Ticats’ release of Martell Mallett marks a surprising end for their once-touted signing

The Hamilton Tiger-Cats' signing of former NFL and CFL running back Martell Mallett in January 2012 was full of sound and fury, but Mallett's release Friday shows it ultimately signified nothing. Mallett shone in the CFL with B.C. in 2009 and then spent a few years bouncing around the NFL, but his return to Canadian football last year had him billed as a huge star and the Tiger-Cats' featured running back, leading to the release of incumbent Avon Cobourne (who had been a big free-agent signing himself the year before). The best-laid schemes of mice and GMs gang aft agly, though: when Mallett tore his Achilles tendon in the Ticats' 2012 training camp, Cobourne was brought back from Florida to be the team's star RB, but Chevon Walker wound up taking most of the reps before he himself got hurt, leading to Cobourne finally playing. It wasn't surprising to see the 34-year old Cobourne released earlier this offseason, but the release of the 27-year-old Mallett before he played a game for Hamilton is a bit more unusual, and it marks a strange end to a once-promising saga that turned out not to mean much.

On several levels, though, there's some logic to this move. Keep in mind that the CFL is a tightly-capped league: the 2013 cap is a mere $4.4 million per team, resulting in an average salary of $83,018 if that money was evenly distributed (injuries and the extra money paid to quarterbacks mean the average salary is closer to $60,000, according to most thinking). Mallett was lured back from the NFL, so he was likely signed to a significant contract that's at that average level or higher. Walker's still on his rookie contract, so he likely is making a below-average figure. He's also a year younger (he turned 26 this month, while Mallett turned 27), and Drew Edwards writes that Walker showed more than Mallett in the team's minicamp:

This is a bit of a gamble by the Tiger-Cats, but it's not necessarily a huge one. On one front, they're hoping that Walker will stay healthy and effective, and that's not a certainty. Running back injuries are common, as this team well knows. On a second front, though, they're envisioning that they can find a replacement running back who can be a cheaper backup than Mallett would have been while being similarly effective, and that's not out of the question. There are a lot of good running backs out there still, some of whom have shone in the CFL before and some who are trying to work their way in. The Ticats' bet here is that they'll be able to replace Mallett more cheaply and use those cost savings to further effectiveness elsewhere. It's tough to completely evaluate that given the prevalence of running back injuries, but the odds it will work out for them are reasonable. However, this still marks an unfortunate end to Mallett's time in Hamilton, which started with a bang, but concluded with a whimper.