Mitchell: “I’m definitely having way more fun being out here.”

Changing football teams — swapping one uniform for another — can be a lot like heading to a new school. Those early days can be calm waters and smooth transitions for some.

And for others, well, not so much.

It’s been less than a month since Dillon Mitchell slipped on the blue and gold of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and got to work with the club that all but threw a parade for the veteran receiver when he was added over the winter as a free agent following three seasons with the Edmonton Elks.

Yet those early days here in Winnipeg, Mitchell will admit now, were difficult.

Yes, those in the know will insist the keys to finding the right football home are about fit and opportunity, comfortability and confidence. And Mitchell, despite his experience and success in his league, was struggling with all of that upon arrival here.

“I wouldn’t say it had been rough, but coming into a new organization it’s been about getting comfortable, not just around the guys but from a playbook standpoint,” Mitchell began in a chat with bluebombers.com after practice on Thursday. “I’ve witnessed the differences in the type of organization Winnipeg is and the expectations they have. That’s a big thing with me, that comfortability, and camp was about me looking at that myself and what I can do. Now that I’m getting more comfortable, I can play faster.

“I had this nervousness about being associated with Winnipeg, but now that I know most of the people around here, I’m feeling great. I wouldn’t say I got down at the beginning. It was just this: being around a prestige organization like this I just didn’t want to let anybody down. It was a bit the weight of expectation and more so me just wanting to show everybody around here why they brought me in here to help the team. I was hard on myself.

“But coming out of camp now into these practices, I definitely feel like I’ve had my best days and now it’s about pushing forward and continuing to get better every single day and striving to be the player I am.”

Mitchell, 28, posted career-best numbers last year in Edmonton with 58 catches for 727 yards and four touchdowns and when the Blue Bombers scooped him up off the open market there was a belief he could step right in right away to fill the considerable hole left vacant when Kenny Lawler exited for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Still, as camp unfolded last month, Mitchell appeared to fall further down the depth chart — so much so that he wasn’t working with the perceived first or second units.

“I’ve been with the 3s before with Edmonton and other teams,” said Mitchell. “But you can’t stay in a place where you’re not trying to get better or not putting yourself out there to do more studying of the playbook, the extra stuff like coming in before work. That was my mindset: you don’t have to stay with the 3s forever; you’ve got to keep pushing. I believe in the benefit of challenges sometimes and that was a challenge for myself in not getting down on myself and saying, ‘Oh, I should be with the 1s.’ It was a learning experience for me.

“I definitely feel now in hindsight I put more pressure on myself than I should have. Being around Coach O’Shea, he allowed me to take that weight off me. He was like, ‘We know the type of player you are and it’s going to show up.’ It’s come around and now I’m definitely having way more fun being out here.

“Everybody knows it’s a long season. It’s definitely foot on the gas now and the extra work is starting to pay off.  I’m getting very, very comfortable with Zach (Collaros) now and know I can show the type of player I’ve always been.”

Credit the Blue Bombers for being patient here, too. Yes, they made a financial commitment to Mitchell in the offseason, but this is a cut-throat business where patience isn’t always at a premium — especially in a shorter training camp that was stacked with talent receivers.

That patience — empathy, even — is now being rewarded by Mitchell.

“I thought he had a really good day today,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “He got into a different position, he was targeted a little bit more in some of our situational stuff and I thought he was pretty, damn good.

“There was a progression. He’s got to get used to not only the playbook but how we do things, and he probably had to get into a little better shape. Some of the guys who show up here from other teams, it’s a little different. Camp is maybe a little different than what they’re used to, so all of that adds up to needing a bit of time.

“Over the last handful of days, whatever it’s been, he’s come out of his shell a little bit,” he added. “He seems like a different person. It seems like a weight has been lifted off his shoulders, like he’s a little happier as he gains understanding and gets through the process a little bit more and feels more comfortable, for sure.

“He’s a very talented football player that has put a lot of good football on tape. you know what he’s capable of and a lot of times as coaches you’ve got to find the answers as to why it may not be looking like that just yet and how do you get him there. The player is responsible for it, too, but as coaches… our guys are like minded where we’re trying to figure out the best parts of the guys and we try to get them to be that, help them be that, because it’s in them.”

THE GRIND: Blue Bombers fans know how last year started — an 0-4 start that became 2-6 before the club won nine of its last 10, finished first in the West Division for a fourth straight season and appeared in a fifth consecutive Grey Cup. Changes to this year’s training camp approach has seen unfold as more of a grind — by design.

“We tried to keep that pedal down pretty hard because — not really able to pinpoint exactly everything about last year and not really wanting to revisit it at all,” said O’Shea. “I just thought this is the way we had to do it and we had to do it differently, for sure, because we certainly want to start differently.”

Asked if that will result in a better start, O’Shea shrugged and added:

“We’ve still got to play the games. I’m always confident. I think we’ve got a good football team, and they believe that, too, so as long as we go out and put into practice what we’ve done in training camp and play the the way we’re supposed to play and do those things, we should have a good start. What that equates to, I don’t know, but we should have a good start and be pleased with it.

“… I like our team. I like where we’re at. I thought we had good depth in training camp, too, and a lot of difficult choices to make which everybody wants. We maybe say that every year, but this is another year, and I thought we had a lot of good depth in camp.”

FYI: RB Brady Oliveira, WR Kody Case, OL Stanley Bryant were all back at practice on Thursday after playing the spectators on Wednesday… Not practising were DBs Josh Hagerty, Ethan Ball, RB/KR Peyton Logan, OL Eric Lofton… Gabe Wallace continues to get a lot of work at left guard… O’Shea on practising during the bye week as the CFL regular season opens Thursday night: “These last two days have really been all about us. We don’t really have the film to use — we’ll see how (the B.C. Lions, next week’s opponent) play Saturday night, late, and we’ll get to that. These last two days have been excellent. I told the guys that after, ‘If we could practice like that every single day — which we can’t — I’d really enjoy it.’ There’s more fundamental work to do. These were good days to get out and run around and put in some thoughts that we want to carry through the season and dial up a bunch of special teams stuff that we didn’t do through camp. This was the design of it, that we would use these two days for this purpose, and I think it’s served us well.”

HIGH PRAISE: O’Shea on Winnipeg Rifles DT Zack Davis, who practised with the club last year and continues to grow every day: “His progression from when he first started with us til now has been phenomenal and just terrific. I couldn’t be happier for him. He’s having fun doing it, he understands it better. His pass-rush skills from last year to this year have gone through the roof and any time you have a bit of success it keeps you wanting more.

“I’m just really pleased for Zack. He’s an awesome teammate and a good guy to have around.”