The ink is barely dry on most of the contracts—and every team in the league is still undefeated—but it seems clear that free agency has already been kind to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.
Seven free agents landed in the opening 24 hours. The audit shows two receivers, two defensive linemen, two offensive tackles and an explosive kick returner who also plays receiver. Four Americans, three Canadians. All of them have experience, most of it with winning teams.
Even before last week’s communication window and this Tuesday’s official opening of free agency, the Tiger-Cats had signalled that they were once again going for it, that nearly making the Grey Cup wasn’t good enough and that they needed to improve their depth and breadth.
Going back two months, inking five of what this corner considered the six top priorities among their own potential free agents set the unmistakable tone and triggered a chain reaction of Rube Goldberg Machine proportions.
Grabbing Bo Levi Mitchell for two more years by mid-December, as he came off two of the three best seasons in his illustrious career, was the major domino and influenced, directly or indirectly, the re-upping of shutdown corner Jamal Peters, vastly underrated defensive back Destin Talbert, all-everything offensive lineman Brandon Revenberg, all-CFL safety Stavros Katsantonis and all-CFL defensive end Julian Howsare.
“First and foremost, who wouldn’t want to play with a quarterback like Bo?”
Then, before formal free agency started the Cats, knowing they’d likely lose centre/guard Coulter Woodmansey to free agency, which they did—signed veteran centre Chris Kolankowski, who was granted early free agency by Winnipeg, highly mobile quarterback Tre Ford to challenge for the No. 2 spot—also granted an early release—and the real big prize, linebacker Wynton McManis who was also set free early because he wasn’t returning to Toronto.
All of that informed what has happened this week.
The offensive line added an instant starter at left tackle, with Trevor Reid returning from an NFL tryout less than two years after an outstanding season with Saskatchewan’s excellent line. He’s still only 25, and the Cats also added another starting-level tackle in Eric Lofton from the Blue Bombers. That offence should hit the ground running, especially with all four quarterbacks in place already: three of them returnees (Mitchell, Jake Dolegala, Harrison Frost) and Ford, who can supplement the Ticats’ normal play-action-based offence with a run-pass-option change of pace and also adds versatility to the Ticats roster ratio.
There was already a group of young players under contract for this year, most of whom gained CFL experience over the past year or two, and that in itself will hopefully lead to improvement from within.
This is a team which clearly believes it is again a national championship contender and underscored that by re-signing key franchise players, adding proven history at offensive tackle (twice), obtaining a signature star at linebacker where the club had some shortcomings last year, splicing in an interesting twist at quarterback, grabbing a receiver coming off an outstanding season who has similar qualities to the departed Tim White, an older but proven kick returner who still has game, a homegrown Canadian receiver and two potential Canadian rotational players on the defensive line.
And so many of them said this week that it was what the Ticats accomplished last year, when they were the youngest team in the league, and Bo Levi Mitchell was on fire, that dragged a magnet across their iron filings.
“Hamilton has something great going right now, and I’d love to be a part of that, and I can’t wait to get started,” said wide receiver Keric Wheatfall, who had a breakthrough season in Winnipeg last year and rejoins his role model Kenny Lawler. “First and foremost, who wouldn’t want to play with a quarterback like Bo?”
“Every time I played Hamilton, it was always a fight, with the strength of their lines,” added Canadian defensive lineman Kene Onyeka, an intriguing signing who spent six seasons in Ottawa and foreshadows the potential for more impactful domestic content along the defensive line.
Wide receiver Tyson Middlemost, a superb special teams player, also adds receiving depth, and as a McMaster and St. Mary’s grad, he’s stoked by a sense of hometown motivation. And he has six years of experience in the demanding CFL West.
“I’ve always wanted to play in Hamilton, and I think if I could do anything to help Hamilton win a Grey Cup, I think that would mean a lot more to me and to my family than maybe some other destination,” Middlemost says.
There might still be another notable signing or two, but the Ticats have secured a lot of what they need right now, and more of it than they had before.
They’ll still be scouting young free agents to add competition at training camp, but they’re now well-armed for the CFL combines and the draft and can target both long-term and short-term needs. That may mean more Canadian defensive linemen and receivers. They’ll also be auditioning young, and cheaper, American defensive tackles and defensive backs in training camp.
While fans might be mourning the departures of some really good players they hadn’t expected to lose to free agency—White (Winnipeg), Woodmansey (Edmonton), running back Greg Bell (Ottawa) and promising sophomore tackle Brendan Bordner (Edmonton)—it’s important to remember that those players got big money elsewhere, which they had all earned with their play here. But matching their new salaries would have tied the budgetary hands of Hamilton’s football ops department. And, of course, some of that now-available money could go toward retaining Mitchell and Revenberg and luring everybody’s prize target, McManis, to Hamilton.
“I’m an angry and mean guy and play a tough game on the field. I’m very excited to come here.”
The Ticats have added some critical players to new coordinator Bob Dyce’s special teams. Onyeka, who’s fast and big at 244 pounds, had 20 special teams tackles the past two years and says he will only get better. But he also wants a long look at the defensive line.
And with Owen Hubert returning, Kail Dava, who was signed out of Calgary earlier in the off-season, Ty Anderson and recent Cat draftees Luke Brubacher and Isaiah Bagnah, near the end of long injury stretches, Hamilton is eyeballing Canadian content for the defensive line rotation, which could somewhat balance ratio-breaking linebacker Devin Veresuk being allowed to leave for the NFL.
“I definitely see that they’re going to give Canadians a chance, and it’s a part of why I see this as a good fit,” Onyeka says.
Defensive lineman Charbel Dabire, a 300-pounder who spent five years with Saskatchewan, will be part of that Canadian mix. The native of Burkina Faso grew up in Toronto and has a perpetual grin.
“I smile a lot, yes, but don’t let that fool you,” says Dabire, who’s played some special teams because he’s very fast for his size. “I’m an angry and mean guy and play a tough game on the field. I’m very excited to come here. Every time I played against Hamilton, it was always a fight, with the strength of their lines.”
Landing Mario Alford gives the Ticats a deep battle for the primary returner, like there was last year when Isaiah Wooden emerged as the winner and subsequently corralled a reserve/futures contract with the NFL’s Cleveland Browns. Defensive back Quavian White and a few other Americans new to the CFL will also vie for the returner role. But don’t ever count Alford out: he had 44 punt returns and 31 kickoff returns for the Cup champion Roughriders last year and electrified social media with a 99-yard kickoff return for a touchdown with nine seconds left in regulation time to win a game in Toronto last season. He has enormous physical strength and stamina, fashioned partly from his off-season work on the family farm. He is only three years removed from being the CFL’s special teams player of the year and holds Saskatchewan’s record for most career return TDs.
The Ticats had several of their new signings in town for a couple of days this week, with a full schedule of introductions to the off-field staff, their new stadium, the massive Ticat locker room, and the food, which players consider the best in the league. Many of them mentioned that they’ve come to Hamilton because the team feels like it’s on the cusp of winning. They also cited the family atmosphere, the players already here, and recommendations about the organization from players they knew around the league.
And, because they liked the energy and physicality they saw on the field the past few years.
“Every time you played against them, they just kept coming,” McManis said. “You knew you had been in a game.”
