CANADIAN CONTENT STILL MAKING MARK IN NFL
Ten players from north of the border are set to tackle the 2019 season
The fewest number of Canadians in years have made an NFL Week 1 roster.
Annually from 2015-18, either 12 or 13 players born or raised in Canada survived cutdowns on Labour Day weekend, as teams shrunk their workforces from 90 to 53 players.
This year only 10 Canadians survived the cuts, presuming you include New Orleans Saints defensive tackle David Onyemata, who is suspended for Week 1 and technically not on the active roster. He is expected to be activated this coming Monday.
Five of the 10 Canadians are defensive linemen. Four of the 10 project to be starters, including the Dallas Cowboys’ veteran long snapper L.P. Ladouceur, while six will begin the 2019 season as backups.
Six other Canadians still hope to land a roster spot, and may wait hours, days, weeks or even months for a chance to land another NFL gig.
If you’re wondering why they’d do that, staying in top shape and hoping for a call that might not come, know that the minimum NFL salary in 2019 ranges from US$495,000 for a rookie to
$1.03 million for a player with 10 or more years of experience.
Even a spot on an NFL team’s 10-man practice squad pays a minimum of $8,000 per week, which over a 17-week regular season equates to $136,000.
Such spots are available, however, only to players who do not have an accrued season of free agency credit, who have dressed for no more than eight games in any one season and who have not been parked on a practice squad for more than two seasons previously.
Even a full season of practice-squad remuneration probably is more money than even a former NFLER could command in the CFL. And it’s likely more than he’d make in the XFL next year, when that league resumes operation, as 41 players on every 45-man XFL roster will earn salaries between $50,000 and $100,000.
There’s just so much more money available to players in the NFL. Indeed, whereas the 2019 salary cap in the NFL is US$188.2 million, in the CFL it’s $5.7 million (US$4.3 million), less than three per cent of the NFL’S cap.
According to salary information posted at Spotrac.com, two of the 10 Canadians now on a Week 1 NFL active roster — Kansas City Chiefs guard Laurent Duvernay-tardif and Dallas Cowboys defensive tackle Tyrone Crawford — each will earn more than an entire team of CFL players in 2019.
In fact, the 10 Canadians, en masse, are due to collectively earn US$19.91 million this season, according to Spotrac.com, the equivalent of more than half of all CFL players’ salaries combined ($51.3 million, or US$38.5 million). Cracking an NFL roster after training-camp cutdowns, though, is the super-difficult trick. These 10 Canadians have done so for Week 1:
STARTERS LAURENT DUVERNAY-TARDIF
Right guard, Kansas City Chiefs Sixth year in NFL
Hometown: Mont-saint-hilaire, Que.
College: Mcgill University (Montreal)
The highest paid Canadian football player in history is due to earn a base salary of $6.2 million in 2019. He’s in Year 3 of a $42.4-million, five-year deal. He’s now backed up by a fellow Canadian, Ryan Hunter.
Duvernay-tardif missed most of last season with a broken leg, after missing much of the 2018 pre-season with a concussion. “LDT” began practising again in Week 17, but ultimately remained on injured reserve through Kansas City’s playoff run, which came up one win short of a Super Bowl berth.
“It was tough,” Duvernay-tardif told Chiefs reporters in June. “I feel pretty good now.”
Now a full-fledged physician after having completed all Mcgill University med school requirements a year ago, the 28-year-old said the injury will make him a better doctor.
“It was my first experience on the opposite side of the patient/ physician relationship,” the six-foot-five, 321-pounder said. “I think I’m going to grow as a human and a future physician.”
TYRONE CRAWFORD
Right defensive end, Dallas Cowboys
Eighth year in NFL
Hometown: Windsor, Ont. College: Boise State University (Idaho)
In his eighth NFL season, all in Dallas, Crawford is due to earn a 2019 salary of $7 million. For that money at defensive tackle, he’d better be a productive starter. Last season the Windsorite was; he had 5.5 of his 22 career sacks a year ago, his most yet, and forced three fumbles. But the spectre of NFL discipline hangs over Crawford, who in July entered a six-month diversion program, including anger-management classes, to settle an incident at a Panama City Beach, Fla., bar in March. The 29-year-old reportedly pushed and shoved people in preventing police officers from reaching members of his party during a fracas.
BRENT URBAN
Left defensive end, Tennessee Titans
Sixth year in NFL
Hometown: Mississauga, Ont. College: University of Virginia
Finally, after barely playing in his first four NFL seasons due to serious injuries (ACL, biceps tear, Lisfranc foot fracture), Urban started for an entire NFL season in Year 5, lining up with the Baltimore Ravens in 2018. Alas, he wasn’t very productive (half a sack) and the Ravens let his contract run out.
Urban signed in the spring with the Titans, where he’s reunited with Dean Pees, the defensive co-ordinator from his first four years in Baltimore. The familiarity with Pees’ system and terminology has really helped Urban in Nashville. He’s slated to start, at least until firstround pick Jeffery Simmons returns from an ACL tear later in the season.
LOUIS-PHILIPPE (L.P.) LADOUCEUR
Long snapper, Dallas Cowboys 15th year in NFL
Hometown: Montreal
College: University of California
The 38-year-old remains perfect at his profession. Literally perfect. Including playoffs, Ladouceur has yet to snap an errant ball in 2,009 career attempts since 2005. That includes 968 punts, 441 field-goal attempts and 600 extra points. Ladouceur signed another oneyear contract worth the veteran-minimum $1.03 million, per Spotrac.com.
BACKUPS DAVID ONYEMATA
Backup defensive tackle,
New Orleans Saints
Fourth year in NFL
Hometown: Lagos, Nigeria; Winnipeg
College: University of Manitoba
With an integral role in the Saints’ D-line rotation, Onyemata had 37 quarterback pressures and 4.5 sacks a year ago. He started the NFC championship game against the Rams. But the six-foot-four, 300-pounder will sit out the first game of his fourth season, after the league suspended him for Week 1 for violating the substance-abuse policy. Onyemata was born and raised in Nigeria but lived in Winnipeg while attending the University of Manitoba.
CHRISTIAN COVINGTON
Right defensive end,
Dallas Cowboys
Fifth year in NFL
Hometown: Vancouver
College: Rice University (Texas)
After spending his first four NFL seasons in the same city where he went to college (Houston), the son of CFL hall of famer Grover Covington has moved upstate. Last season Covington had a career-high 3.5 sacks as a powerful inside force; he’s six foot two, 300 pounds. Reports out of Dallas said Covington and Daniel Ross were battling for the Cowboys’ last interior D-line roster spot in recent weeks. Ross lost.
BRETT JONES
Centre/guard, Minnesota Vikings
Fifth year in NFL
Hometown: Weyburn, Sask. College: University of Regina
Acquired late in August 2018 in a trade with the Giants, Jones started three games at centre last season for the Vikings, until Pat Elflein’s return from injury. Elflein is now the starting left guard, with rookie Garrett Bradbury the new starting centre. Jones will back up Bradbury, as well as starting guards Elflein and Josh Kline.
ANTONY (TONY) AUCLAIR
Backup tight end, Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Third year in NFL
Hometown: Notre-dame-despins, Que.
College: Laval University
Auclair is the Bucs’ blocking specialist at tight end, behind more athletic pass catchers O.J. Howard and Cameron Brate. He started three games as a rookie in 2017 and 10 last year while appearing in every game. The 26-year-old has been targeted as a receiver only 10 times in his career, but caught nine of them for 73 yards, and this summer reportedly showed improvement as a receiver. Auclair injured a calf in Tampa Bay’s third pre-season game, though, and appears questionable to play this week.
NATHAN SHEPHERD
Defensive end, New York Jets Second year in NFL
Hometown: Ajax, Ont.
College: Fort Hays State University (Kansas)
After overachieving in his first few months with the Jets last year as a third-round draft pick and after starting four of New York’s first seven games in 2018, Shepherd’s effectiveness and playing time dwindled. He started only one of the Jets’ final seven games, making just four tackles and two QB hits. He did not have a sack as a rookie. Numerous Jets beat writers this summer thought Shepherd might wind up getting cut this past weekend, but the 25-year-old, whose on-field forte is strength and penetration, survived.
RYAN HUNTER
Guard/tackle, Kansas City Chiefs
Second-year in NFL
Hometown: North Bay, Ont. College: Bowling Green State University (Ohio)
The pre-law grad spent all of last season on the Chiefs’ practice squad, but impressed enough this summer to land a spot on K.C.’S first 53-man roster. Chiefs GM Brett Veach on Saturday heralded Hunter’s versatility, saying the six-foot-three, 316-pounder could back up even a centre or guard. If so, that improves Hunter’s chances of being among the 46 permitted to dress for an NFL game rather than watch in sweats on the sideline, as the seven scratched players typically do if uninjured.
STILL HOPING
Canadians cut outright or waived on the long weekend, but still hoping to find a new NFL team:
Tight end Luke Willson of Lasalle, Ont., a surprising cut of the Oakland Raiders, after the Detroit Lions chose not to keep him this year. An able blocker with speed, Willson is in his seventh NFL season.
Defensive tackle Stefan Charles of Toronto, a seventh-year NFLER, got cut by the Atlanta Falcons. He’s a powerful run plugger.
Guard/tackle Austin Pasztor of Tillsonburg, Ont., got cut by the Tennessee Titans. He’s an eighthyear NFLER whose versatility might yet land him an in-season gig, as he did last year with the Atlanta Falcons.
Receiver/returner T.J. Jones — who was born in Winnipeg but raised entirely in the U.S. — was let go Saturday by the New York Giants after five weeks in camp. The former Detroit Lion is in his sixth year as a pro.
Defensive tackle Eli Ankou dressed for only two Jacksonville Jaguars games last year as a second-year D-line backup, after dressing for nine games as a rookie. This pre-season, the 25-year-old Ottawa native started three of Jacksonville’s four games and got a whopping 118 snaps. Ankou survived the Jaguars’ first cutdowns to a 53-man roster on Saturday, but was waived Sunday when the club picked up other teams’ discards. He reportedly cleared waivers Monday, in which case Ankou was expected to be offered a practice-squad spot by the Jaguars.
Edge rusher Mathieu Betts, an undrafted rookie free agent from Laval University, was waived Friday by the Chicago Bears. Fast for his size (six foot three, 254 pounds) with a variety of effective pass-rushing moves, Betts took 90 defensive snaps in Chicago’s four pre-season games. The Montreal native had one QB hit and three tackles. The Edmonton Eskimos selected Betts third overall in May’s CFL draft. After not getting signed to the Bears’ or any other NFL team’s 10-man practice squad on Sunday or Monday, if Betts does not get signed by week’s end to an NFL practice squad his best bet might well be to go the CFL route with the Esks, and without delay.