K.D. Cannon has been impressed with the wide-open spaces he has seen in Canada — especially on its football fields.
“It’s hard for a defence to stop because you’ve got so much field,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ rookie receiver said following Tuesday’s practice at Mosaic Stadium. “You can waggle (the pre-snap motion used by CFL receivers) and then if you have speed, it’s pretty much unstoppable once you learn how to do it.
“Seeing all this field at first, it was like, ‘Man.’ But actually running on it, you get tired fast so one thing you’ve got to do is conditioning. I learned my lesson with that.”
Cannon, a 22-year-old product of Mount Pleasant, Texas, signed with the Roughriders on Sept. 11. After three weeks on the practice roster, he was activated as a backup for a game Oct. 8 against the Edmonton Eskimos before being placed on the one-game injured list the next week.
The 5-foot-11, 183-pound speedster was back on the active roster for Saturday’s game against the host Calgary Stampeders — and he caught four passes for 61 yards in Saskatchewan’s 29-24 victory.
“This is the most fun I’ve had in a long time, (probably) since college,” the Baylor University product said in reference to his time in Saskatchewan. “Being around a group of guys like the people I’m around has been fun. They’ve been encouraging me and keeping me on the right path.”
Cannon left Baylor after his junior season and declared for the 2017 NFL draft. After he wasn’t selected in the lottery, he had stops that season with the San Francisco 49ers, New York Jets, Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys.
He attended the Cowboys’ training camp this year and appeared in three pre-season games before being released. He subsequently joined the Roughriders.
“I was supposed to come here last year, but it didn’t work out …,” Cannon said. “The Cowboys let me go and I was like, ‘I’ve got to stay in shape. I need something to do.’ I came here, we worked it out and I’m here.”
And he’s enjoying himself.
Cannon noted that the NFL organizations he was with “wouldn’t let me be myself,” which apparently is a fun-loving person who likes to laugh. He talked to another former Baylor player, defensive end Willie Jefferson, about the Roughriders and decided to come north.
Saskatchewan head coach-GM Chris Jones said Cannon could have been in the lineup quicker if he had learned the Roughriders’ scheme a little faster. But the rookie impressed the coaches with his speed and hands during Saturday’s game.
“I was kind of nervous going into it because I haven’t played in a long time,” Cannon said. “But after my first catch, I kind of opened up and everything just settled down. I had so much fun.”
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Offensive lineman Dakoda Shepley, who joined the Roughriders’ practice roster on Oct. 16, has returned home to Windsor, Ont.
The Roughriders selected Shepley in the first round (fifth overall) of the 2018 CFL draft, even though he had signed with the NFL’s Jets. The UBC product attended New York’s camp and was cut Aug. 31, but he waited for other offers before joining the Roughriders last week.
A clause in the CFL-CFLPA collective bargaining agreement gives teams a chance to bring in drafted players after training camp and assess them for five days before having to account for them on their rosters.
The players can leave after the five-day period without signing, but they remain the property of the teams if the clubs make minimum contract offers. That’s apparently what happened with Shepley, who impressed the Roughriders during his brief stopover.
“He’s stronger than what I thought and I think he’s a little quicker than what I thought,” Jones said. “He’s going to be a guy who, if we can get him signed in the future, should be an impact player.”
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The Roughriders announced Tuesday that they had added three players to the practice roster and released one.
National defensive back Tristan Doughlin, who was with the Roughriders for most of the season before being released Oct. 16, returns to the practice roster. The 25-year-old out of the University of Guelph has played in two games for Saskatchewan without recording any statistics.
Defensive lineman Lavar Edwards is a 28-year-old from Gretna, La., who played 25 career NFL games between 2013 and ’17.
The 6-foot-4, 275-pound product of LSU had NFL stints with the Cowboys, Tennessee Titans, Oakland Raiders, Chicago Bears, Buffalo Bills, Carolina Panthers, Indianapolis Colts and Cleveland Browns before joining the Roughriders.
Linebacker Deon King played 15 games in the NFL in 2016 and ’17. The 6-foot, 225-pounder out of Norfolk State University had stops in the NFL with the Cowboys, Colts, Browns, San Diego Chargers and Jacksonville Jaguars.
The player Saskatchewan released was Regina-born slotback Mitch Picton, whom the Roughriders selected in the fifth round (37th overall) of the 2017 draft out of the University of Regina.
Picton had been on the practice roster all season, but was slowed recently by an injury.
“We plan on trying to bring him back next year,” Jones said. “He’s a local guy who certainly has done everything we’ve asked him to do.”
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On Tuesday, Roughriders quarterback Zach Collaros was named one of the CFL’s top three performers of the week.
He was No. 2 on the list, behind B.C. Lions receiver DeVier Posey (five catches, 113 yards, three touchdowns) and ahead of Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Trevor Harris (24-for-32 passing for 341 yards and a touchdown).
Collaros completed 24 of 35 pass attempts for 352 yards in Saturday’s victory over Calgary. He didn’t throw a touchdown or an interception, but he did help Saskatchewan’s offence generate 469 yards of net offence against Calgary’s top-ranked defence.
