Mitchell ready to buy-in to Big Blue mindset

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/01/2025 (434 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Dillon Mitchell has been in the CFL for three seasons, long enough to understand professional football is as much a business as it is a game.

At 27 years old, Mitchell has already seen his fair share of both sides.

The Tennessee native dazzled as a rookie with the Edmonton Elks in 2022, racking up 637 receiving yards and four touchdowns in just nine games. That led to the Elks tearing up his multi-year rookie contract, replacing it with a much more lucrative extension that was supposed to last through the 2025 campaign.

With the Elks cleaning house at the end of 2024 after another disappointing season, a new era meant new management and, ultimately, the end of Mitchell’s time in Edmonton.

“I had a conversation with the new GM. It didn’t really go too far,” Mitchell said, recalling his conversation with Ed Hervey. “He pretty much let me know from a business aspect, if I wanted to change my numbers then I could still be there. It’s a business and I felt like there was a value to myself, where I’m never going to ask for everything, but at the same time, I’m going to ask for what I feel like I can get for myself.”

That conversation and subsequent release has landed Mitchell in Winnipeg, where the Blue Bombers have signed him to a one-year deal. Mitchell is making close to the same money he was expected to earn in Edmonton — around $155,000 — but is now on a club that’s had a lot more success.

The Elks have not made the playoffs since falling in the East Final as the crossover team in 2019 and won just 15 of 54 regular season games during Mitchell’s time with the club. As for the Bombers, they’ve won the West Division and made it to the Grey Cup the past five seasons, winning two league championships.

Mitchell has never beaten the Bombers, falling in all six games while with Edmonton. He came close in 2023, after the Elks took a 22-0 lead, only to drop the Week 10 game, 38-29. Mitchell had 67 receiving yards that game, but, interestingly, two of his four 100-yard games in the CFL have come against Winnipeg.

“Every time that I faced Winnipeg, just knowing more than likely the game wasn’t going to go my way, attracted me a lot,” Mitchell said. “That game not too long ago that we played, and we were winning, at Edmonton, and they just stuck with it and ended coming back and beating us. That was something I spoke to Edmonton about, that this is something that great teams and organizations do.”

Mitchell was due an off-season bonus, which is what led to Hervey’s request for a pay cut. The Bombers were one of several teams eyeing Mitchell’s bonus and were anticipating making a move if he became available.

Former Bomber QB and Elks teammate, Dakota Prukop, was already in Mitchell’s ear about the benefits of playing in Winnipeg. After he was formally cut, it wasn’t long before texts started to come from quarterback Zach Collaros, running back Brady Oliveira, receiver Kenny Lawler, who was teammates with Mitchell in Edmonton his first year, and defensive end Willie Jefferson, all of whom encouraged him to join the Bombers.

“It’s heartwarming, understanding that I’m coming to a team that has a lot of, not only character, but prestige,” Mitchell said. “I feel like it’s an opportunity to join something bigger than myself.”

Mitchell brings a ton of talent and should bolster a Bombers offence that currently has a few question marks, particularly at receiver.

Lawler and Dalton Schoen still need contracts, and with both expected to fetch north of $200,000, it will be difficult to keep both. With Ontaria Wilson turning his 1,000-yard rookie campaign last season into a contract with the NFL’s New York Jets, Mitchell could prove to be a safety blanket as much as anything else.

“I pride myself on being a hard worker and pride myself on being, what most who come to see the game for, as an entertainer,” Mitchell said. “I asked Zach Collaros what he needed out of me and that’s buy-in. Coming to a very, very, very great organization, that’s something I can do and that’s what they’re going to get out of me.”

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X and BlueSky: @jeffkhamilton