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 a ton of scouting ideas.
Veteran defender who signed a two-year extension with the team on Thursdayhopes his new deal could convince free agents to move to Steeltownbut I learned a long time ago not to come to the reception desk with a shopping list.
“I was like that early 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 certainly has enough clout to influence roster decisions if he chooses to do so, especially after back-to-back 5,000-yard seasons and a pair of East Division Most Outstanding Player selections. Advocates on both sides of the border have used far less leverage to force their organization to sign a favored target, but Mitchell is all too aware of his own mistakes.
He recalled one cautionary tale in particular, in which his opinion was sought only to provide a comically poor assessment of talent.
“They came to me one day in Calgary. Sometimes they do this: you have scouts who are in training camp or one of the assistant general managers come to you. 'Hey, man, we're going to keep 10 receivers.' We're kind of between two guys for 10th place. Who do you like better?’ And it was between Davaris Daniels and another guy who I can’t even tell you his name anymore,” Mitchell said.
Daniels subsequently won the Most Outstanding Rookie award that season, catching 51 passes for 885 yards and nine touchdowns. However, despite showing gratitude to both players, Mitchell voted to cut his future favorite target.
“There was a Red and White game the day before where DaVaris gave me two drops and I was really mad at him. I was like, 'I just don't know if DaVaris has it in his head or not?'” he said sheepishly. “And then DaVaris ended up getting some of the most productive receptions of any receiver I've played with. He's a great friend of mine and an elite receiver in his league for a long time.”
Nine seasons later, Daniels remains a CFL starter, most recently with the Toronto Argonauts, and is among the league's active leaders in receiving yardage. In 125 career games, he caught 444 passes for 6,609 yards and 43 touchdowns, earning Eastern Division All-Star honors in 2023 and winning three Gray Cups.
The first of those titles came with Mitchell in 2018, a constant reminder that his grades should be taken with a grain of salt. It's natural to want to choose your weapon, but any team building philosophy is based on bias.
“As a quarterback, you just need all the toys. You need the big, tall guy, you need the fastest guy, you need the slickest guy,” he grinned. “It's funny because quarterback, you kind of go in there and talk about receivers all the time and vice versa. I'm sure (Stavros Katsantonis) if he came in there to give advice, he needs better pass rushers all the time. He'd want Aaron Donald to come out of retirement and play for us so he could get a couple more picks.”
These days, Mitchell continues to do what the recruiting department tells him to do instead of letting others know who he'd like them to target or retain. A future Hall of Famer can be a useful conduit of communication between interested parties, but leaves player evaluation to scouts.
“I quickly realized that I may not be a talent acquisition guy, but obviously over the last couple of years a lot of players have approached me. If that happens, I like to be a trusted voice so that the people who make the decisions hear those voices,” he said. “But no, I don’t expect Scott Mitchell or Scott Milanovich or (Orlondo Steinauer) to come up to me and ask me about talent.”
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats finished first in the East Division standings in 2025 with an 11-7 record, although the team lost to the Montreal Alouettes in the East final. Bo Levi Mitchell led the CFL with 5,296 passing yards, 36 touchdowns and 11 interceptions after starting all 18 regular season games, earning an Eastern Division Most Outstanding Player nomination.
The Tiger Cats ranked third in net offense, eighth in net defense and first in turnover differential plus ten. The club's leading rusher was Greg Bell with 1,038 yards, the leading receiver was Kenny Lawler with 1,443 yards, and the leading tackler was Stavros Kasantonis with 69 tackles. Hamilton ranked fourth in attendance with an average attendance of 22,858, up 3.9 percent from the previous year.
