November 17, 2022

League’s brightest stars set to shine at CFL Awards

Win or lose in Sunday’s 109th Grey Cup, Zach Collaros has earned himself legendary status in Winnipeg. From being a somewhat inconspicuous trade deadline acquisition in 2019 to becoming a driving force in two straight Grey Cup titles is enough to immortalize him in Blue Bombers lore.

And now, a second straight Most Outstanding Player win will put him amongst the very highest of CFL company. Collaros has a chance to join one of the league’s most exclusive clubs this week: back-to-back MOP winners.

Since the award’s inception in 1953, only four players have accomplished the feat and they’re all fellow quarterbacks. Jackie Parker was the first, capturing MOP honours in 1957 and 1958 with Edmonton. Winnipeg’s Dieter Brock (1980 and 1981), Doug Flutie (two separate times with three teams in the 1990’s including four years straight), and Montreal’s Anthony Calvillo (2008 and 2009) are the other three to have repeated since.

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Zach Collaros is the West Division nominee for Most Outstanding Player (Christian Bender/CFL.ca)

Collaros’ case in 2022 is stellar. He led the CFL with 37 passing touchdowns and finished second in passing yardage and QB rating. Additionally, he helped the Bombers to their second straight dominant season and a franchise record 15 wins. Collaros’ credentials are as strong, and arguably stronger, than they were last season.

And for a second straight season, an electric member of the Montreal Alouettes is standing in the way. In 2021 it was William Stanback representing the East Division in the MOP conversation. One year later, teammate Eugene Lewis is getting well-deserved recognition after another massive season.

Lewis set career highs across the board, including receptions (91), targets (144), touchdowns (10), and receiving yards (1,303). Every single one of those totals also put him near the top of the league table and either first or second in the East Division. This guy just keeps on getting better.

You could tell this was going to be a special season for Lewis right from the start. With Vernon Adams Jr. at quarterback for Week 1, Lewis went for 112 yards on four catches. A week later the Alouettes replaced Adams with Trevor Harris early on…and Lewis still went for 127 yards. Without Lewis’s consistency, I don’t think the quarterback transition would have gone anywhere near as smoothly as it did.

Feeling Blue

At 15-3, Winnipeg was once again the class of the CFL in 2022. And, just like last season, Collaros is joined by three other members of the Blue Bombers as an award finalist. For a second straight year, two of those members are Stanley Bryant and Mike O’Shea.

Bryant is already the first player to capture the league’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman award three times, so why not four? The West Division’s nominee for a fifth straight season, Bryant anchored an offensive line that allowed just 29 sacks, the second-lowest total in the league. Winnipeg also boasted the CFL’s second-best rushing attack this season.

And after another rock-solid campaign, Hamilton’s Brandon Revenberg is right there alongside Bryant again. A CFL All-Star for a fourth straight year at guard, Revenberg is the glue that holds the Tiger-Cats together up front. That became even more evident when Chris Van Zeyl went down for the remainder of the regular season in Week 7.

Then there’s O’Shea, who continues to be Winnipeg’s calm and steady heartbeat. The reigning Annis Stukus Trophy winner as the CFL’s Coach of the Year, the man universally referred to as “Oshe” is in a great spot to make it two straight. An aforementioned franchise high in wins, the league’s top defensive unit, an explosive offence, and a masterful job managing the stretch drive are just a few of O’Shea’s credentials this season.

The final Blue Bombers major award nominee is receiver Dalton Schoen who’s up for Most Outstanding Rookie. Almost completely unknown prior to this season, Schoen didn’t just burst onto the scene…he flattened it. Schoen led the league with 1,441 receiving yards, 16 touchdowns, and a 20.6 yards-per-catch average. That’s some good scouting.

 

Fellow receiver Tyson Philpot was more of a household name entering 2022. That’s because Montreal selected Philpot in the first round of the most recent CFL Draft after a standout career at the University of Calgary. In his first professional season, Philpot started finding his legs in the back half of the season and finished with 459 receiving yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The other battlegrounds

This year’s race for Most Outstanding Defensive Player is as close as it gets. On the one hand, Calgary’s Shawn Lemon showed us he’s still got plenty left in the tank. The 34-year-old defensive end led the West Division with 14 sacks and was the driving force of a line that led the CFL with 56 of them.

On the other is the only guy who finished with more sacks than Lemon in Ottawa’s Lorenzo Mauldin. After parts of two seasons as part of a stacked Hamilton line, Mauldin took full advantage of his first full year as a starter. Mauldin led the league with 17 sacks and chipped in with an impressive 43 defensive tackles.

Just as hotly contested is the battle for Most Outstanding Special Teams Player. That’s because statistically there’s so little separating the seasons for Mario Alford of the Riders and Chandler Worthy of the Alouettes. Both players showed they can change the momentum of a football game on any given kick or punt.

Worthy finished the season with 1,220 yards returning kicks and a pair of touchdowns. Alford was almost there in lockstep at 1,030 yards and two touchdowns. Returning punts was just as close. Alford had 530 yards and one touchdown while Worthy finished less than 20 yards ahead at 547. I agonized over this one before submitting my vote.

And finally, we get to one of the stories of the season who happens to go by the name of Nathan Rourke. BC’s electrifying quarterback earned the West Division’s Most Outstanding Canadian nod despite only appearing in ten games. Even still, Rourke finished second to only Collaros with 25 passing touchdowns.

His Canadian counterpart is Toronto’s Kurleigh Gittens Jr. who parlayed a breakout 2021 into a season cementing his status as one of the league’s best receivers. Gittens finished sixth overall with 1,101 receiving yards and led the Argos with five touchdown catches.

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