SASKATOON — Shaq Evans hopes his style of play soon will become even more apparent to fans of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
“When I’m back home, everybody calls me ‘Smoove,’ ” the Roughriders’ first-year receiver said Thursday. “I’ve got a visor coming that’s going to have ‘Smoove’ on the front that I’ll wear in practice.
“That’s a perfect description of how I feel about my game. I’m going to continue to show that and hopefully I’ll end up here.”
Evans, a 27-year-old product of Inglewood, Calif., has displayed that style during the Roughriders’ training camp. The 6-foot-1, 210-pounder seems to glide around the field and snares passes with ease.
“He is very smooth,” said Roughriders receivers coach Travis Moore, using that word again. “He’s effortless when he runs and you can see it.
“He has all the tangibles to be a receiver. He’s fast. He’s quick. He has good instincts and good body control. He catches outside his frame. He gets in and out of his breaks. He understands how to beat man-to-man. He does it all.”
But he’s doing it in new surroundings. Evans was in the NFL before venturing north in hopes of resuming his football career.
“In the first couple of days, there was a little learning curve because the CFL game is a little different (than the NFL),” he said after a workout at Griffiths Stadium on the University of Saskatchewan campus. “But this second week has really picked up. I’ve been making plays and I’m getting really comfortable.”
Evans began his collegiate career at the University of Notre Dame in 2009, when he played six games with the Fighting Irish. After one season, he decided to move closer to home and attend UCLA, so he sat out the 2010 campaign due to NCAA transfer rules.
Starting in 2011, he played 40 games over three seasons with the Bruins, catching 126 passes for 1,895 yards and 14 touchdowns. He twice was named a Pac-12 Honorable Mention performer.
The New York Jets selected Evans in the fourth round (115th overall) of the 2014 NFL draft, but he spent that season on injured reserve after damaging a shoulder.
He was waived by the Jets in September of 2015 and subsequently was signed to the Jacksonville Jaguars’ practice squad. After he was released by the Jags in September of 2016, he spent a week on the New England Patriots’ practice squad.
The Dallas Cowboys signed him to their practice squad in January of 2017, but they released him in April of that year after the NFL suspended him for four games for violating its substance abuse policy.
Evans claims he didn’t fail a drug test, but rather suggested that what he called “logistical things” led to the violation.
“I accidentally violated, but it doesn’t matter if it’s an accident — they’re going to suspend you,” he said. “It is what it is. I’m happy to be here.
“God always has a plan, so you never know what He’s going to throw your way. You just react. He doesn’t give you anything you can’t handle, so I’m trying to take it step by step and renew my name.
“Ever since I signed (with Saskatchewan), this has been about redemption,” he added. “I’m going to do what I’ve got to do. Whether it’s the CFL or the NFL, I’m going to compete and I’m going to do what I can to claim my name back.”
Evans knows the key to cracking the Roughriders’ roster is to be consistent and to show improvement every day. According to statistics kept by the team, he entered Thursday with the fifth-best catch percentage among all the receivers at camp.
He and fellow rookies Kyran Moore and Jordan Williams-Lambert face a stiff test to make the Roughriders, whose receiving corps already is full of proven internationals like Duron Carter, Bakari Grant, Caleb Holley, Chad Owens and Naaman Roosevelt.
According to Moore, Evans’ bid to make the team relies on one thing: Competing.
“He’s got to continue playing and let the chips fall where they fall,” Moore said. “He has to make sure he understands the concepts, understands the why of why we’re doing it, and play hard and physical.”
In a profile that appeared in the Los Angeles Daily News in October of 2013, two descriptions of Evans stood out.
His high school receivers coach called him “a pigeon-toed weirdo that had some athletic ability” — and hearing that again Thursday elicited a laugh from Evans.
His receivers coach at UCLA called Evans “borderline shy” — and he admitted that’s still the case five years later.
“Off the field, I’m an even-keeled guy,” Evans said. “I don’t talk much. If you talk to me, I’ll talk to you — I’m a cool guy to talk to — but I’m not going to start the conversation.
“Once I step between the lines, I’m a whole different person. I’m going at you. I’m competing. If you get in my face, I’m getting in yours. I started playing football when I was five and now I’m 27, but it’s the same Shaq.”
Luckily for Evans, the Roughriders have other receivers who are more than willing to carry the conversation.
“With the veterans, you don’t want to say too much anyway,” Evans said with a chuckle. “I’m still trying to get a feel for everything. But when we’re in meetings, I’ll let Duron or Bakari or those dudes make the jokes. I just laugh and stay in the corner.”
Talk about a smoove move.
