Stamps training camp will likely see battle for backup QB
Former NFLer Stanzi joins Buckley and Gale to create a triple race for the role
Bo Levi Mitchell is going to be the Calgary Stampeders’ starting quarterback this season.
That’s just about the most obvious statement a writer could make.
The Stamps’ backup job, though, is totally up for grabs.
A couple of weeks ago, Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson said that whichever quarterback played best during training camp and pre-season would be slotted in as backup, and it was assumed that decision would come down to a fight between Andrew Buckley and Mitchell Gale.
On Wednesday, though, Dickenson made it clear that it’s a threeway race.
“Ricky Stanzi’s in the mix, too. He really is,” Dickenson said of the former University of Iowa standout who signed a rookie camp contract with the team last week. “This is my thinking on it: We need these guys to get the reps with not only the No. 2 and No. 3 groups, but the No. 1 group.
“So you’ll be seeing that more this training camp. Bo will be antsy and he’ll be telling me ‘Hey, I want more reps, I want more reps’ but I think it’s up to (Stamps QB coach) Ryan Dinwiddie and myself to make sure these other three guys take reps with the starting offensive linemen, the starting receiving corps, and let’s see who performs the best.”
The departure of Drew Tate this off-season presented an opportunity for someone else to step into the No. 2 role at QB.
Buckley was the third option last year as a rookie after a spectacular Canadian university career with the Calgary Dinos and is undoubtedly the most familiar with the Stampeders playbook. Gale, meanwhile, has the most CFL experience and is coming off a 2016 season in which he played in nine games and completed 79 of 137 passes for 950 yards and two touchdowns for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Stanzi is the wild card here, but the 29-year-old had a remarkable career at Iowa and bounced around the National Football League. Signed after impressing Stampeders staff at their recent mini-camp, Dickenson sounds like he had high hopes for Stanzi.
“He’s another Iowa guy (Tate also played for the Hawkeyes), we like to keep quarterbacks with the Iowa connection,” Dickenson said. “I wonder in my mind why he didn’t carve up a good job in the NFL, because he’s got the size — he’s a good-sized kid — he’s got a nice arm, and I would call him a triple-threat option type of guy, but he’s got pretty good feet and he seems like he’s got a smart football I.Q. It might just have been opportunity or coaching changes.
“I think what he’s missing right now is he hasn’t played in a long time, and he just wants to play football. Those are guys who can make a good living and have a great career up here in Canada.”
LESS THAN PERFECT
The Stampeders’ pre-season schedule isn’t exactly ideal this year.
The team will play its first preseason game on June 6 at home against the B.C. Lions, and only five days later, they’ll be back on the field in Edmonton against the Eskimos.
That’s it. There will be no more opportunity for players to show their skills or mastery of the playbook until the regular season kicks off on June 23 in Ottawa against the Redblacks, and Dickenson admits it’s a challenge.
“It’s probably the worst preseason schedule we could hope for,” Dickenson said Tuesday at his pre-season news conference at McMahon Stadium. “The thing I really struggle with is basically your young guys don’t have as much time to get the knowledge they need.”
NOTES
The forecast for Calgary is calling for warm temperatures over the weekend, and that’s good news for the Stampeders. While it’s a long-running joke that it always rains during training camp in Calgary, Dickenson explained that the weather actually makes a difference as players work themselves into game shape. “The worst thing you can have is cold weather right away, because the muscles tighten up,” Dickenson said. “We try to slow down the pace and give them quite a bit in the classroom.” … While Junior Turner and Quinn Smith are out for a while as they recover from injuries, Dickenson seemed confident that most of the other Stamps players who are also sidelined by injury will be ready to go full-speed by the time the second pre-season game kicks off. He said there were ‘four to six’ players who wouldn’t be doing double practices to start.