On Halloween, news broke that Oliveira is up against Mitchell for the MOP (Most Outstanding Player award). It is hard to believe that a team – Hamilton – that did not make the playoffs is able to have a player to have the chance to win the MOP.

Having said that, it was 2022 when Rourke – who only played part of the season won the Most Outstanding Canadain…so anything is possible with the voters!

Oliveira is also the West finalist for the Most Outstanding Canadian and is up against Isaac Adeyemi-Berglund (MTL) from the East.

But if you ask Oliveira about these potential awards, he says his focus is on winning the Grey Cup and that losing the last two has made him “angry.” The last thing that any team wants to face is an angry Oliveira!

What may be against Oliveira is one of his stats. He has been great once again out of the backfield, and catching the ball. The potential issue is his lack of touchdowns…which may impact both of his award chances.

Nobody can argue that Oliveira bas been a key – an outstanding key – to the Bombers’ success! And in part, his lack of touchdowns is because Streveler would often get the nod for short yardage touchdown plays – before he got injured. But even after Streveler’s injury, the Bombers seemed somewhat hesitant to always go to Oliveira to punch it in – sometimes to the fan’s chagrin.

A work around all of this would be if the award was changed to the MVP (Most Valuable Player). Sure that would not fit the CFL’s theme of “MO____” but it would definitely make the waters more clear. It would be very hard to argue that Mitchell, again on a team that did not make the playoffs (in a league where 66% of the teams make the playoffs) could be reasonably considered the Most Valuable Player. If you were so valuable your team would make the playoffs.

And as much as it is an individual award, and some could argue that Mitchell put up great numbers, his team did not see him as either “Outstanding” nor “Valuable”. They had benched him and had essentially moved on from him. Only the injury to Powell got Mitchell back in the game, and back in the season.

To be fair, Mitchell had a career year.

But I think there is a real argument to be made that it does not matter. To win the MOP award, voters should not look at a player’s past years. This is not the ‘Most Improved Award.’ This is not the ‘How Have You Compared to Other Years’ award. It is the Most Outstanding Award. And I simply cannot see a solid enough case to give the award to a player who was not outstanding enough to get his team into the playoffs…even after playing in every game.

Maybe you agree. Maybe you disagree.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments section wherever you are reading this!

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