Steve Milton: Ticats clearly believe they will sign Bo Levi Mitchell

So where does this leave Dane Evans?

In the moment, his coach says, as still the Tiger-Cats' starting quarterback.

In reality, almost certainly as an ex-Ticat.

The Tiger-Cats did not jump the queue and cut off other CFL teams - hello, Saskatchewan Roughriders - by trading for the rights to simply talk to future Hall of Famer Bo Levi Mitchell without having a strong sense that they would be able to bring him to Hamilton.

By 4 p.m. on Monday, the Ticats had confirmed what TSN's Dave Naylor had reported earlier in the day: Hamilton gets the rights to the longtime Calgary quarterback in return for draft choices - a third-round pick in next year's draft and a fifth-rounder in 2024 - plus future considerations," the value of which will likely depend upon whether or not Mitchell, a pending free agent, eventually signs with the Ticats.

We're not acquiring the rights without a confidence factor that we could get this done," coach Orlando Steinauer said. We understand that there's a chance this doesn't happen. The value of communicating for a couple of months early outweighs the compensation that we may have to give up in the unlikely event we are not able to sign Bo."

Now the Ticats, and only the Ticats, are allowed to pitch Mitchell about signing a new contract before the free agency period opens in mid-February. Steinauer spoke to both Mitchell and Evans yesterday and, understandably, would not reveal the content of either conversation, but parse his public remarks and it's hard to get past in the unlikely event" part.

He also allowed that, To sit there and think that Dane would be superexcited about news like this, that would be misleading. Dane is a competitor. He's never backed down from competition ... he's always put his best foot forward."

The Spectator was unable to reach Evans on Monday.

Steinauer said that the Ticats hadn't discussed changing quarterbacks until personnel-evaluation meetings began after the team's playoff trip hit a brick wall in Montreal a week ago Sunday.

We weren't good enough this year, in a lot of areas, and you don't know what opportunities are going to arise as you try to sign your own free agents you targeted," he said. We felt this move has the opportunity to make us better."

Steinauer cited Mitchell's upper-stratosphere experience - he's won two Grey Cups, and been named the league's top player twice - his exemplary winning percentage and the team-first manner in which he handled losing his starting job to backup Jake Maier, who was recently given a major two-year contract extension. There was also the strength and placement of Mitchell's throws later in the season, particularly when he came off the bench of the West semifinal in B.C., indicating to the Ticats that his series of injuries the past three seasons aren't future concerns.

There is an obvious bit of chicken-and-egg here. The possibility of Mitchell being the quarterback could keep potential Ticat free agents like Wes Hills and Tim White in black and gold. And signing them, in turn, would help sell the Ticats to Mitchell.

Bo is a winner," Steinauer said. He's going to go to a situation where he's extremely comfortable, where not only he can succeed but that we can succeed collectively."

Mitchell said after the Stamps' own playoff exit, The writing is usually on the wall when you pay another guy and you know I want to be a starter. You know I'll never sit back and accept watching somebody else play."

This is another bump in the road - at first blush a very large bump - for Evans. There is no plausible way the Ticats can afford to pay salaries for two veteran starting quarterbacks, which is why Hamilton had to choose between Evans and Jeremiah Masoli last off-season. Evans is reportedly scheduled to make at least $400,000 next year, including a huge bonus if he reports to training camp healthy. He might be traded elsewhere bringing back some of the draft choices lost in Monday's deal, and a position player or maybe even a backup pivot.

Last off-season, Mitchell restructured the final season of his four-year deal, in which he'd been scheduled to make about $525,000 in 2022. He made just over $400,000 and will likely get that or more if he does go to the open market in February, with the playoff-missing Riders anticipated to be the leading contender.

Despite engineering a four-game win streak and five victories in the final six games to put the Ticats into the playoffs, and throwing for five TDs against Grey Cup favourite Winnipeg, it was an overall dismal season for Evans. He had costly touchdown-costing interceptions and fumbles, he suffered three different injuries, questioned himself publicly and was periodically spelled by backup Matthew Shiltz. Evans led the CFL with seven lost fumbles and 17 interceptions, although 13 of those interceptions came before Labour Day.

Shiltz is also eligible for free agency.

But, should they part with Evans and Shiltz goes elsewhere, the Ticats would need to find a bona fide veteran No. 2 quarterback because they could not feel comfortable entering a home Grey Cup season with Mitchell's injury history and only holdovers Jamie Newman and Jalen Morton behind him. The past two CFL seasons have shown that to have success it's necessary to have a second quarterback who can get the job done for at least three or four games.

Steve Milton is a Hamilton-based sports columnist at The Spectator. Reach him via email: smilton@thespec.com