Regina’s Mitch Picton catches first career touchdown pass

Mitch Picton caught two touchdowns in the first ever game at Mosaic Stadium as a member of the University of Regina Rams.

On Saturday, Picton caught his first career CFL touchdown pass in that same stadium. It came with quarterback Cody Fajardo tossing an eight-yard strike to Picton running a slant route with 44 seconds left in the first half en route to a 30-8 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

“It was pretty cool. It was something that I definitely went over in my head and visualized many times but to have that come to fruition was very cool,” Picton said.

And being from the Queen City, Picton was able to have this special moment happen in front of family and friends.

“There was a lot of people that were pretty excited. The Pictons are pretty big football fans and they were all there and they were pretty fired up,” Picton said.

During his career with the Rams, Picton  grabbed 169 receptions for 2,431 yards and 24 touchdowns. That lead to the Riders taking him in fifth round (37th overall) in the 2017 draft.

But a majority of his CFL career has been spent on the practice roster, only appearing in two games prior to 2021.

But in two contests this season, Picton has five catches for 59 yards and a touchdown.

“I’ve gone through this process before when I came into the Rams, I certainly wasn’t the starter from day one and had to work my way up the depth chart so it’s something I’ve done before,” Picton said. “I’m at the destination where I wanted to get to at this point and now there’s a lot of work ahead of me to stay where I’m at.”

With Picton and fellow Canadian receiver Brayden Lenius finding success early in 2021, it has people reminded of the days of Saskatchewan’s Canadian Air Force – Chris Getzlaf, Rob Bagg, Jason Clermont and Andy Fantuz.

Picton hopes he can help inspire the next generation of Canadian CFL players like those four did for him.

“I’ve had young kids reach out to me over the past couple days – kid’s that I’ve trained and kids that have watched me play,” Picton said. “I had Rob text me the other day about the game and it’s just something that I hope I can inspire some younger kids that Canadian receivers can make an impact in the league.”