Practice roster pros help Esks’ success
Players often get chance to step up and fill slot when injuries hit team
It’s easy to overlook all of the little transactions — a new player added to the practice roster here, another released after being in town for a few weeks there — that occur after NFL teams make their final training camp cuts in early September.
But these minor moves, involving players who are not on the game roster, can pay huge dividends both now and down the road for Canadian Football League teams.
For the Edmonton Eskimos, who have 17 consecutive games between bye weeks this season, practice roster players can give regular players a chance to save their legs for game day.
“We’re in Week 14 or 15 without a break,” said Eskimos head coach Chris Jones, whose team plays host to the B.C. Lions at 5 p.m. Saturday at Commonwealth Stadium. “I’ve got to make sure I do the best job I can of keeping the guys fresh.”
Edmonton, which had its first bye in the second week of the regular season and won’t get another break until the final week, timed the four-week period where it can bump the practice roster (PR) from 10 to 15 players for this part of the year to try to maximize the amount of rest it could give players.
“It’s been a long season,” admitted rookie cornerback John Ojo, who was on the Eskimos practice roster last fall before making the active roster out of training camp in June. "It’s been a while since we had that bye week. Knowing that, we have practice roster guys who are ready to play any time to give us a little breather.
“Coach does an excellent job of making sure his practice roster guys get a lot of work and he does a great job of developing players,” continued Ojo, whose fifth interception of the season (and first in eight games) led to Kenny Stafford’s league-leading ninth touchdown of the season in Saturday’s 15-11 victory over the Calgary Stampeders.
“Even when you’re on the practice roster, it feels like you’re on the active roster because a guy can go down and you’ve got to be ready for it. You go against the first team a lot, so you get a lot of work when you’re on the practice roster.”
Ojo said his experience during the final months in 2014 helped him land a starting job this year.
“That was real important for me just to see from the sidelines as to what the Eskimos were about and learn a little bit of their history,” he said. “Just to watch the guys from afar played a big impact on me playing with them this year. I knew what I was getting myself into when I came here. I expected high intensity, a lot of running, a lot of competing, a lot of one-on-ones, which Coach Jones is big on.”
The pace of play in the CFL was a little faster than he anticipated, but it helped that he also had a chance to participate in the team’s rookie mini-camp in Florida in April, “which is kind of like a small preview.”
Asked what his first impression of Ojo was last year, Jones said: “He had great size, great speed, he was very intelligent, he was able to play three or four positions.”
Despite that glowing report, Ojo had to wait for this season to prove himself because “we had already won a bunch of games with the guys we had in the locker-room,” according to Jones.
Other players who made a good impression after joining the Eskimos in the fall and earned a job in training camp the following season include current Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterback Matt Nichols and injured Calgary Stampeders defensive back/kick-returner Joe Burnett.
“Injuries a lot of times predicate whether or not those guys get an opportunity off the PR,” said Jones. "We do work every day after practice where we try to not only condition these players, but find out what their abilities are to make a play.
“If the guy runs and catches really well, when there’s an opportunity to get him on the roster via injury or whatever or lack of play from another person, then we’ll stick him on and see what they have.”
That’s all a practice roster player can hope happens.
“I look at it as a great opportunity,” said 25-year-old defensive end Sam Montgomery, who was drafted by the NFL’s Houston Tex- ans in 2013 and spent the past year with the Cincinnati Bengals before joining the Eskimos practice roster on Sept. 30. “It’s the next best thing on my plate.”
“Every time I come out here (to practice), it’s an audition,” said six-foot-four slotback Aaron Kelly, a 29-year-old who has played 21 games over the past four seasons with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Winnipeg Blue Bombers and attended the Toronto Argonauts’ training camp this year. Just be ready when I get my opportunity, if it comes.
“It’s a little different here,” Kelly added, pointing out that he actually gets to learn the Eskimos’ offensive plays. “A lot of times on other teams, you’re just on the scout team running the cards (opponents’ offensive plays) for the upcoming week.”
According to the CFL’s collective bargaining agreement with the players union, practice roster players must be paid a minimum salary of $750/week plus housing.
Of course, the practice roster is also used to fill a position when an injury occurs at any point in the season. Recently, defensive tackle Cedric McKinley and kickreturner Sederrik Cunningham got a chance to play because of injuries and kicker Sean Whyte was being recruited for the practice roster in early September when Grant Shaw (calf ) was hurt in practice.
The Eskimos’ most impressive addition off the practice roster this season is wide receiver Derel Walker, a training camp cut who has caught 65 passes for 840 yards and two touchdowns in only nine games since coming off the practice roster in August. Walker needs 19 catches over the last three games to tie the CFL record for most receptions by a first-year player (Marcus Grant of the Birmingham Barracudas in 1995).
“All the film I watched, he made at least one and a lot of times two plays a day (in practice) against a very good defence,” said Jones. “When you’re making plays on Pat Watkins and Ojo consistently, then I feel like you can probably make a play against one of our opponents.”
Sitting on the practice roster for several weeks was a humbling experience for Walker, though.
“I waited a lot of games, so I watched what was going on, so I feel like if I had started at the beginning of the year, I would have started out a little slower,” he said. "I developed so much while I was on the practice roster.
“Of course, I’m still learning each and every week, but I knew a little more than I did at the beginning of the season.”
We’re in Week 14 or 15 without a break. I’ve got to make sure I do the best job I can of keeping the guys fresh. CHRIS JONES