Stanzi squeezed out of roster spot
Third-string QB victim of numbers game as Stampeders cut 30-year-old loose
Ricky Stanzi’s time with the Calgary Stampeders is over.
On Tuesday, the Stampeders took the field for practice at McMahon Stadium and the man who has served as their third-string quarterback since the start of the 2017 season wasn’t there.
“We’re going to go with three quarterbacks right now,” said Stampeders head coach Dave Dickenson. “Just got caught in the numbers game and we need that spot. We let him know and hopefully he lands somewhere.”
Stanzi was involved in a fourman fight to back up Bo Levi Mitchell throughout training camp and at 30 years old there wasn’t much use in the Stampeders keeping him around as their third-stringer.
Nick Arbuckle won the backup job with a strong camp, but the Stampeders chose to go into the regular season with Stanzi as the third-stringer and Larry Brihm Jr. on the practice roster.
That didn’t seem like a long-term solution. CFL teams typically use their third-string job to develop a younger quarterback.
Stanzi didn’t fit that bill. Brihm did.
“I was in the same spot, Ricky knows, I was honest with him,” Dickenson said. “When you get a little older and you’re a thirdstring quarterback, it’s very tough. You’re trying (as a coaching staff ) to develop a guy.
“If there was something that happened, knock on wood, we’d give him a call.”
Stanzi was a well-liked and respected member of the Stamps for the past year, although his playing time was negligible.
The Iowa product dressed for 19 regular season games and both of last year’s playoff tilts, but was behind Mitchell and the now-retired Andrew Buckley on the depth chart.
He saw action in only two games, completing four of eight passes for 53 yards and two interceptions.
When Buckley retired to go to medical school, there seemed to be an opening for Stanzi to step into the backup job, but he was beat out by Arbuckle during training camp.
Brihm was signed a few days after the start of camp and didn’t get a ton of playing time in either of the Stamps’ pre-season games, but he did throw a touchdown in each of his two appearances.
At 24 years old, the Boynton Beach, Fla., native has a ton of upside and the Stamps wanted to get a longer look at him.
Through the first week of regular season practices, they liked what they saw and with players who started the season on the onegame injured list returning to practice this week — like Ciante Evans — the Stampeders needed the extra practice roster spot to accommodate everyone.
“Certain guys will move back down to the practice roster,” Dickenson said. “We felt like Larry has done some good things, as well. He’s taken a step forward and we’d like to try to develop him.”
On Tuesday, Brihm was immediately seeing what the bump up the depth chart meant.
While he hadn’t taken many reps at practices in preparation for Saturday’s season opener against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, Brihm was heavily involved in Tuesday’s training session.
“The last couple practices, it’s been sort of limited,” Brihm said. “But they put me in for quite a few series for seven on seven (on Tuesday) and it went great.
“It feels good, you know, to work my way up and just keep striving for perfection. It’s a great feeling being able to go out and be third string and just learn from Bo and all my teammates.”