Graphic: 3DownNation (Photos: CFL.ca)
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats may not have an official general manager right now, but don’t expect Bo Levi Mitchell to try to fill the void with an abundance of scouting insight.
The veteran quarterback, who signed a two-year extension with the team on Thursday, hopes his new deal can sway free agents to come to Steeltown, but long ago learned not to approach the front office with a shopping list.
“I was that way early on in my career, and John Hufnagel made it very clear that I might not have the best eye for talent,” Mitchell laughed.
The 35-year-old pivot certainly has enough clout to influence roster decisions if he chose to do so, especially coming off back-to-back 5,000-yard seasons and a pair of East Division Most Outstanding Player selections. Quarterbacks on both sides of the border have leveraged far less to twist their organization’s arm into signing a favourite target, but Mitchell is too aware of his own faults.
In particular, he recalled one cautionary tale in which his insight was sought out, only to provide a comedically poor talent assessment.
“They came to me one time in Calgary. Sometimes they do this, some of the scouts that are there in training camp or some of the assistant GM-type people will come to you. ‘Hey, man, we’re gonna hold on to 10 receivers. We’re kind of in between two guys for that 10th spot. Who do you like more?’ And it was between DaVaris Daniels and another guy that I can’t even tell you his name anymore,” Mitchell recounted.
Daniels would go on to win the Most Outstanding Rookie award that season, catching 51 passes for 885 yards and nine touchdowns. However, despite professing an appreciation for both players, Mitchell voted to have his soon-to-be favourite target cut.
“The day before was the Red and White game, where DaVaris had two drops for me, and I was really mad at him. I was like, ‘I just don’t know if DaVaris has it mentally or not?’” he said sheepishly. “And then DaVaris ends up having some of the most touchdown receptions of mine out of any receiver I played with. He’s a great friend and an elite receiver in his league, has been for a long time.”
Nine seasons later, Daniels remains a contributing CFL starter, most recently with the Toronto Argonauts, and is among the league’s active receiving yardage leaders. In 125 career games, he’s caught 444 passes for 6,609 yards and 43 touchdowns, earning East Division all-star honours in 2023 and winning three Grey Cups.
The first of those titles came alongside Mitchell in 2018, a constant reminder to take his evaluations with a grain of salt. The desire to hand-pick your weapons is a natural one, but every team-building philosophy is informed by bias.
“As a quarterback, you just want all the toys. You want the big, tall guy, you want the fastest guy, you want the shiftiest guy,” he grinned. “It’s funny, because the quarterback, you kind of go in there and just talk about receivers all the time and vice versa. I’m sure (Stavros Katsantonis) if he went there to give some advice, he wants some better pass rushers all the time. He’d want Aaron Donald to come out of retirement to come play for us so that he can get a couple more picks.”
These days, Mitchell sticks to doing what he’s told in the recruiting department, rather than letting others know who he would like them to target or retain. The future Hall of Famer can be a helpful conduit between interested parties, but leaves the player evaluations to the scouts.
“I found out quick that I might not be a talent acquisition guy, but I’ve had a lot of players reach out, obviously, over the past couple of years. If that happens, I love to be a proxy to kind of get those voices heard by the people that make decisions,” he said. “But, no, I don’t expect Scott Mitchell or Scott Milanovich or (Orlondo Steinauer) to walk up to me and ask me about the talent.”
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats finished first in the East Division standings in 2025 with an 11-7 record, though the team lost the East Final to the Montreal Alouettes. Bo Levi Mitchell led the CFL with 5,296 passing yards, 36 touchdowns, and 11 interceptions after starting all 18 regular-season games, earning the East Division’s nomination for Most Outstanding Player.
The Tiger-Cats ranked third in net offence, eighth in net defence, and first with a turnover differential of plus-ten. The club’s leading rusher was Greg Bell with 1,038 yards, leading receiver was Kenny Lawler with 1,443 yards, and the leading tackler was Stavros Katsantonis with 69 tackles. Hamilton ranked fourth in attendance with average crowds of 22,858, which was a 3.9 percent increase from the previous year.