Saskatchewan Roughriders rookie of the year, Grey Cup champion – not a bad debut season for 6-foot-7 left tackle Payton Collins.
So naturally, in trying to follow it, Collins is working to forget it.
Wait, what?
“The big message this year in training camp so far has been don’t even worry about the past,” Collins told SportsCage after practice on Day 2 of training camp Monday.
“New year, new team. Our excellence standard, we need to improve on. Even though we won the Grey Cup last year, there’s still a lot of things each and every person can improve on. And as a unit, as an offence, as an O-line, as a team, we all have things we can improve on to keep putting ourselves in good positions to win football games.”
Collins, who also holds a Master of Business Administration degree from Eastern Kentucky University, dressed for 12 regular-season games with Saskatchewan in 2025.
Come playoff time he was part of an O-line unit that did not allow a sack in the CFL’s West Division final against the B.C. Lions, and was named a starter for the Riders’ 25-17 win over the Montreal Alouettes in the 112th Grey Cup.
“With Payton, man I’d love to say I’ve seen growth but he’s been honestly excellent since his rookie year. Outside maybe the first couple weeks, he matured in a heartbeat and that’s just how he is,” head coach Corey Mace told reporters Monday. “Whether it’s a rep in the game or a practice it’s going to look the same. He plays at a high level constantly so we’re still seeing the same thing.”
Perhaps in the same vein, what Collins sees is a roster where his own success really belongs to others, and also where his job is on the line every single day.
“There’s so many great vets on this team, especially on the O-line like (Jacob) Brammer, (Logan) Ferland, Yoshi (Jemarcus Hardrick), and even players who were on the team last year like (Trevon) Tate and Sean (McEwen). Coach Ed (Harrison) is a great offensive line coach,” said Collins.
“The staff and vets have really taught me how to be a pro and how to work every day to earn your spot on the team,” said Collins. “Nothing’s for granted and every night when I go to sleep I gotta wake up and earn my spot on this team.”
This offseason that included making sure he was an active part of the offseason group chat.
“We all stayed in touch a lot, whether it was workout videos or texting about things or watching film together,” Collins continued. “A big thing for us this offseason was how fast can we hit the ground running coming into training camp. So we came out to Regina early just to get our chemistry going. So I feel that was a big thing this offseason was just kind of coming into training camp as a cohesive unit already.”
