Through the first couple of days of free agency, the Tiger-Cats were already pretty pleased with their receiving corps.
Then, on Day 3, they added two veteran receivers who can—and possibly/likely will—be starters. It’s an embarrassment of riches, although the Ticats aren’t at all embarrassed about it.
Shemar Bridges, the finalist for the CFL’s 2024 top rookie award, and Canadian Kurleigh Gittens Jr. were both added to the depth chart, and nowhere near the bottom of it.
“I felt coming back to Hamilton was the best thing for me,” said the 6-foot-4 Bridges. “And I’m excited to be back to contribute and help us win a championship.”
Bridges delivered a monster first year with the Ticats, with 83 catches for 933 yards and four touchdowns and would have easily reached 1000 yards and broken the CFL rookie receiving record of 89 catches, had he not been sidelined by injury for the final three games of the season.
It was the ‘target’ statistical category which accounted for most of what seemed to be a drop-off in production in 2025 when he had only 34 catches for 361 yards and two TDs. But with Kenny Lawler’s arrival the ball was thrown toward Bridges only 51 times, about 42 per cent fewer than the season before. He’s a bona fide starter, as are returnees Lawler, Kiondré Smith, and newly-acquired Gittens and Keric Wheatfall. Additionally, there’s Global tight end Jevoni Robinson, who has done solid work over his two seasons thus far in black and gold.
“We can rip it so I don’t think there’s going to be any drop-off. I’m excited to meet those new guys and build that chemistry like we had in the past.”
Tyler Ternowski is starting calibre and fellow Hamilton native Tyson Middlemost, a special teams standout signed as a free agent, can also hold down a receiving spot during the game.
“It’s a loaded group,” Bridges told Ticats.ca, “We’ve had loaded groups in the past, especially last year, and we’ve got another good bunch this year, a mixture of Canadians and Americans.”
“We can rip it so I don’t think there’s going to be any drop-off. I’m excited to meet those new guys and build that chemistry like we had in the past.”
He said his first foray into CFL free-agency “was a long, interesting, frustrating process and the whole time there were a lot of moving parts.”
Those parts stopped moving with a late call Monday night and a formal contract Thursday.
Gittens’ signing is even more impactful because he’s not only talented and consistent but also Canadian. The Ticats could start as many as three Canadian receivers with Smith and Gittens locks at the moment and Ternowski, a favourite of Bo Levi Mitchell, able to take the heavy pounding with short passes into the middle, or running under the deeper throw along the wide sideline.
Gittens played at Wilfrid Laurier University, where he was Hec Crighton runner-up and was one of only five Canadian university players ever to finish their careers with 200 catches, and the only one to do it in four years, rather than five.
In the pros, was an All-CFL selection in 2022 with the Toronto Argonauts where he spent four seasons before he was traded to Edmonton prior to the 2024 season. With the Elks he nibbled around 1000 yards each of the past two seasons (847 yards, followed by 777 last year) and had a combined 147 catches and nine touchdowns.
“I felt Hamilton wanted me from the jump, which kind of made it easy to come here; you go where you’re wanted,” said Gittens, who was born in Guyana but moved to Ottawa as a seven-year-old.
And he’s always played well against the Ticats, with 63 catches against them in the past five years. He’s had five touchdowns against the Cats in the last four seasons and Hamilton fans will recall his diving end-zone catch against the Cats last season in a dramatic game Hamilton won on Marc Liegghio’s last-second field goal.
“Every time you played Hamilton you had to be on your game,” Gittens said. “Playing against them was something special, especially when I was in Toronto. I knew I had to be on my ‘A’ game. Just playing there in that environment brings out the best in me. And it’ll be on a day-to-day basis now. The atmosphere is just electric and now it’ll be every game.
“I’m definitely familiar with the area which is nice. But it’s a new organization, a new field and a new fan base for me so I’m really just trying to get acclimatized to my surroundings and find a way to be myself in the locker room.”
The addition of Gittens further widens the path the Ticats had clearly decided to follow in increasing their options to get more Canadians on the field on offence. Tre Ford will battle for the No. 2 quarterback spot and if he plays, will count as a homebrew for the ratio. There are already three Canuck starters on the offensive line in perennial all-star guard Brandon Revenberg, guard Liam Dobson and newly-landed veteran centre Chris Kolankowski, with three Canadian backups. Then add in running backs Johnny Augustine, Ante Litre and Daniel Bell, as well as receivers Smith, Gittens, Ternowski, Keaton Bruggeling, Shedler Fervius and Tyson Middlemost. All have plenty of CFL experience.
In the winter and spring before Mitchell’s first season in Hamilton, Gittens spent some time at a private training centre working quarterback-receiver drills with Bo Levi Mitchell, Ternowski and Smith so he’s got connections to those new teammates.
“You don’t have to say too much about Bo, he’s a certified Hall of Famer as soon as he’s done playing,” Gittens said. “I’m really excited to take some passes from him and build that rapport. He’s a playmaker and a great leader. And he’s got a great taste in numbers.”
Gittens has worn No. 19 since the 2021 season, but with Mitchell having squatter’s rights, Gittens will have to make the switch.
He says that Hamilton fans can expect this of him: “I feel like I play with a chip on my shoulder. I don’t take things for granted. I always play like it’s my last game and I’m really just grateful to be in the position that I’m in and just play with effort and attitude. Those are the two things we can control.”
