Elie Bouka and the Saskatchewan Roughriders have been playing the waiting game for a while now.
That should end Sunday, when Bouka is expected to make his CFL debut for Saskatchewan when it faces the Calgary Stampeders at Mosaic Stadium.
The Roughriders selected the 6-foot-1, 205-pound defensive back in the third round (24th overall) of the 2016 CFL draft, but they had to wait while he tried his luck in the NFL.
Sixteen months later, the Roughriders will see if their gamble was worth it.
“We knew that he had tremendous talent,” Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones said Thursday at Mosaic Stadium. “He was coming off the injury, so it was one of those deals where if he did come free (from the NFL), we knew we were going to get a good football player.”
While the Roughriders have been waiting to see Bouka, the man himself has been waiting even longer to play in a game that counted in the standings. The last time he played in a regular-season contest was Nov. 1, 2014, when he was a member of the University of Calgary Dinos.
After missing the entire 2015 Canada West season with a torn Achilles tendon, Bouka spent the 2016 campaign on injured reserve with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals after injuring a hamstring.
He was released by the Cardinals with an injury settlement this fall after hurting an ankle during training camp.
“I always have a lot to prove,” said Bouka, a 25-year-old product of Laval, Que. “Ten years from now, I’ll have a lot to prove. Twenty years from now, I’ll have a lot to prove. I just take it day by day and try to get better every day and the result will come.”
In the summer of 2015, Bouka appeared at No. 4 on the CFL Scouting Bureau’s pre-season rankings for the 2016 draft. He was big, he was fast and, as a converted receiver, he had good ball skills.
But during a practice in August, Bouka tore his left Achilles and his season was done before it even began. He finished his career at Calgary having played in just 19 regular-season games.
He went to the CFL’s scouting combine in Toronto in March of 2016 to show teams he was recovering from the injury, but his interest in the CFL diminished considerably on April 30 — the final day of the 2016 NFL draft.
Bouka, who had been contacted by several NFL teams before the lottery, wasn’t selected but he did sign as an undrafted free agent with the Cardinals shortly after the draft concluded.
“From the age of six, I’ve been talking about wanting to go to the NFL,” Bouka recalled. “People thought I was crazy when I was younger, but more and more, I saw it was a goal that I could attain.
“The way it happened was pretty unbelievable. I had a torn Achilles and the Cardinals did their research and reached out.”
A few weeks later, Bouka slid to the Roughriders in the third round of the May 10 CFL draft.
In Arizona, Bouka played in one pre-season game, forcing a fumble against the Oakland Raiders on Aug. 12, 2016. But a hamstring injury suffered in camp sent him to injured reserve, where he spent the entire campaign.
He had high hopes for this season, but those were dashed by a sprained ankle suffered on the first day of training camp. He was released with an injury settlement on Aug. 2.
Seven weeks later, he has landed in Saskatchewan.
“I was going to a lot of NFL workouts and I was doing very well, but it’s tough for (those teams) to bring in a guy right now,” Bouka said. “I didn’t play in the pre-season games, so they want to know what they’re getting. Coming here and playing games and having fun is going to be good for me and for my future.”
But after nearly 20 years of dreaming about playing in the NFL, why didn’t he keep working out for teams in that league?
“I needed to play football,” Bouka replied. “I heard a lot about Coach Jones and what this defence does. He sent a lot of guys (to the NFL). I want to come in, learn a lot from him, learn from the system, be able to dominate and hopefully go back. That’s my goal, but right now I’m focusing on trying to get a ring this year.”
Bouka was a cornerback in Arizona, but he’s being asked by the Roughriders to play safety. He’s expected to have a role on defence and on special teams in Sunday’s game.
Jones said Bouka has been showing up early and leaving late since arriving in Saskatchewan, displaying the work ethic he would have learned in the NFL. He also has exhibited the talents the Roughriders thought he had when they drafted him.
“He’s a tremendous athlete, he can play multiple positions, he’s able to cover (and he’s an) extremely intelligent young man,” Jones said. “He’s got like a photographic memory. He can spit stuff back to you immediately.
“He’s going to be a fun one to be around.”
