Local long-snapper Mike Benson re-signs with Blue Bombers

Photo: Nik Kowalski/3DownNation. All rights reserved.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have signed Canadian long-snapper Mike Benson to a one-year contract extension through the 2022 season.

He was scheduled to become a free agent on February 8.

The five-foot-11, 225-pound Benson returns to the Bombers for a second season with the team and ninth in the CFL.

Benson’s first year with his hometown team was a memorable one, as he played a role in a dominant season capped by victory in the 108th Grey Cup. Winnipeg’s long-snapper and a reserve linebacker, Benson played in all 14 games during the shortened regular season and both the West Final and Grey Cup, capturing the first championship of his career.

He initially joined the Blue Bombers as a free agent in February 2021, following a career that began in Edmonton in 2013 and then took him to B.C., where he played from 2014-2018, followed by a stop in Ottawa in 2019. He had signed with Montreal in 2020 but the cancellation of the CFL season that year made him a free agent again the following February.

A product of St. Paul’s High School and the Winnipeg Rifles program before he attended Acadia University, Benson has appeared in 103 regular season CFL games.