Jon Ryan’s time as a Hamilton Ti-Cat has come to an end before it even began.
The punter was traded to the Edmonton Elks in exchange for a conditional 8th round selection in the 2023 CFL Draft today.
Ryan spoke to Michael Ball during Tuesday’s edition of the SportsCage, he called his time in Hamilton an interesting experience and isn’t sure why he never appeared in the Ti-Cats lineup after being signed by the team a couple of weeks ago.
“I can’t really respond to that, you’ll have to ask Coach O (Orlando Steinauer) or the GM here, but I can’t really answer that question for you.”
The Regina product signed with Hamilton after he spent the offseason and the early part of the 2022 season recovering from his injuries. When Ryan arrived to Steeltown he was expecting to be playing and was surprised that he didn’t see any action on the field in black and gold.
Ryan added injuries or his salary were not issues that forced an exit with the Ti-Cats.
“I feel great on the field, coming off this injury and I’m a 100 percent now and I’m making the league minimum, so it’s not about the money for either side of it, so it just didn’t work out here.”
Now the former University of Regina Ram will be wearing a different shade of green and gold in Edmonton. One of the things Ryan is looking forward about playing with the Elks, is being coached by former Riders Head Coach Chris Jones who Ryan called an ultimate recruiter.
“He started calling me back in 2018 when I was released by the Seattle Seahawks and he’s been in touch with me of and on for four or five years now, so he’s very clear to me that he wants me to play for him and I’m excited for this opportunity to be finally connected to him.”
Commonwealth Stadium will now be Ryan’s new home stadium and like the other CFL parks in the prairies, it’s a nice place to kick in the summer, but it can be very unforgiving in the winter.
“It’s a little bit of a sunken bowl, big stadium to block a little bit of the wind, I’ve had some great games there in the summer and I’ve had some terrible games in the winter. ”
The Saskatchewan Roughriders will be visiting the Elks on Saturday, August 13, and Ryan said he already has the game circled on his calendar.
It’s one of the things Chris Jones said right away we got the Riders the second week you’re here, pretty excited about that, just to see all those guys again, to see Dickey (Craig Dickenson), it gets your competitive juices going to go up against a former team. ”
Raphael Leonard, a receiver currently wears #9 for the Elks. Ryan noted that he’s hopeful that he will be able to wear his old number again in Edmonton. He added when he arrived to Saskatchewan, it cost $2,000 to get that number and says he may have to do the same thing again to get his old number back.
The Elks will be making their lone visit to Mosaic Stadium on Friday, September 16, which may be a timely occasion for the return of the Regina punter to his hometown since that weekend has been billed Football Weekend in Saskatchewan.
