HUFNAGEL ‘OPTIMISTIC’
Expects Bo Levi to be back
John Hufnagel has a plan going forward with the Calgary Stampeders. A big-money one.
Or so fans hope.
It includes Bo Levi Mitchell as the CFL team’s quarterback, even though the Stampeders general manager/president has yet to re-sign the talented Texan with the league’s free-agency period set to open Tuesday at 10 a.m.
“We’re talking — I’m very optimistic something will get done,” Hufnagel said Monday at McMahon Stadium.
“I just don’t know when, so we’re plugging away.”
Mitchell had seven workouts with NFL teams after guiding the Stampeders to the Grey Cup victory over the Ottawa Redblacks in Edmonton.
The quarterback’s hope was to find the perfect landing spot in four-down football.
But he has yet to sign an NFL contract with speculation now that he’ll return to the CFL.
Come Tuesday morning, he’ll have plenty of suitors — with the Toronto Argonauts, Edmonton Eskimos and Saskatchewan Roughriders all believed to be on that list — but Hufnagel hopes to corral the league’s top player with a deal of his own.
It’ll take massive cash — think $700,000.
“I have a budget with Bo Levi (in it)," Hufnagel said. “Now, I said I’m optimistic, but does it fit the budget? We’ll have to see.”
Indeed, it may take upward
of three-quarters of a million dollars to bring back Mitchell with Mike Reilly, the league’s other top quarterback, rumoured to be headed to the B.C. Lions for a large chunk of money somewhere in the $700,000 range. (TSN reported Monday night that Reilly, 34, will sign a fouryear deal with the B.C. Lions worth about $700,000 per season on Tuesday.)
It’ll likely take top dollar to ensure the return of the CFL’s top player this time around. “(Seven-hundred thousand dollars is) quite significant, no question about it,” Hufnagel said. “I have a good number (being offered to Mitchell). Hopefully that number works.
“It’s difficult. It’s been a very confusing, stressful type of couple of weeks. But you just have to deal with it, that’s the way the game is right now. That’s why I’m leaning toward being optimistic that Bo will be a Stampeder and conducting business as if he will be.”
Word is Mitchell was close to inking a deal with the NFL’s Denver Broncos in the last few weeks, but they never reached a contract that satisfied both parties.
The veteran signal-caller, with seven seasons under centre in the CFL, has said publicly he wouldn’t take a flyer on an NFL deal if it meant holding a clipboard and not getting a realistic shot at playing time.
The 2018 Grey Cup MVP had NFL workouts with the Broncos, Minnesota Vikings, Chicago Bears, Jacksonville Jaguars, Buffalo Bills, New York Giants and Indianapolis Colts.
“I would expect that if he was going to sign an NFL contract, it would’ve been done,” said Hufnagel. “But what I expected and what’s actually going on behind close doors, I’m not sure.
“I’m not quite sure about him signing down south. I don’t think the interest is as strong today as it was possibly when he was doing all the (NFL) workouts. I just think right now we need to establish what he wants and who’s going to set the bar out there with the quarterbacks.”
If that doesn’t happen, where will the Stampeders turn?
The other free-agent quarterbacks considered headliners in the league are 32-year-old Trevor Harris, who spent the last three seasons as a hot-and-cold commodity with the Redblacks, and 30-year-old Zach Collaros, who has bounced from the Argonauts to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats to the Roughriders during his up-and-down, seven-year CFL career.
They’re certainly not Mitchell, who’s just 28 and by far the most consistent, successful and talented of the quarterback bunch.
Mitchell, of course, just won a second CFL most outstanding player honour and added his second Grey Cup as a starter.
The championship season also saw him finish with 5,124 passing yards and 35 touchdowns against 14 interceptions.
The touchdown count was the highest of his seven-year CFL career and his yards compiled through the air was the second highest of his career. In 2016, he tossed for 5,385 yards before being named MOP for the first time.
Then there’s the two pivots the Stampeders currently have under contract in Nick Arbuckle and Montell Cozart.
“We have two young guys that we like that we think are capable and very promising,” Hufnagel said. “So if things went south with Bo, I think we still have the skill at the position to win football games.”
No matter the promise, though, neither have a proven track record in the CFL.
So the pressure seems to be on Hufnagel to ensure Mitchell is right back in the saddle with the Stamps. But it will take big money, much more than the $450,000-plus he made last season.
“There’s no pressure (right now) because Bo hasn’t signed anywhere,” Hufnagel said. “Like I said, I’m optimistic. I have a plan and hopefully it works.”