DENVER — Qwan’Tez Stiggers showed up for the first day of training camp last spring extremely nervous and with little chance.
Nervous because the 21-year-old cornerback was about to make a near unprecedented leap from high school to the pros. Long odds of making the team because – well, he was going from high school to the pros – but also because his defensive backs coach for the Canadian Football League’s Toronto Argonauts, Josh Bell – a five-game starter for the Broncos in place of the injured Champ Bailey in 2008 – had a preconceived notion about Stiggers. Not Stiggers, specifically, but players like him. And it wasn’t favorable.
“I hate rookies,’’ said Bell, who is about to begin his sixth season as a CFL coach. “I‘ll tell them every year in the room, I say, ‘Rookies, I’ll see you next year. Maybe if somebody gets hurt I’ll play you. But my son’s got to eat and you ain’t got it. You're riding on the bench.’’’
Eight months later, the Argonauts are coming off a 16-2 season and Stiggers had collected not only the CFL’s second-most interceptions with five but a first-team East Division All Star and CFL Most Outstanding Rookie honors.
To begin the 2023 season, Bell was aware of Stiggers, a talented, good-sized (6-foot, 196 pounds) but raw cornerback, only because his story was so fascinating. In the upcoming NFL Draft, every prospect will have their own journey. Many will have transferred from college program to program. Many will have spent five-plus years in college.
No one will come remotely close to following the path Stiggers did.
“I’ll say it like this, if he goes through a true Pro Day and he can get into some of these All-Star games, he’d easily be a third or fourth-round pick,’’ Bell said. “I say easy on the back end because the NFL is always skeptical. They’re probably thinking fourth to seventh round. I’m telling you this kid has the explosion, he has the ability, he just needs to continue to work his technique. His athleticism is incredible.”
A stellar three-sport athlete at B.E.S.T. Academy, a public all-male grades 6 through 12 school in Atlanta, Stiggers accepted a football scholarship to Lane College, a private historically Black college in Jackson, Tenn. It was 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic. The football program’s season had been cancelled in July. Two months later, Stiggers’ father died from injuries suffered in a car accident.
“He was on life support at Grady Hospital here in Atlanta from Feb. 14 until Sept. 19, the day he passed,’’ Stiggers said.
It was a time when many hospitals and medical facilities would not allow even the closest relatives and loved ones to see patients.
“I only saw my dad twice from the time he was there till the time he passed,’’ Stiggers said. “He meant the world to me. When you lose your father it tears your world down especially when you have younger brothers that are supposed to be raised by their father. When he passed I was 18. It took a toll on me but it really took a toll on my brothers because they’ve got to grow up – not necessarily without a father because my stepdad, Mr. William (Fletcher), he’s done a really great job. But they’re growing up without their biological father. He was our provider. It was tough.’’
Stiggers gave up college football before it began. There have been two versions of why he left college. One, he had fell into a state of depression from losing his father. The other was to return home to Atlanta to help provide for his mom Kwanna Stiggers and his two young brothers, who were 10 and 8 at the time.
“It was a little bit of both,’’ Stiggers said. “I went home and was bouncing around from job to job. I was working at the airport cleaning cars. Driving for Door Dash. Driving for Instacart. It was a whole bunch of jobs just to put a little extra money on the table.’’
“If we called him and Face Timed him, I can tell you right now he’s washing trucks,’’ Bell said. “This kid is amazing. He can buy a car, fix it up and resell it and make money. He’s truly from the school of hard knocks. I don’t think college would have benefitted him. He is mature beyond his 21 years as a man.’’
Indeed, Stiggers’ offseason job since 2021 has been working at Blue Beacon Truck Wash. Still, after a little more than a year at home, his mom thought Qwan’Tez – a name derived from the first four letters of his older brother Qwantayvious’ first name, and last three letters of his older brother’s middle name, Artez -- was too young to give up on his God-given athletic ability. She saw a notice about a Fan Controlled Football League that takes place in Atlanta. It’s a 7-on-7 game played indoors. Fans call the plays.
“I guess she had seen it on Facebook,’’ Stiggers said. “She said I signed you up for this tryout, you should go. Because after I lost my dad I felt like I was done with football. And I ended up trying out, made the team. Had some success, balled out and got a chance to play in the CFL and after that was declared for the NFL Draft.”
There are eight teams in the Fan Controlled Football league and Stiggers played for four of them.
“The defense played two times a day,’’ Stiggers said.
He had six interceptions in that league and caught the attention of an Argonauts coach who recommended Stiggers attend a CFL tryout last April. Did well enough to sign with the Argonauts. Then came Toronto’s training camp in May.
“I was most definitely nervous because I’m coming from high school and I’m playing with grown men, guys who went to big-time colleges, played in the NFL,’’ Stiggers said. “So of course you’re going to be nervous but once you figure out that I’m just as good as these guys, then everything else becomes first nature.”
Bell, the former Bronco turned coach who automatically thinks rookies can’t play, found himself making an exception for Stiggers by day 2 of camp.
“I looked at him and said all right, he looks explosive,’’ Bell said. “But this kid has no college, no college knowledge, no college background, nothing. Just straight high school – this kid doesn’t have a chance in hell. Because we run defense, now. We run zone dog, we run man, we run match concepts, we do a lot of things in our defense. And I’m like, ‘This kid doesn’t stand a chance.
“He came in and I wanted him to be the bottom of the barrel. And he just happened to account in the very first two days—do you hear me? – the first two days. He communicated well that’s what he did. He communicated well as a man. We got to camp and I was coaching some simple foundational things but instantly you could see the explosion. You could see he had good tempo and control. And he could naturally read the quarterback. He could see and anticipate the route concept and be wherever the ball is.
“And he is almost like a flash. Puts his foot in the ground so forceful – a lot of times he’d push the ground and if he doesn’t get his full foot in the ground the earth is going to move. I said, ‘Hey man, you’ve got to put your whole foot in the ground because he was literally pushing the earth. I was, ‘Oh my God.’ After the first couple days he was running with the 2s. I was like hold on now, we’ve got something.”
Stiggers the earth digger. This from a young man – Stiggers didn’t turn 22 until last week – who was understandably a bit intimidated in his new environment.
Yes, Stiggers came from high school, but not a typical high school. Bell credits one of Stiggers’ coaches, Myron Lewis, a former Vanderbilt and NFL defensive back, with developing a strong fundamental foundation in Stiggers.
The moment when Stiggers felt like he belonged in the CFL? The second defensive series of his first preseason game when he intercepted Hamilton quarterback Taylor Powell. In his first regular season game, Stiggers intercepted Canadian legend Bo Levi Mitchell. Toronto quarterback Chad Kelly – another former Denver Bronco – threw for 238 yards and rushed for three touchdowns in a 32-14 victory.
Kelly wound up as the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player. Stiggers dedicated his honors to his family, most specifically his father.
“I have a pregame ritual,’’ Stiggers said. “If it’s a home game I try to get there three hours before the game. I take two laps around the field. I listen to my music. Then when it’s time to run out, I run out to our end zone or the opponent’s end zone, I get like a two or three minute prayer in and I ask God to look over me and my family. And after that, it’s time to roll.”
When Toronto’s season ended with an upset loss in the Eastern Final, Stiggers needed an agent to help him navigate the next jump to the NFL. He wound up with Frederick Lyles Jr., who had previously represented three Broncos’ defensive backs -- Bell, A.J. Bouye and Chris Harris Jr.
“Those guys were Pro Bowlers and All-ros,’’ Lyles said, referring to Bouye and Harris. “Looking at Qwan’Tez, he most definitely has the same traits those guys possessed at similar points in their careers. That’s what really got my attention. The great thing about Qwan’Tez is he’s got great size and speed and a tremendous amount of athleticism.”
Lyles went to work, communicating regularly with the CFL and the NFL’s Management Council who last month sent a memo to all 32 teams stating Stiggers is eligible for the NFL Draft in April. Since then, Lyles said he’s heard from about half of the NFL general managers, including the Broncos’ George Paton.
Bell adds Stiggers is “a striker” as a tackler. He had 56 tackles for Toronto last season, including three on special teams.
“This kid, I couldn’t take him off the field,’’ Bell said. “And that’s with limited knowledge. Big picture he’s still learning how to play corner. He’s still learning all of the concepts but he understands basic football. He understands how to carry, play cover 2 hard and how to carry with two verticals.
“And he can play man (to man). He can play man and he can play the ball. He has a knack -- he has a Charles Woodson ability to play the football.”
Stiggers said he appreciates the CFL and the Argonauts for giving him permission to pursue his NFL dream. Lyles will set up a personal Pro Day for Stiggers in the Atlanta area around the same time Georgia and Georgia Tech hold their Pro Days.
"I train, I work and I spend my time with my fiancé (high school sweetheart Cheyenne) and my son (2year-old Legend London),'' Stiggers said.
As this story was submitted for publish Saturday evening, Stiggers accepted an invitation to play in the East-West Shrine Bowl that will take place Jan. 31-Feb. 2 in Frisco, Texas.
“Wherever it is I’m going to show all the haters that just because the story sounds good, I can back the story up,” Stiggers said.
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