Calgary on June 7–his first return there because the club didn’t visit the Stamps last season– and that the quarterback and some other key veterans, had already been scheduled to have some down time during training camp to keep them fresh for a long season. He says such load management is imperative.

“One hundred per cent, especially for our older players, our bigger players,” Milanovich explained. “You’ve got to kind of keep an eye on them, guys that have come off injury . . . it’s a quick camp so it’s a fine line between  getting them  enough reps to be ready for the season and then making sure they’re healthy for that. We’ll keep an eye on that.”

You can see Milanovich’s post-practice media scrum HERE, and Mitchell’s scrum HERE, and on Ticats Today, we offer a few other first-day impressions of Monday’s practice. Those include the play of No. 2 quarterback Taylor Powell,  the most impressive of the receivers in the “wild chase”  for receivers spots and the competition for the one starting offensive tackle job, which became two over the weekend when Joel Figueroa was placed on the six-game injury list.

CATS CLAUSES: Taylor Powell made several excellent throws including a low scorcher to Tim White that the all-star receiver snared like he had bathed in Krazy Glue … Ticat moves over the weekend , included versatile  receiver and Hamilton native Tyler Ternowski’s shift to the injured veteran list and wide receiver Cameron Batson, being put  on the suspended list. He’d been one of the candidates for a punt return job, although that competition is a little less urgent now that Lawrence Woods III has returned to Hamilton after the B.C. Lions cut him loose.  … Saturday’s release of receiver Terry Godwin, who had six touchdowns and nearly 1000 yards last year, was a reflection of Tim White returning but even more so  that the team wants to get taller at most receiving positions. It’s one of the main themes of this camp … if you missed Tim White’s poignant interview about the many hardships he’s overcome to excel at both the big-time college and professional game check it out at HERE … although  NFL legend Randy Moss’s son Thaddeus Moss –who appeared to this corner to be very out of shape – was released Saturday, there is still a strong depth of big pass catchers as Scott Milanovich looks toward having an NFL-type tight-end package for this year’s offence. Several newcomers looked good, with UCLA’s Michael Ezeike having a strong outing Monday.