Trade of the century? No, but it’s a good one

Swap of hometown linemen to get Beard solidified Hamilton’s offence last fall

The best Hamilton Tiger-Cats trade this century was made with Edmonton and, over time, this one might be looked upon as the runner-up.

When the Tiger-Cats landed big centre David Beard from the Elks just a few days before starting him in last year’s Labour Day Classic, it didn’t rank up there with 2013’s plain-daylight heist of Simoni Lawrence, Jeremiah Masoli and offensive lineman Greg Wojt from Edmonton. But it did solidify Hamilton’s 2022 late-season 5-1 run into the playoffs, before the train was finally and emphatically derailed.

And Beard has re-signed — at a reported $200,000 he’s the Canadian Football League’s third-highestpaid offensive lineman, and second-highest-paid centre, behind the Elks’ Mark Korte — giving the Ticats extreme confidence in the domestic-brew middle of their offensive line between perennial allstar Brandon Revenberg and highceiling sophomore Coulter Woodmansey. Revenberg praises Beard’s leadership, intelligence and quick reads, and offensive co-ordinator Tommy Condell says that, while there were other factors, the offensive line solidified with the arrival of the six-foot-five, 320pounder.

“David is a natural leader. At centre, he has to be,” Condell says. “Things move fast in the centre/ guard area and David has superior intelligence and is able to make quick reads. And he’s a big man.”

You won’t find too many centres taller than Beard, and both he and Condell say that it’s important for him to get low and balanced for leverage and vision against smaller, stockier defensive tackles. No problem there, apparently. Still just 30, he played 94 games for Edmonton, won the 2015 Grey Cup and was Edmonton’s 2019 offensive lineman of the year.

He’s also from an Edmonton suburb so, with young Ticat Jesse Gibbon going the other way, it was two guys traded from their hometown teams for each other.

Head coach Orlondo Steinauer, who doesn’t discuss other teams’ rosters or motivations, was nevertheless surprised a player of that calibre was available, and the trade definitely shocked Beard. “Of course,” he confirmed on Monday. “That was my home for eight years. It happened quickly, it wasn’t even 24 hours before I was on the plane. It was a bit of a wave of former Elks: I was the third offensive lineman to get traded by Edmonton, but that’s the way it works in pro sports.”

He won’t accept any praise for the offensive line tightening up with his arrival, but he does say he has come to agree with Steinauer’s emphasis on focusing and refocusing as the season proceeds, which he said happened with the offensive line over the final third of the 2022 schedule. He signed an extended contract in the off-season because he’s impressed with the atmosphere created by Steinauer, Ticats managing partner Scott Mitchell and the rest of the staff.

And then, of course, there’s the guy he’s hiking the ball to, his fourth Ticats quarterback in what amounts to just nine games.

“The word that comes to mind is poise,” Beard says of Bo Levi Mitchell. “It was evident from Day 1. We get the ball back to him and try to keep the pressure to a minimum. We want him to be as relaxed as possible, and he looks like he is relaxed. He’s ready to sling and we’re happy to block for him.

“Getting to know him better off the field, I can hear his voice. I’m not kidding about this; I’m training my ear to listen for his voice. It doesn’t sound important but it is, just being able to hear it amid the noise around you.”

Beard was a defensive end at the University of Alberta before a teammate left the squad in his second year, and he had to transition to offensive tackle to fill the void. With only a few games’ experience on the offensive line, he had expected to return to school in 2015 after he was Edmonton’s second-round pick, 16th overall. But he stuck on the active roster all year, then remained a core part of the team until September’s unforeseen swap to the East.

“We had to give up something real good to get him,” Steinauer said. “But we’d do it again tomorrow.” Cats Clauses Ticats LB Nic Cross, who was injured last July and hasn’t played since, is back in uniform in camp, a huge boost to the special teams, which he led in tackles in 2021 … Kenneth George Jr., out of Prairie View A&M, who started Saturday, has moved ahead of the field in the battle for boundary cornerback, the one clearly open starting spot in the secondary.