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Running back's commitment to consistency helping CFL club find offensive success
Published Oct 17, 2025 • 4 minute read
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Calgary Stampeders' running back Dedrick Mills (26) runs the ball forward during second half CFL action against the Montreal Alouettes, in Montreal on Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. Photo by Christopher Katsarov /The Canadian Press
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Dedrick Mills is no one-trick pony with the Calgary Stampeders.
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He can block, and he can catch the ball.
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Tackle, too, if you ask him to go do it, he says.
But Mills’ best contribution to the Stampeders is running that rock, which he’s done for more yards than any other player through 19 weeks of the 2025 Canadian Football League season — a mark that brings on a big smile to the running back’s face.
“It means a lot,” admitted Mills, the top runner for the Stamps since midway through the 2023 CFL campaign. “I’ve been hunting this rushing title for four years since I’ve been here. It just feels amazing to keep coming out here and just blessing my teammates and blessing the field with the greatness of all the work we put in the off-season.
“To just come out here and just work hard, it just feels good.”
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With that in mind, just how would it feel to the Stamps’ ball-hauler to reach 1,500 rushing yards by the end of the CFL’s regular season — now just two games away, including Saturday’s square-off between the host Stamps (9-7) and the Toronto Argonauts (5-12) at McMahon Stadium?
“Yeah … 1,500’s in me, for sure, man,” said Mills, again with a grand grin on his mug. “I feel like I can get it in these next two games. You just got to run hard and just be the more physical team. And I’m looking forward to running behind this offensive line.
“It’s a very physical group and very powerful guys. The guys are strong up front.”
When it comes to the running game, they’ve proven to be just that.
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In last Saturday’s 37-20 take-down of the East Division-leading Hamilton Tiger-Cats, the team rolled up a whopping 211 yards on the rush — a major key in claiming the important victory.
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It wasn’t just Mills with ripping off a big chunk of real estate, either.
It was rookie Ludovic Choquette, with 73 yards — including a 44-yard scamper for a vital touchdown in the second quarter. And it was QB Vernon Adams Jr., with 29 early to help set the tone offensively.
“It’s a team thing,” Mills said. “We all was on one page, as far as me, the o-line, the quarterbacks and the receivers. With the blocks they had downfield, those were some of the greatest blocks we had all season. The o-line was just opening holes up for me — and I’m saying not just me, but Ludo, too. He had a big couple runs.”
Mills himself went off for 105 yards on 17 carries and drove through the defence for two second-half TDs in ensuring the Red and White rumbled to the win.
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Calgary Stampeders RB, Dedrick Mills during practice at Shouldice Park in Calgary on Wednesday, October 15, 2025. Darren Makowichuk/Postmedia
It marked the 13th game on the campaign in which he’s reached at least 70 yards, making him a consistent source of production for the Stamps game-in, game-out.
“I think about that every time I would go back and look at the stat-sheets,” said Mills, when asked about that consistency. “I’d be like, ‘Yo … I only had 80 yards this week, maybe 75 next week and then 80 and 88 or 90 then 100.’ I was like, ‘Oh, man … not 100 every week.
“But having that consistent pace, I always like that,” continued Mills, a 28-year-old former stud for the NCAA’s Nebraska Cornhuskers. “Me and my girl sat down early before the season started and kind of had to goal that I was chasing 100 a game. But as long as I was in the 80-yard range and the more I just kept going, it just felt like, ‘OK, I can stay in the mix (to lead the league) until I can get a chance when everybody else had a bye-week.’
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“So just knowing that I had a chance, once everybody else got their bye week, I knew I could step up and become like the number one in between that time. I just took advantage of it, and I’m saying, ‘I gotta stay consistent every week — 80 yards or more every game.’ And that’s what I’ve just been doing — being consistent with that.”
And heading into the CFL’s Week 20, Mills has that coveted rushing lead — with an impressive 1,225 yards.
Next best, with 1,179, was Saskatchewan Roughriders workhorse A.J. Ouellette. And then it’s James Butler of the B.C. Lions, with 1,103. Of the three talents, Mills has the best yard-per-carry average, with 5.6.
“Most definitely, I can be the top rusher in the league,” said Mills, a 5-foot-10, 238-lb. native of Waycross, Ga. “Man, I keep trying to pull away every week as far as I can right now. I got a little lead on me right now. And I ain’t saying that nobody can ever come get it — somebody can always have a great 200-yard game or whatever. And now I’m just focused on the team goals and not my goals individually.
“When I’m out there, I’m saying I’m playing for the team, and just whatever I can do to help a team, I just go out there and do it. No matter whatever they ask me to do — go out there and block and catch and run — whatever it is. If they want to throw me in on special teams sometime in the middle of the game, I’ll go out there and do that, too.
“So it’s just always about being a team player,” added Mills. “Just always been ready and being the next man up.”
tsaelhof@postmedia.com
http://www.x.com/ToddSaelhofPM
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