Two weeks ago, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats already thought that they had a pretty good football team.

Then within 10 days leading directly into training camp they landed two more players they know, at least as of now, will be in the starting 24. That kind of windfall happens about as often as Donald Trump shows some modesty.

When the Ticats signed ratio-breaking Canadian offensive tackle Chris Van Zeyl, mere hours after the Toronto Argonauts released him Saturday, there was suddenly a modified look to the 2019 training camp which would begin the very next day. At this time of year, all teams think they're going for it, but clearly this one was really going for it.

Now the Ticats have the option, and the probability, of starting four Nationals — read, Canadians — on the offensive line. That opens up all kinds of roster-bending possibilities elsewhere and in the CFL there is no such thing as being too pliable. The good teams can win a game or two every season via ratio gymnastics.

Add Van Zeyl to his former Toronto teammate Dylan Wynn, the impactful International — read, American — defensive tackle signed a few days earlier and made available via the inglorious implosion of the Alliance of American Football, and you've super-charged an engine that didn't feel it needed much more horsepower.

"When you have an opportunity to bring that kind of competition into camp I think it makes any team better," head coach Orlondo Steinauer said Monday after earlier addressing the Van Zeyl signing.

"It gives us extreme flexibility. Right now we're not anointing exactly how we're going to play the ratio because we have to let it play out."

Steinauer doesn't want to put any early pressure on Van Zeyl to be anything more than a good football player until he gets his Hamilton feet under him. But the Ticats now have yet another veteran leader: Van Zeyl's history is that he provides direction by mostly-non-vocal example. Both Steinauer and Wynn pointedly mentioned his leadership and demonstrated daily professionalism.

Van Zeyl, a native of Fonthill, played five years, one of them as an all-Canadian, on the McMaster Marauders defensive line, before crossing over the great divide in the pros. Originally in Montreal, he became a star in Toronto. He won two Grey Cups and was their mainstay at right tackle, beginning in late 2009. He may be 35, but he's still got big game, earning his fifth divisional all-star nod last year and his second all-CFL berth the year before.

He became a tackle more by fate than design.

"It was all by chance," he recalls. "Two guys (Jeff Keeping, Brian Ramsay) went down on one play. Our other lineman wanted to play guard, so I got thrown to the wolves at tackle. I held my own, played the last two games, and won the starting job the next year."

Van Zeyl reportedly signed for $200,000 per season after Toronto released him to avoid a $40,000 bonus due upon his reporting to camp. He preferred not to discuss details other than to say he didn't see it coming more than he did see it coming and "at the end of the day, it's a business."

He says there should be no trouble adjusting to the west side of the QEW rivalry, partly because the fluidity of CFL rosters in recent years creates so many new teammates and new opponents every season.

Besides, this is a homecoming of sorts. He didn't play in Ron Joyce Stadium where the Ticats are practising but "being on this campus again, where I spent five years, feels like home. And on top of that I live just 20 minutes away in Burlington."

And what goes around, comes around the bay. The first time Van Zeyl dressed for a CFL game, and his first official start, were both against the Tiger-Cats.

Notes: Rico Murray, the new-again Ticat who will likely be the SAM linebacker, has not yet been in camp as he's dealing with personal matters . . . Mathieu Girard, taking lead reps at centre in Sunday's opening practice missed Monday with back tightness, then Mike Filer got dinged Monday so Brett Golding and Darius Ciraco finished up at centre . . . Jackson Bennett, who this time last year was a rookie safety and SAM linebacker, has switched to running back to strengthen the Canadian depth there . . . There are four Global players in camp and Orlondo Steinauer is breaking them into the routine very gradually.

smilton@thespec.com

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