Chad Owens or Chris Williams?

Battles between the Toronto Argonauts and Hamilton Tiger-Cats are always notable because of the rivalry involved, but last week's Labour Day Classic and this week's rematch in Toronto (Saturday, 1 p.m. Eastern, TSN) have taken on extra meaning thanks to the teams' unusual similarities in a variety of areas. Monday's game showcased two first-year head coaches (Scott Milanovich and George Cortez), two star quarterbacks sent from Alberta to Southern Ontario in offseason trades (Ricky Ray and Henry Burris), and perhaps most intriguingly, two of the league's very best returner/receivers in Chris Williams and Chad Owens. Both had their moments of glory Monday, too; Williams broke Gizmo Williams' old record for total return touchdowns in a season (despite it only being his ninth game of the year), while Owens set a team record with 402 all-purpose yards, the third-highest total in league history, and made a spectacular late one-handed catch to help give the Argonauts the win. Obviously, both are incredible players most CFL general managers would love to have. If you were an executive and had to choose one or the other, though, who would you want on your team?

If you're looking for consistent all-around production, there's a strong case to be made for Owens. Through nine weeks of the CFL season, "The Flying Hawaiian" is leading the league with 1,448 combined return yards and is second in the league with 764 receiving yards. That gives him 2,212 combined yards on the season, putting him on pace for a ridiculous 4,424 yards overall. (For reference, Argos' legend Michael "Pinball" Clemons holds the all-time combined yards record with his 3,840-yard 1997 season; Owens is tied for sixth on that list already thanks to his 3,288-yard 2010 campaign.

Owens is being efficient, too, putting up an average of 12.6 yards per punt return (tied with his career-high mark from 2010) and a career-high average of 14.4 yards per reception. Owens has always been a good returner, but he's particularly grown into his role as a top receiver this season, and that makes him an incredibly dangerous opponent. He was named the CFL's Gibson's Finest offensive player of the week Wednesday, and it was a well-deserved honour. Here's an example of what he can do in the return game, a remarkable 117-yard missed field goal taken back for a touchdown in 2010:

There's plenty to be said for Williams too, though. For one thing, he's the better pure punt returner, and one of the greatest this league has ever seen. It's frankly amazing not just that he passed Gizmo Williams' record (five punt-return touchdowns) with five punt-return touchdowns and a missed field goal returned for a touchdown, but that he did it only midway through the year. Williams leads the league in punt-return yards with 685 and is averaging a ridiculous 18.0 yards per return. He's owned the CFL's weekly Gibson's Finest Special Teams Player award this season, winning it for the fourth time this week. He's no slouch in the receiving game, either, collecting 704 yards on 42 catches thus far, third-highest in the CFL (and with a remarkable 16.8 yards per catch average).

The main area where Owens edges Williams is in the kick-return game, as Williams hasn't been used there this year; that's a somewhat unusual choice by the Tiger-Cats given his obvious skills at making tacklers miss, but perhaps the thinking is to save his stamina. Whatever the case, Williams is shining in his second CFL season, and given that he's only turning 25 this month, he should have plenty more solid campaigns ahead. That age difference (Owens is 30) might compensate for Williams not returning kicks. Williams is certainly good at making the highlight reel, too. Here's his record-breaking touchdown return from Monday:

Really, it would be tough to go wrong with either one of these guys. Williams not being used as a kick returner hurts him in head-to-head comparisons with Owens (and makes it somewhat bizarre that he's a betting favourite to win the league's Most Outstanding Player award; if the voters are going to give that to someone other than a quarterback, you'd imagine it would be someone with gaudy across-the-board totals), but his age suggests that he could be the smarter long-term bet. By contrast, though, that age could also make him a target for the NFL, whereas that league's less likely to come calling for a 30-year-old like Owens regardless of his stats. Owens might have better receiving yardage so far, but that isn't decisive either; Williams gets less balls thrown his way thanks to Hamilton's incredible receiving corps, and he's averaging more per catch.

In some ways, they're both great fits for their team; Toronto doesn't have a lot of stars apart from quarterback Ricky Ray, so Owens' jack-of-all-trades skills make him an excellent solution there, while Hamilton has solid other options in the returning and receiving games, but can depend on Williams to execute well when called upon. As an executive, picking Williams would be more of a gamble that he can maintain and improve upon his success without being snatched away by the NFL, while choosing Owens would be going with the more-proven, more-versatile option. Both approaches have their merits, though, and you can bet that most CFL general managers would love to have the dilemma of choosing between these guys.