April 2, 2018

Dariusz Bladek is looking for more in 2018

Dariusz Bladek (66) of the Saskatchewan Roughriders before the game at New Mosaic Stadium in Regina, SK, Saturday, July 1st, 2017. (Photo: Johany Jutras)

Dariusz Bladek doesn’t expect to have a sophomore slump in his second CFL season.

Just the opposite, in fact.

“Anything less than becoming a starter would be a failure for me — and that’s with all due respect to the guys who are in the starting positions,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders guard says from Orlando, Fla. “We don’t play the game to back up.

“I know ‘disappointment’ and ‘failure’ are strong words, but you set certain standards for yourself and certain goals for yourself. (Not starting) would be a failure.”

Bladek, 24, joined the Roughriders in 2017 after they selected him in the second round (11th overall) of that year’s draft out of Bethune-Cookman University.

The 6-foot-4, 300-pounder gave up his final season of college eligibility to declare for the 2016 NFL draft, but he wasn’t selected. He had a workout with the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens, but they didn’t offer him a contract.

During a subsequent conversation with the Calgary Stampeders, Bladek mentioned his mother had been born in Montreal, so the Stampeders suggested he should look into playing in the CFL as a national.

He didn’t get the necessary paperwork done to get into the 2016 CFL draft or its supplemental draft, so his 2016 campaign was spent renovating businesses with his father.

The younger Bladek didn’t appear in the first of three sets of rankings for the 2017 CFL draft, but he was 15th in the second set and 10th in the third. The Roughriders nabbed him with the 11th pick and hoped that he would compete at guard.

By the time training camp was over, Bladek had won the job as Saskatchewan’s sixth offensive lineman — and he held that spot for the entire 2017 season.

“If you had told me coming into camp how much I would know about the game or how much better a player I would become over the year, I probably would tell you that you were crazy,” Bladek says. “I learned so much.”

The lessons began in training camp and continued through the pre-season.

Bladek recalls starting against the B.C. Lions in an exhibition game and struggling to get used to the speed of the CFL.

“I had a pretty bad game,” he says. “I’m always tough on myself, but I realized that I had a ways to go. It probably took me until the first quarter of the season for things to slow down.”

Bladek dressed for all 18 regular-season games and for both of Saskatchewan’s playoff contests. He saw action during games when injuries felled Dan Clark, Brendon LaBatte and Peter Dyakowski — and the rookie learned every time.

His technique and skills improved as the season progressed, he figured out what to look for on film, and he started to understand what individual opposing defensive players wanted to do against him.

It all helped.

“I found out where I needed to grow strength-wise — where my weaknesses were, what it was like being in the CFL, (the adjustments required to be) back in football for a full season,” Bladek says. “I was happy with that.

“It was a phenomenal year, a great learning experience, and it set me up really well to come to camp this year and take what I think is mine, which is a starting job.”

Clark signed a contract extension in February, so he’s pencilled in at centre. But the veteran missed nine regular-season games last season with an elbow injury, which prompted the Roughriders to move LaBatte to centre.

Bladek has been a guard his whole career, but he started taking practice reps at centre just in case.

“Being the sixth offensive lineman, you’ve got to be ready for everything,” he says. “You don’t want a situation where you tell a coach you can’t do something.

“I take pride in being able to move from left guard to centre to right guard. I don’t mind the ball being in my hand. I don’t find there’s any more pressure there, especially with the line that we have.”

Dyakowski and LaBatte are under contract for 2018, as is right tackle Thaddeus Coleman. It’s currently unclear who will play left tackle for the Roughriders, but Bladek is more suited to guard.

That means that if he’s to attain his goal of winning a starting job, he’s going to have to beat out a proven veteran.

“It’s exciting,” Bladek says. “I get to go into camp and battle it out with some great vets and some great guys. It’s going to be a very interesting camp this year — a lot different than last year.”

In his mind, the biggest difference will be in his mental preparation.

As a rookie — and as a backup for the first time in years — Bladek had to discover how to stay in games while he was on the sideline. He never knew when (or if) he was going to play and at what position, so that was something to which he had to adjust.

Mission accomplished.

“That made me mature as a player and it sort of calmed my nerves,” Bladek says. “Guys always used to say I talk a lot in the huddle. That’s how I calmed myself — not calmed, but brought the game to a slower pace. As the season went on, I stopped doing it.

“Instead of worrying about it, I was thinking about what was going on on the field. I was breaking things down and I was going over my responsibilities before the play.

“I grew a lot last year.”