SASKATOON — Returning to the football field hasn’t exactly been like riding a bike for Eddie Meredith.
“That’s a tough analogy for me because I’m not great with bikes,” the 24-year-old offensive lineman said with a laugh Tuesday after a training-camp workout with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.
“To shift it a little bit, it’s like speaking a second language that you used to be fluent in. While you remember the basics and you remember some of the advanced stuff, you might not be as quick with it. But the more you immerse yourself in it, the quicker you get back into it.
“I’ve been headlong into it, so it has been going well and I’m getting back into it quickly.”
Meredith was a three-time OUA all-star and a two-time U Sports All-Canadian during his career with the Western University Mustangs. But he walked away from football in 2016 after losing a significant amount of weight on a trip to South America.
This off-season, a few CFL teams called to see if Meredith was interested in returning to the gridiron. The Roughriders were one of those teams — and they showed their interest by working him out before the CFL draft.
Saskatchewan then surprised many by selecting Meredith in the fourth round (32nd overall) of the May 7 lottery. The 6-foot-6, 315-pound O-lineman has held his own during training camp, although he often appears to be favouring his legs.
“I’ve been a little unlucky with a couple of little things here and there,” Meredith said. “I’m fine. It happens the most when I’m cold. When I’m playing, I’m just playing.
“Both of my big toes have been stepped on, so I’m losing both of those toenails. I hurt my ankle. But it’s football. Everyone feels it. I don’t mean to, but sometimes I present it a little more. On game day, though, no one will know.”
Meredith is expected to get some snaps Friday, when the Roughriders complete their pre-season schedule in Vancouver against the B.C. Lions. That game officially will mark the end of Saskatchewan’s training camp and, Meredith hopes, the beginning of his pro career.
“It has been a lot of fun to get back into football,” he said. “The coaches have been great and my teammates have been great. It has been a very productive training camp and when you’re having fun, getting better and making friends, that’s football. That’s a good life.”
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Things weren’t always good for Meredith on Tuesday.
At one point during the practice, he absorbed a couple of punches to the head from defensive tackle Greg Milhouse Jr., who wasn’t pleased with something Meredith had done.
“I might have had a little bit of a hold on him and, y’know, D-linemen don’t like that,” Meredith said with a laugh. “That’s football. That’s life in the trenches. We get heated and it boils over sometimes. We get back up, we dust ourselves off and usually we’re pretty good.
“I don’t hold grudges. I get it. I’ve been on the wrong end of that myself in university. It happens. We all sort of expect and understand it.”
There haven’t been many scraps during Saskatchewan’s training camp. Players have come to blows at times, but those incidents have been few and far between.
“We’ve got professionals out here and when you have two starters playing against each other, they know the right tempo and they know what to do,” Meredith said. “The young guys are still trying to figure it out.
“It doesn’t surprise me the (starters) haven’t (fought). The young guys, maybe it’s a little bit surprising. But it’s on a curve. Some camps you get tons of fights and other camps you get none.”
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Offensive tackle Derek Dennis, who left Monday’s practice before its conclusion, was back on the field Tuesday. So was receiver Ricky Collins Jr., who hadn’t practised since Thursday.
The list of absentees Tuesday included defensive linemen Ivan Brown, Zach Minter, Jonathan Newsome and Jordan Reaves, defensive backs Zavian Bingham and Tevaughn Campbell, offensive linemen Brendon LaBatte and Josiah St. John, running backs Kienan LaFrance and Spencer Moore, returners Joe Craig and Chad Owens, receiver Rob Bagg, quarterback Vince Young and linebacker Samuel Eguavoen.
Of that group, the players expected to be out the longest are Bingham, Eguavoen and Young.
Saskatchewan head coach-GM Chris Jones confirmed that Bingham had surgery on his left knee and that the rookie DB will be out for two to three weeks.
Jones noted that Eguavoen, who missed most of the 2016 season with a knee injury, has an ankle injury that he suffered on Day 1 of training camp. Medical personnel are still trying to determine what’s wrong with Eguavoen, so it’s unknown how long he’ll be out.
On Monday, Jones revealed that Young has a torn hamstring that is expected to sideline him for up to six weeks.
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Quarterback Bryan Bennett, who had been impressive during Saskatchewan’s mini-camp in Florida and during the early stages of training camp, struggled during the Roughriders’ 25-25 pre-season tie with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Saturday.
Bennett was 7-for-15 passing for 82 yards against the Bombers, who sacked him three times. He also lost two of his three fumbles in the contest.
Jones said he’s looking forward to seeing the young pivot rebound in Friday’s exhibition tilt in Vancouver after getting some comforting words from quarterbacks coach Jarious Jackson and a pat on the back from Jones.
“He’s a tough kid,” Jones said. “Nobody puts more pressure on himself than him. He holds himself to a very high standard and when you don’t reach those standards, sometimes you start to press. He needs to just relax and do what he has done earlier in camp.”
