Bryant Mitchell has mixed feelings about getting a chance to play with the Eskimos again.
On the one hand, the 26-year-old lanky international receiver is excited to draw into the Edmonton starting lineup for Saturday’s Labour Day Rematch with the Calgary Stampeders at 5 p.m. at The Brick Field at Commonwealth Stadium because he has been waiting patiently for four years to show what he can do in the CFL on a regular basis.
After spending the 2015 season on the practice roster, he has put up three 100-yard performances and scored four touchdowns during the 12 games (seven starts) he has played with the Esks during the past three years.
Mitchell caught seven passes for 128 yards and a touchdown in his only start this season on Aug. 18 against the Montreal Alouettes.
On the other hand, this opportunity for Mitchell to step into the starting lineup comes at the expense of fellow receiver Derel Walker, who will spend the next six to eight weeks recovering from a knee injury.
Walker, who ranks fourth in the CFL with 875 receiving yards on 51 catches and shares the league lead of eight receiving touchdowns with teammate D’haquille (Duke) Williams, suffered the injury when his left leg was hyper-extended while trying to make a catch near the Calgary sideline early in the second quarter.
“D-Walk is one of my really good friends,” Mitchell said. “Just experiencing him going down was shocking for me to watch it. My first thought was I hope he’s OK. I’m praying for him. Thank God that he is OK.”
“Lucky it wasn’t worse,” said Eskimos head coach Jason Maas.
Monday’s game actually took out two of the league’s top four receivers this year as the Stampeders’ Kamar Jorden (944 yards on 55 receptions) also suffered a serious knee injury that requires knee surgery. Jorden will miss the rest of the season.
“Going in now is unfortunate (because of Walker’s injury), but at the same time, it’s time just to go out there and play,” Mitchell said. “This is how I feed my family at the end of the day, so I’ve got to make sure I’m on my Ps and Qs and, if I’m called (upon), I’m ready.”
Since he’s been here, Mitchell has seen other teammates like Walker (2015), Brandon Zylstra (2017) and Williams (2018) become stars in the league. He started with Walker at the Eskimos mini-camp in 2015. But while Walker got a chance to play after sitting out the first six games of the regular season in ‘15, Mitchell played in only one game in 2016 and seven last year.
“It was him and me going back-to-back, tired, dying, just telling each other, ‘Hey, I got you. If you’ve got a deep one, you come back, and I’ll run the next two,’ ” Mitchell recalled about that first mini-camp with Walker. “It’s been fun, but we’ve built a great rapport; (we’re) great friends.”
Fortunately, for the Eskimos, Mitchell will be a very capable replacement for Walker.
“Bryant has been waiting in the wings, and he’ll be ready to play,” Maas said. “There’s a little bit of everything about B-Mitch to like. He’s big, and he’s physical, he has a great catch radius, he can vertical threat you, he can underneath threat you, he’s a YAC (yards after catch) guy, he likes to block, he loves the physical part of the game.
“We know he’ll know what to do. He’s been in our offence for three years. We can plug him in at any position, and he knows how to do it. He’s always just waited for an opportunity and any time he’s been given the opportunity, and he’s come up big. We expect him to be motivated, hungry and that’s what you’re going to see come Saturday out of him.”
Mitchell was wearing a Batman bandanna and sweatshirt after Thursday’s practice.
“I just like what he stands for,” Mitchell said about Batman. “He wants to save and help people, and that’s why I love him.”
Now Mitchell wants to help the Eskimos get back on the winning track after suffering back-to-back losses to fall to 6-5 on the season.
As for Walker, the Eskimos are hoping for a fast recovery.
“It’s the first injury he’s ever had so nobody knows how fast he can get back into it,” Maas said. “We have an idea, but athletes are special in recovery at times, and we’re just hoping Derel works hard to get himself back.
“He knows he can be back this year,” Maas continued. “It’s just a matter of time waiting for it to heal and him working hard. At the end of the day, that’s what it takes to come back from injuries. It takes a strong mind and a strong work ethic, and he has both of them.”