From his orchestra seat-perch directly behind the swirl of carnage, Joshua Bell is uniquely qualified to critique performance.

“As the middle linebacker,” says the Stampeders’ junkyard-dog safety, “you know you have the pulse of everybody on the team.

“Every great player at that position – and I’ve played with a few – brings his own set of intangibles.

“(Solomon) Elimimian, for instance, is a vicious hitter. Vicious. Very humble, quiet, soft-spoken person. Nicest guy. Then he gets on the field and this transformation takes place and you’re doing a double-take, like: ‘What just happened to Solly?!’

“Kind of split-personality thing.

“Simp (Juwan Simpson) could do anything sideline-to-sideline. You couldn’t believe he had any lungs because he was everywhere making tackles and then talking after every play, 24/7. He commanded respect from his peers and his teammates.

“Alex, we called him Phenom last year. He has an incredible skillset. And he’s just starting to blossom right now.

“Blossoming into one of those guys.

“Those special guys.”

With only 12 starts at MLB on his CFL resume, Alex Singleton is beginning to draw some pretty flattering comparisons. With Elimimian. With the Eskimos’ J.C. Sherritt. With the best the three-down game has to offer.

We’re only approaching Week 3 so, yes, there are many, many miles yet to travel. Still, the Thousand Oaks., Calif., product finds himself leading the CFL in tackles at 15 heading into Winnipeg for Friday’s tilt against the Blue Bombers.

Last Thursday at McMahon, following up a curtain-raising nine-tackle performance at TD Place Stadium in Ottawa, the Montana State alumnus might has well have worn a jersey strung strung with neon lights that blinked Yes, It’s Me Again off and on.

You could not take your eyes off him.

Credited with six tackles, a respectable enough number, Singleton’s impact went galaxies beyond that.

Everyone in the stadium thought he’d scored a touchdown after a debilitating whack by a blitzing Bell on Ottawa QB Trevor Harris that was chalked off by a video review and an incomplete-pass call. Later on, he laid a jarring lick on RedBlacks’ Patrick Lavoie, causing a fumble that linebacking cohort Maleki Harris scooped up and toted 46 yards for a major.

Photo by Canadian Press/Larry MacDougall

“Yes, sir,’’ says Bell. “He was pretty good. Uh-huh.”

Even four days later, Singleton had to admit, that near-TD felt awful good while it lasted.

“It was … amazing,’’ he laughs. “I thought I’d scored my first professional touchdown, at least for a little bit. I had one for a minute or so.

“Just keep working on it, I guess. Keep making plays, keep getting to the ball, and good things will happen. Bell had a sack, a forced fumble and I was just doing my job, flying around. That’s how you get to make those plays. The guy walking around isn’t the one picking up loose balls. It’s the guy that’s always around what’s happening, who never stops, that gets those kind of opportunities.

“So . . . maybe sometime.”

Invariably, there is nothing harder to follow up than a boffo first impression.

And in taking the spot in the middle of the second layer of defence and making it his own, heralding the dawning of the post-Simpson era, Singleton caught the league’s eye, finishing with 65 tackles.

“You’ve just gotta take all the talk with a grain of salt,’’ he reasons, shrugging. “You’ve still gotta go out and play. What I try to focus on is what makes the older guys on our team – in their sixth, seventh, eighth years here – still so good.

“Micah (Johnson), Charleston (Hughes), (Deron) Mayo, Bell, (Jamar) Wall. All those guys. I watch how they communicate on the field and say to myself: ‘Those are the guys I want to be like.’ To be able to fire around the way they do.

“I want to be as good as them.

“Take things they do and build them into my game.”

Photo by Scott Grant

There’s no questioning the evolving influence of No. 49 on the Calgary defensive stronghold.

“He does a good job of taking what we as coaches are trying to accomplish and takes it onto the field,’’ compliments defensive coordinator DeVone Claybrooks. “He puts in the extra time you need to take your game to the next level.

“He’s very versatile, can play the Mike and the Will (linebacker positions). We have a good situation set out for him and he flies around executing the calls.”

No different than anyone of a particular profession, when not on the field wreaking havoc of his own, Alex Singleton enjoys taking in an eye-popping linebacking performance.

“Oh, man, I watch all of ’em,’’ he enthuses. “From Simoni (Lawrence) to Biggie (Adam Bighill) to Solly, J.C. Take your pick. Guys who are always around the ball. Good hustle players. Playmakers at the position.

“Love ‘em.

“There’s no specific person you try and replicate because then you’re just a copy of somebody who’s already in the league. You want to be yourself, your own player, but there’s no harm in adopting little things that make other guys great.

“There are a lot of great linebackers in this league.

“And that’s what what you aspire to be.

“One of those guys.”

Those special guys.

Photo by David Moll