As Saskatchewan Roughriders training camp draws closer, roster battles are beginning to take shape both on the field and behind the scenes.
For players, camp is the opportunity to earn a spot and prove they belong at the professional level. For football operations departments across the Canadian Football League, it’s the time of year to uncover the next hidden gem.
According to Roughriders lead analyst Luc Mullinder, that search is at the very heart of what makes the CFL special.
“The CFL is a diamond in the rough league,” Mullinder said during an appearance on The SportsCage.
Mullinder pointed to the countless players who arrive in the league without the pedigree of major NCAA powerhouse programs but go on to become stars in Canada and sometimes beyond.
“Every single guy in that locker room was the guy on their college team,” Mullinder said. “But some of those guys didn’t play in the SEC. Some of them didn’t play in the Big Ten. Some of them played in Division II, Division III, and were stars there, but just didn’t get the look.”
That reality is what makes the CFL’s scouting and discovery camps so important. Over the coming weeks, teams, including the Roughriders, will continue to hold workouts and evaluation camps in the United States, searching for players who may have slipped through the cracks in the NFL pipeline. Mullinder recalled attending discovery camps in Florida and seeing firsthand how one player can instantly change the perception of an entire scouting report.
He used former CFL standout Ja’Gared Davis as one example of a player who immediately stood out during one such camp.
“He absolutely jumped off the page,” Mullinder said, describing Davis as “unstoppable” during drills and workouts.
Those are the moments scouting staffs are hoping to find players whose film shows promise, whose testing numbers impress, and whose on-field work forces teams to take another look. For Mullinder, that ability to identify overlooked talent is one of the CFL’s greatest strengths.
He also highlighted former Roughriders linebacker Jerrell Freeman as a prime example of the league’s ability to elevate players from small programs into professional stars.
Freeman, who starred in Saskatchewan before going on to a successful NFL career with the Indianapolis Colts, came from Mary Hardin-Baylor, a smaller football program far removed from the spotlight of college football’s biggest conferences.
“That is where the CFL accelerates and shines,” Mullinder said. “We find those diamonds in the rough that come out here, be stars.”
As the rookie camp and main training camp approach, the Roughriders will once again be looking for the next player ready to emerge from relative obscurity. In Mullinder’s eyes, that process is more than just roster-building. It’s what the CFL has always done best.
