QB Streveler working hard, waiting for opportunity

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This article was published 22/05/2019 (2305 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

It was a month after his season had come to an end that Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Chris Streveler said he was able to truly reflect on his first year in the Canadian Football League.

Looking back, what a ride it was.

“It was kind of a crazy season last year, with the way everything happened. I signed on competing for the third-string job; the backup retires; last practice of camp Matt goes down and now I’m starting and I’ve been up here for one month,” Streveler, standing in the end zone of IG Field following another day of training camp, said.

If Streveler got anything in his first year of professional football, it was opportunity. Brought in straight out of the University of South Dakota to add depth to a top-heavy quarterback roster with Matt Nichols firmly entrenched as the starter and Darian Durant as the No. 2, the 24-year-old native of Crystal Lake, Ill., earned a starting role within a month.

A decision by Durant to retire ahead of training camp instantly created competition for the backup role, which Streveler achieved by outperforming Alex Ross. Then Nichols went down with a knee injury on the final day of training camp, setting the stage for Streveler to become just the 12th player in the CFL in nearly 60 years to start a game straight from college and the first to do so since Anthony Calvillo suited up for the Las Vegas Posse in 1994.

“Putting that time in, I think it definitely helped out my progression but also probably made me a better quarterback and a better teammate, being able to go whenever I got opportunities,” Streveler said.

Streveler started the first three games of the regular season, winning one, and narrowly missing a second win in a weather-delayed season opener that saw the Edmonton Eskimos inch by with a 33-30 victory. The early signs were promising, with Streveler showing off his arm and legs while throwing for three touchdowns — along with two interceptions — and scrambling for 30 yards on seven runs.

He became the backup once Nichols returned to the lineup, but remained a steady presence running short-yardage packages, adding a new wrinkle to the offence unlike any seen before under offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice. Streveler combined for 21 touchdowns — 11 passing and 10 rushing.

“I don’t go into a game being like ‘I need to be out there a lot this game.’ Every opportunity I do get, I want to take advantage of it and I’m thankful for it,” he said.

What bodes well for the Bombers this season is that Streveler won’t have to deal with the added stress of learning a new playbook and a new league. Though Nichols will surely lead the offence again this year, it’s hard not to be intrigued with the damage an experienced Streveler could do.

“I’m not really too concerned with that at the moment, to be honest with you. For me right now, it’s just about getting better every day, and that’s not something I can really control in terms of what my role is,” he said. “My role on this team is to come out and work as hard as I can every day and then whatever happens after that is what happens. I want to be the best teammate I can be and continue to come out, work hard in the film room, work hard on the field and try to get better every day.”

OLD-FASHIONED DUST-UP: emotions finally hit a boiling point in the final minutes of training camp Tuesday, when right tackle Jermarcus Hardrick and linebacker Kyrie Wilson got mixed up in a minor dust-up following a 12-on-12 drill. Cooler heads eventually prevailed and head coach Mike O’Shea downplayed the exchange.

“I know if something’s going on, Jermarcus might be around there,” O’Shea quipped. “You see the way he works in practice, he brings a lot of guys along and he’s not afraid to celebrate with a defender, too, if a guy makes a big play. So it’s not all about the offence for him. He’s really all about the team.”

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That sparked a conversation about the benefit of going all-out against teammates in practice. O’Shea said he expected nothing less, but added players know where to draw the line.

“It was a good football play that ended up like that, and when you’ve got two guys going at it, and that happens, I don’t think there’s a lot of safety issues involved,” O’Shea said. “When you get a guy in a vulnerable position and you finish on him, that’s dangerous.”

FINAL THOUGHT: a number of players stood out on Tuesday, but none more than receiver Chris Matthews. Matthews is back for his second stint with the Bombers, and at 6-5, 230 pounds, he’s the big-bodied receiver Winnipeg has missed since he was last here in 2013. Watching him catch everything in sight over the past two days, it makes you wonder what he could have done had the Bombers signed him ahead of last year’s playoff push. Instead, he joined the Calgary Stampeders, helping lead them past the Bombers in the West final before winning the Grey Cup the following week.

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @jeffkhamilton

Jeff Hamilton
Multimedia producer

Jeff Hamilton is a sports and investigative reporter. Jeff joined the Free Press newsroom in April 2015, and has been covering the local sports scene since graduating from Carleton University’s journalism program in 2012. Read more about Jeff.

Every piece of reporting Jeff produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.