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He managed to parlay that athleticism into a job as the Bombers third-string quarterback last season and he took it a step further by pushing for playing time on special teams.

“I always kinda just looked at myself as a football player,” said Bennett, who is 6-foot-3, 215 pounds. “Obviously, I’m a quarterback first but they always say, ‘The more you can do,’ right?”

He made seven special teams tackles in the regular season and made a massive play in the Bombers’ playoff win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. With 40 seconds left in the game and the Bombers leading by just five, Riders returner Kyran Moore looked to have daylight ahead of him when Bennett stepped up and made a great open-field tackle at the Saskatchewan 34-yard line.

“He made a potential season-saving tackle,” Nichols said. “He just brings something extra to our team and to our QB room.”

Bennett has earned the trust of Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea and his assistants. Not every quarterback would have the skill set to play on kick-cover teams. Few players in the CFL are quite as multi-faceted.

“A lot of these guys would be two or three-sport athletes in high school,” O’Shea said. “Not all of them can do a back flip, that’s for sure.”

The back flips are something Bennett learned to do in high school.

“I was at track practice one day and I had done them on trampolines and stuff and I said ‘I’m gonna learn today,’” said Bennett who does some work as a track coach at his old high school in Encino, Calif., in the off-season. “So I stood in front of the long-jump pit, with the sand behind me so at least I’d have somewhere soft to land if I fell. And I just did it and said ‘Well, I guess I can back-flip now.’”