O’Leary: 4 takeaways from team award winners

Standing at the brink of the playoffs, we can all agree on one thing: this has been a strange season.

Five out of the six teams that are headed to the playoffs have at a point this year appeared to have their seasons in jeopardy, with fans hands hammering away at the panic button.

Winnipeg overcame a 2-6 start, climbing up to the best record in the West (heading into Week 21). Saskatchewan went seven games without a win before running off their last four. BC’s season went sideways as the early favourite this year won its final game of the regular season to finish at 9-9 and third in the West. The Ottawa REDBLACKS are back in the post-season for the first time in six years, but have lost five in a row and six of their last seven.

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The defending Grey Cup champion Montreal Alouettes have had the least amount of turbulence this year and they still dealt with numerous injuries to key players. Despite posting the league’s best record they’re 2-3-1 in their last six games. In short, we’ve seen every playoff team at their best at points this year and we’ve seen them at their almost inexplicable worst, as well.

There’s a trickle down effect with a season like this and it creates a very interesting award season landscape.

Team award winners were announced on Wednesday. Here are four takeaways from this week’s announcement.

BOW DOWN TO ROLAN MILLIGAN JR.

We don’t know that Rolan Milligan Jr. will become just the second defensive player to ever win the MOP award, but let’s just take a moment to appreciate what he has accomplished here.

Milligan was a unanimous selection in Regina for the Riders’ MOP, Outstanding Defensive Player and Outstanding Special Teams Player. That’s only been done three other times in the team’s history.

Who else but Rolan Milligan Jr.?!

A league-leading eighth interception for the @sskroughriders defensive back.#CFLGameDay LIVE on @TSN_Sports
📱: Stream on CFL+ pic.twitter.com/lY61dyBXRO

— CFL (@CFL) October 6, 2024

The league leader in interceptions (eight) is fourth in the CFL in defensive plays (111) and is a heavyweight on special teams, with his 22 special teams tackles sitting as the second-best total in the league and a team-high as we head into the final week of the regular season. That kind of dominance deserves recognition on its own. Milligan is enjoying an incredible season and can still add to his totals on Saturday when the Riders host the Calgary Stampeders.

WHO’S YOUR MOP?

As we said up top, this has been a season full of surprises that’s seen parity stretch itself across both divisions. Injuries to key players and teams going through extreme ups and downs this year have left the landscape for the MOP award very much open to interpretation. We’ve looked at Milligan and his unique case for the league’s top individual award. As you look through the list of team nominees — which will be whittled down to an East and a West finalist on Oct. 31 — you can make a case for almost everyone on this list.

* Unanimous selection

Bo Levi Mitchell presents a very interesting dilemma for voters. At 34, Mitchell has broken the 5,000-yard passing mark for the third time in his career. In his healthiest season since 2018, Mitchell has led the league in passing while throwing a league-high 31 touchdowns. Those are the ups in his season. The downs include a league-high 17 interceptions. When he hit the double-digit mark in that category in Week 10, Tiger-Cats’ head coach Scott Milanovich benched Mitchell and had backup Taylor Powell not been injured in Week 11, that may have been the end of Mitchell’s 2024 story.

While Mitchell’s play has improved from Week 12 through to Week 20, with his team winning five of its last six games heading into their Week 21 game against Ottawa, we land here at another down in the season. Friday’s game in Ottawa is the end of the road for the Ticats, who started the season 0-7. They head into their finale three points behind the REDBLACKS for the third and final playoff spot in the East Division, unable to catch them in the standings.

As well as Mitchell has played — especially over the final nine weeks of the season — should the star of a non-playoff team be named MOP? It has happened twice before in CFL history. In 1975, Willie Burden won the award while his 6-10 Calgary Stampeders missed the post-season. In 1977, Jimmy Edwards managed to be named MOP despite the Tiger-Cats (there’s some precedence here!) missing the playoffs that year with a 5-11 record.

A BUMPER CROP OF ROOKIES

Have a look at the top rookies from the 2024 season.

* Unanimous selection

There of course will only be one winner on Thursday, Nov. 14 at the CFL Awards presented by Securian Canada, but as you look at the nominees, this is a strong rookie class that should help shape the fortunes of their teams for years to come.

Hamilton’s Shemar Bridges had eaten up much of the top rookie chatter through the season. The 26-year-old was the fourth-leading receiver in the league in Week 17, before a quad injury cost him the final three games of the season, leaving him at 83 catches for 933 yards and four touchdowns. While Bridges has been out, another receiver has continued to make a strong case for his award worthiness.

Winnipeg’s Ontaria Wilson has been steady and productive through his debut season with the Blue Bombers. The 25-year-old had plenty of opportunity early in the season, as veteran Bombers’ receivers went out with injuries. Wilson exploded onto the radar in Week 6 with a 201-yard, one-touchdown performance against Calgary. As we head into the regular season finale, Wilson now has 63 catches for 943 yards and three touchdowns. He’s moved past Bridges in the receivers’ standings and is the league’s eighth-leading receiver overall.

Makai Polk has enjoyed a successful season in Toronto, where he really turned up his production in the final third of the season. Polk has four 100-plus-yard games in that span to emerge as the team’s leading receiver. His 902 yards and five touchdowns are both team-bests.

Defensively, Nick Anderson has established himself as one of the league’s best already. His 102 tackles are second in the league and he’s added three sacks and a pair of forced fumbles on an Edmonton team that found its stride just a little too late in the year and will be sitting on the outside of the playoff picture. In Montreal, Geoffrey Cantin-Arku went from being the ninth overall pick in the 2024 CFL Draft to contributing five sacks through 17 games, carving out a place on the defence of the defending Grey Cup champs.

Again, these are names that will reverberate through the league in coming years.

TOUGH DECISIONS FOR OUTSTANDING CANADIAN

At this point, with 20 weeks of play behind us, you shouldn’t be surprised at just how well our Canadian players performed this year.

There are difficult decisions ahead for the Eastern-based voters, with Kiondré Smith, Lirim Hajrullahu, Drew Desjarlais and Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund all having exceptional seasons this year. But let’s turn our focus to the West, where voters will have to make a TOUGH call.

As great as Kurleigh Gittens Jr., Cameron Judge and Samuel Emilus have been, West voters will have to decide between Justin McInnis and Brady Oliveira as their nominee for Outstanding Canadian.

McInnis has put together the eighth-best receiving yards total (1,469) in CFL history and the second-highest in a season for a Canadian member of the Lions, behind Matt Clark’s 1,530 in 1991. With Ottawa’s Justin Hardy not playing this week before the REDBLACKS head into the post-season, McInnis should become the first Canadian to lead the league in receiving yards since Andy Fantuz did it in 2010.

Then there’s Oliveira.

The Winnipeg product is the reigning Outstanding Canadian and was the runner up for the MOP award in 2023. He heads into the Bombers’ regular season finale with 1,318 rushing yards is poised to lead the league in rushing for the second consecutive year. He once again leads the CFL in yards from scrimmage, with 1,783, thanks to 465 receiving yards. While the Bombers stumbled out of the gate this season, they roared back into the playoff picture and to the top of the West Division behind Oliveira’s relentless play.

Both players have had award-worthy seasons and are their teams’ MOP and Outstanding Canadian nominees. Either would be no-brainers on their own in just about any other season. This year, voters will have to choose between two very worthy names, just to have them represent the West.