Pressure will be on Stampeders’ QBs
WEEK 1: Dickenson plans to give Buckley start in first pre-season game against B.C. Lions on Tuesday
CALGARY — The Calgary Stampeders coaching staff has done everything in its power to get their backup quarterback options up-to-speed.
Bo Levi Mitchell has gone full practices at training camp without taking a snap while Mitchell Gale, Andrew Buckley and Ricky Stanzi have all taken turns playing with the first-team offence.
It’s been unusual, but the Canadian Football League schedule-makers forced the Stampeders’ hands this year when they handed the team a pre-season schedule that sees them play both games five days apart.
“I’m just trying to let these other guys have a realistic shot to feel like they can compete and win a job in two pre-season games in Week 1,” said Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson. “I just felt that’s the way to go.”
Dickenson intends on giving most of his presumed starters some time on the field Tuesday night against the B.C. Lions, but Mitchell won’t take a single snap.
Buckley will be getting the start, but nobody should be reading too much into that. The plan appears to be for each of the three quarterbacks to get significant opportunities
“We won’t play Bo, but everyone else will play,” Dickenson said. “Hopefully an equal amount. We’ve been doing that all camp so I’m not changing my philosophy. I need to see these other three guys and let’s see how they play.”
Of the three, Buckley’s time as the team’s third-stringer last year gives him a leg-up in terms of knowing the Stamps’ playbook. It’s not as if he has a ton of experience throwing the ball at the CFL level, though, as the former University of Calgary Dinos standout played mostly in short-yardage situations in 2016.
Gale, meanwhile, dressed in 15 games for the Roughriders after being traded from the Toronto Argonauts last season, completing 79 of 137 throws for 950 yards. The 27-year-old knows his way around a CFL field, although he explained that didn’t make learning a new offence any easier.
“I came out here a month early because I knew it was going to be a new offence,” Gale said. “It’s really the first time in my career that I’m in a new offence. I was in Toronto and then in Saskatchewan, it was really an adapted Toronto offence and the terminology, the concepts and the playbook were virtually the same. Here, it’s pretty much different across the board. I had to revert to what it was like studying as a rookie.”
Stanzi is new to the Canadian game but bounced around NFL camps since being selected in the fifth round of the 2011 NFL Draft by the Kansas City Chiefs. Signed right before training camp began, Stanzi has essentially had to start from scratch learning the Stampeders offence.
“The first couple of days were a little bit easier because we kind of had a repeat from rookie camp,” Stanzi said. “But then it’s all new stuff, and you feel like you’re swimming a little bit, but (QB coach Ryan Dinwiddie) says there are peaks and valleys throughout camp, so just try to understand that there’s gonna be ups and downs and you need to work with them.”
With each player taking so many reps in camp, the Stampeders coaches have no doubt been able to draw some conclusions about their respective potential in the backup and third-string roles.
They’ll have a much better idea after Tuesday’s game, though, so there’s pressure on each quarterback to perform.
“Last year, I felt like our quarterback play wasn’t great in pre-season (Game 1),” Dickenson said. “And then which quarterback stepped up in the second pre-season? It was Andrew, and that’s where he showed he could do it. He made the team and he did a good job.”