Stephen Dane Evans (born November 19, 1993) is an American professional

Canadian football Canadian football () is a team sport, sport played in Canada in which two teams of 12 players each compete for territorial control of a field of play long and wide attempting to advance a pointed oval-shaped ball into the opposing team's sco ...

quarterback The quarterback (commonly abbreviated "QB"), colloquially known as the "signal caller", is a position in gridiron football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive platoon and mostly line up directly behind the offensive line. In modern Ame ...

for the

BC Lions The BC Lions are a professional Canadian football team based in Vancouver, British Columbia. The Lions compete in the West Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), and play their home games at BC Place. The Lions played their first season ...

of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

(CFL). He played

college football College football (french: Football universitaire) refers to gridiron football played by teams of student athletes. It was through college football play that American football rules first gained popularity in the United States. Unlike most ...

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

. He has also been a member of the

Philadelphia Eagles The Philadelphia Eagles are a professional American football team based in Philadelphia. The Eagles compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. The team plays ...

and

Hamilton Tiger-Cats The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are a professional Canadian football team based in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. They are currently members of the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL). The Tiger-Cats play their home games at Tim Hortons Fiel ...

College career

Evans passed for 3,102 yards as a sophomore in 2014. In 2015, he completed 305 of 485 passes for 4,332 yards and 25 touchdowns and ranked eighth among NCAA Division I FBS quarterbacks in passing yardage. As a senior, he passed for 3,348 yards and 32 touchdowns.

Statistics

Professional career

Evans was rated the 25th best quarterback in the

2017 NFL Draft The 2017 NFL Draft was the 82nd annual meeting of National Football League (NFL) franchises to select newly eligible American football players. It was held in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art on April 27–29, returning to Philadelphia f ...

by NFLDraftScout.com.

Philadelphia Eagles

After going undrafted in the 2017 NFL Draft, Evans signed with the

on June 30, 2017. He was waived on September 1, 2017.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

On October 3, 2017, Evans was signed to the

' practice roster. On November 2, 2017, he was promoted to the active roster. Evans made his first career CFL start on November 3, 2018, throwing for 315 yards in a 30–28 loss against the

Montreal Alouettes The Montreal Alouettes (Canadian French, French: Les Alouettes de Montréal) are a professional Canadian football team based in Montreal, Quebec. Founded in 1946, the team has folded and been revived twice. The Alouettes compete in the Canadian F ...

. He finished the season having played in three games, completing 26 of 42 pass attempts for 383 yards with two touchdowns and two interceptions. On April 9, 2019, Evans signed a contract extension with Hamilton through the 2021 season. He began the season as the backup quarterback and came in relief of injured starting quarterback

Jeremiah Masoli Jeremiah Taeatafa Masoli (born August 24, 1988) is an American professional Canadian football quarterback for the Ottawa Redblacks of the Canadian Football League (CFL). He was signed by the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL as an undrafted free a ...

in Week 7 of the 2019 season to lead the Ti-Cats to victory, moving them into first place in the league with a 5–1 record. In the following days, it was revealed that Masoli suffered a

torn ACL An anterior cruciate ligament injury occurs when the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) is either stretched, partially torn, or completely torn. The most common injury is a complete tear. Symptoms include pain, an audible cracking sound during inju ...

injury and would miss the remainder of the season; thrusting Evans into the starting role. Evans started 11 of the last 12 games of the season, and was named a CFL Top Performer for the month of September. He finished the regular season having completed 298 passes out of 413 attempts for 3,754 passing yards, 21 passing touchdowns, and 13 interceptions. He had a 9–2 record as a starter and led the Tiger-Cats to a first place finish in the East Division. In his first career playoff start, he completed 21 passes out of 36 attempts for 386 yards, including one touchdown and one interception, en route to his first playoff win and berth in the

107th Grey Cup The 107th Grey Cup decided the champion of the 2019 season in the Canadian Football League (CFL). The match was played on November 24, 2019, between the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at McMahon Stadium in Calgary, Alberta. Wi ...

. The Tiger Cats were defeated by the

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fiel ...

in the championship match. Evans restructured his contract with the Tiger-Cats in January 2020; however the 2020 season was cancelled due to the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. During the 2020 football season, Evans was hired as a graduate assistant by the

University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public research university in Denton, Texas. It was founded as a nonsectarian, coeducational, private teachers college in 1890 and was formally adopted by the state 11 years later."Denton Normal School," ...

. Evans began the 2021 season as the backup to

, however he was named the starter for the team's Week 4 game against the Montreal Alouettes. He suffered a lower-body injury partway though the team's Week 6 game against the

Toronto Argonauts The Toronto Argonauts (officially the Toronto Argonaut Football Club and colloquially known as the Argos) are a professional Canadian football team competing in the East Division of the Canadian Football League (CFL), based in Toronto, Ontario ...

: On September 13, 2021, it was announced that Evans would miss four to six weeks recovering. On October 19, 2021, the Ti-Cats announced that Evans had been activated from injured reserve. Evans played in the second half of the final game of the season for the Ticats, securing a 24–3 win. After Masoli got off to a slow start in the Eastern Final against the Argonauts Evans replaced him and completed all 16 of his pass attempts for 249 yards and a touchdown leading Hamilton to a Grey Cup birth. Following the win, Ticats head coach

Orlando Steinauer Orlondo Steinauer (born June 9, 1973) is the president of football operations and head coach for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats of the Canadian Football League (CFL). As a player, he played professional Canadian football as a Safety (football position), ...

named Evans the starter for the

108th Grey Cup The 108th Grey Cup decided the Canadian Football League (CFL) championship for the 2021 season. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 season was cancelled and the start of the 2021 season was delayed, pushing the game to December 12, 2021. The ...

. However, Evans was injured in the second quarter and was forced to leave the game, being replaced by Masoli who was ultimately defeated by the

Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fiel ...

in overtime. On January 12, 2022 Dane Evans signed a 2-year contract extension to remain with the Hamilton Tiger Cats. Evans began the 2022 season as the starting quarterback after Jeremiah Masoli signed with the Ottawa Redblacks in free agency: Matthew Shiltz was signed to be the backup quarterback. In the middle of the season Evans battled through a shoulder injury. After missing three of four games Evans returned to the starting lineup on September 17, 2022. By the end of the season Evans had fallen out of favour with the management in Hamilton. In late January 2023, Hamilton signed veteran quarterback

Bo Levi Mitchell Bo Levi Mitchell (born March 3, 1990)Official Eastern Washingto ...

to a three-year contract with the expectation he will be their starting quarterback in 2023 and beyond. Given his large salary, the Tiger-Cats were reluctant to retain Evans as a backup quarterback, and thus his future in Hamilton was uncertain.

BC Lions

On February 23, 2023, Evans was traded to the

in exchange for a conditional fourth-round selection in the 2024 CFL Draft.According to TSN insider

Farhan Lalji Farhan Lalji is a Vancouver-based sports reporter and the Vancouver Bureau Reporter for TSN's SportsCentre. He previously anchored ''SportsDesk'' between 1997 and 2000. Career Lalji joined TSN in 1997 as an anchor of TSN's flagship sports ...

, Evans agreed to a restructured contract to reflect the fact he will be competing for the number two quarterback role behind presumed starter Vernon Adams Jr.

CFL statistics

Personal life

Evans is of Native American ancestry, belonging to the Wichita; his great-grandmother, Doris McLemore, was the last fluent speaker of the

Wichita language Wichita is an extinct Caddoan language once spoken in Oklahoma by the Wichita and Affiliated Tribes. The last fluent heritage speaker, Doris Lamar-McLemore, died in 2016, although in 2007 there were three first-language speakers alive.Rood, 2008 ...

References

External links

BC Lions bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Evans, Dane 1993 births Living people Players of American football from Oklahoma People from Chickasha, Oklahoma People from Sanger, Texas Players of American football from Texas American football quarterbacks Canadian football quarterbacks American players of Canadian football Tulsa Golden Hurricane football players Philadelphia Eagles players Hamilton Tiger-Cats players Native American players of American football BC Lions players