Calgary Stampeders defensive back Branden Dozier says he’s “excited to be back in red. And I’m ready to get to work.” Photo by Azin Ghaffari /Postmedia

Day 2 of CFL free agency brought another key player back to the Calgary Stampeders.

Defensive back Branden Dozier was re-upped Wednesday by the club in its pursuit to massage its roster for the 2023 campaign.

The 29-year-old American represents another familiar face returning to the fold after 11 other potential free agents from last year’s lineup had their contracts extended ahead of Tuesday’s opening of the window.

And he represents a huge get-back for the Stampeders.

“Branden is one of our leaders on the back end,” said Stampeders GM/head coach Dave Dickenson. “He’ll do whatever it takes to make us better.”

Dickenson said last week that he liked the depth of his secondary.

But bringing back Dozier on a one-year pact shores it up significantly.

Plus he brings versatility to the entire Red & White defence.

Dozier has made starts at both safety and the strong-side linebacker in his two seasons with the Stamps, excelling as the season progressed by registering 69 defensive tackles, one sack, two interceptions and four knockdowns in 21 regular-season games. He has also played two post-season contests for the Horsemen and made a total of 10 tackles.

His work on the special-teams unit has been big, as well. Dozier has recorded 24 special-teams tackles.

“I’m excited to be back in red,” said Dozier, with 5-foot-10, 204-lb. vitals. “And I’m ready to get to work.”

Dozier started his CFL career with two seasons with the Montreal Alouettes, earning East Division all-star honours in 2018. He also spent a year with the BC Lions.

The product of Topeka, Kan., has played 72 regular-season games over five CFL seasons and has 289 career defensive tackles including four for a loss, 64 special-teams tackles, three sacks, three forced fumbles, one fumble recovery returned for a touchdown and eight interceptions.

Before coming to Canada, he starred for the NCAA’s Charlotte 49ers and attended mini-camp with the NFL’s Pittsburgh Steelers.

“(Bringing back Dozier) on the back-end — that will help,” Dickenson said. “Nick Statz showed up, and we’ll make him better. Danny Amoako was a nice surprise, but he needs playing time. And (Demetri) Royer, we just didn’t get a look. We’re also in contact with (Elie) Bouka. We have a guy that we drafted that was hurt and could come back.

“So I believe that we’ll have a good group of Canadian DBs that can play not only safety but can play corner. And that’s something that we’ll let them battle it out at camp.”

Dozier’s re-up leaves five of last year’s Stamps still unsigned. Bouka is one, as well as fellow defensive back Marcelis Branch, receiver Richard Sindani and big names Shawn Lemon and Kamar Jorden. With the pivotal Julian Howsare signing Tuesday, Dickenson hints that bringing veteran defensive lineman Lemon — last year’s sack-master, with 14 to lead the team — would be “tougher.” And the GM says he’s not closing the door on seasoned receiver Jorden, although it might be “tough” to bring him back.

“When you play well and you’ve got a good group, you do like to sign as many guys back as possible,” Dickenson said. “But once you start giving people raises, it does affect other positions.”

In the Stamps’ case, that’s at linebacker, where standout Jameer Thurman has deftly patrolled the middle but inked a deal with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Canadian linebacker Fraser Sopik, a 25-year-old Toronto native who has spent the last four years with the Stamps, joined Thurman with the Ticats.

But …

“The most important piece in our linebacking crew was Cam Judge,” said Dickenson of re-signing the star ratio-buster last month. “You can lose players here and there, but I don’t see another guy in the league that I feel confident can play up to that standard. Really, I was so happy with the way he fit in. Cam was a player that I had to have back. I’m super happy that he feels the same way.”

Adding another big name at linebacker could prove tough with the Stamps fast approaching the $5.51-million salary cap.

“We’ve got good depth at the (middle linebacker),” added Dickenson. “I’ve got three guys here that were last year — Silas Stewart, Shaq Smith and Perry Young — that are ready to go. We’ll see if there’s another piece out there who wants to be a Stampeder.

“We’ve hit on most of our contract offers. We’ve hit on the guys that we certainly feel like we needed to come back in the red and white. You’re always going to miss on a few, but we’ve hit on the guys we wanted.”

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