Stamps lock up McDaniel, Johnson
High-profile pair to stay with club
With the clock ticking down and the Canadian Football League free agency window about to open, John Hufnagel worked his magic.
On Monday morning, news broke that the Calgary Stampeders president/general manager had re-signed two of the team’s most high-profile, soon-to-be free agents, as receiver Marquay McDaniel and defensive lineman Micah Johnson put pens to paper and committed to staying with the team.
An hour or so later, Hufnagel said all that was left to be done on the deals was for the paperwork to come in, although terms of the deals were not revealed.
“They were both priority guys,” Hufnagel said. “We’re very pleased that we can come to a conclusion, and I think both players believe it’s a fair deal and I believe it’s a fair deal, and I’m very pleased they will be on board for the next couple of years.”
The Stampeders were well ahead of the curve in terms of signing potential free agents this off-season, but even as they locked up 11 returning players from the 2016 squad, questions persisted about whether they could bring back both McDaniel and Johnson. It’s easy to understand why. McDaniel was at the heart of the Stampeders offence last season, leading the team with 83 receptions for 1,074 yards.
He was quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell’s favourite target, and the CFL’s most outstanding player was always quick to loudly praise McDaniel’s ability to quietly get open at crucial points in games.
“Marquay is a hell of a player and a guy who has my mind at receiver,” Mitchell said after last year’s West Division Final. “He can see all the defences before they happen, he knows where the holes are going to be and where and when I want him, and he doesn’t drop balls.”
Johnson, meanwhile, is coming off an outstanding 2016 season in which he was named a CFL All-Star after starting 17 games and recording 36 tackles and seven sacks.
The six-foot-two, 277 lb. lineman has played four seasons with the Stampeders, and with the team already losing Frank Beltre to the NFL’s New York Jets, his commitment to the Red & White should bring some much-needed stability to a defence that led the league in sacks and allowed the fewest points of any unit in the CFL last year.
Hufnagel admitted that the signings mean he won’t have much money leftover as the free agency window opens on Tuesday at 10 a.m., and McDaniel’s signing also means that Bakari Grant’s time with the club has come to an end.
“He’ll hit the market,” Hufnagel said of Grant. “Bakari was a priority right under Marquay McDaniel, so I truthfully could only afford one of them and I signed Marquay.
“I talked to Bakari’s agent after the deal was done with Marquay to inform him there will be no more negotiations.”