The Winnipeg Blue Bombers made a move that surprised some fans during their post-training camp cuts, keeping veteran receiver Dillon Mitchell while releasing second-year target Myron Mitchell.

Myron was Winnipeg’s most-targeted receiver during the preseason as the ball was thrown his way 10 times over two games. The 26-year-old native of Jasper, Ala., who dressed for four regular-season games in 2024, caught five passes for 38 yards, returned one punt for 14 yards, and returned one kickoff for 20 yards.

“Myron is certainly a guy that I really enjoyed being around. If you ever watched him practice, he was full out all the time, even though he was on the service team a lot,” head coach Mike O’Shea told Derek Taylor on 680 CJOB.

“He practiced as hard as anybody could practice trying to give his teammates a good look. I thought this year we had a good crop of receivers in and you’re only going to keep so many and he was just behind a few of them.”

Dillon Mitchell made one catch for 13 yards in Winnipeg’s preseason opener and wasn’t targeted in the following preseason game, though he returned two punts for 13 yards. The former University of Oregon standout caught 130 passes for 1,896 yards and 12 touchdowns over three seasons with the Edmonton Elks before joining the Blue Bombers as a free-agent in January.

“You go back and watch (Dillon’s) film from years past and you understand how capable he is and how good he can be,” said O’Shea. “I also liked the fact that he got his hands on some footballs in the return game. I thought he looked good doing that last year, too. He’s hard to tackle, certainly a guy that’s going to keep on practicing and earning the trust of the quarterbacks.”

Winnipeg overhauled its receiver room this offseason as Kenny Lawler and Drew Wolitarsky left for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Lucky Whitehead retired. Jerreth Sterns, who made the active roster, was brought over from Saskatchewan in free agency, while Reggie White Jr., who ended up on the practice roster, came over from Montreal.

Overall, O’Shea was pleased with what he saw from the team’s receivers in training camp, even if no American rookies ended up cracking the final roster.

“That (position) group was excellent,” said O’Shea. “You end up cutting good players and it’s hard, unfortunately, for them to catch on right away somewhere else because other teams are trying to get down to their number, too. There’s a few position groups where you’re looking at a whole pile of very good football players and trying to figure out exactly where they fit and how it’s gonna work.”

The Blue Bombers (0-0) will open the regular-season with a bye before hosting the B.C. Lions (0-0) at Princess Auto Stadium on Thursday, June 12.

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