The CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders will be without their most consistent receiver Sunday when they visit the Montreal Alouettes.
Roughriders slotback Naaman Roosevelt wasn’t on the field at Mosaic Stadium for Wednesday’s practice and head coach-GM Chris Jones reported after the workout that Roosevelt won’t play in Montreal.
“It’s more precautionary than anything, but he got a little bump the other night, so we’ve decided not to play him,” said Jones, who declined to offer details about the injury other than to say it was not a concussion.
“He could play,” Jones added. “If this was a playoff game, he would definitely play, but we’ve got to make sure that we’ve got him down the stretch, so he’s not playing.”
Roosevelt was injured late in the second quarter of Saturday’s 30-29 victory over the host Toronto Argonauts, but he stayed in the game. His 26-yard reception on a second-and-10 situation late in the fourth quarter helped set up Brett Lauther’s 56-yard field goal that ultimately provided the deciding point.
“Naaman’s a tough guy,” Jones said. “This organization, this team and his teammates mean a lot to him. He came back in and was able to make it through the game.
“He didn’t really experience any kind of swelling or anything like that, but he’s got a little bit of soreness. All I can see us doing is making it worse — and we’ve got to have him down the stretch.”
Roosevelt leads the Roughriders in targets (83) and receiving yards (570) and is second in receptions (48, one fewer than Jordan Williams-Lambert) this season.
Jones wouldn’t say who was going to replace Roosevelt in Montreal, but Kenny Shaw was taking snaps with the first-team offence Wednesday. The former Argonaut and Ottawa Redblack has been on the Roughriders’ practice roster since Aug. 22.
Shaw had 1,004 yards receiving over 17 games with Toronto in the 2016 regular season, but he played only three games with Ottawa in 2017 before suffering a season-ending knee injury.
The Roughriders have lost regulars such as receiver Caleb Holley, returner Christion Jones, linebacker Derrick Moncrief and defensive back Matt Elam for varying amounts of time this season, but Saskatchewan has had to deal with fewer injuries than other teams.
“We don’t have our full allotment (of players), but we still have a good football team,” Jones said. “We’ve got some depth and we’ve got some guys who have been with us and who we’ve won football games with. Now we’ve just got to go out there and do it one more time.”
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Marcus Thigpen accomplished something with a run Saturday that hadn’t been done in 24 CFL seasons.
Thigpen had an 82-yard touchdown run against the Argos, giving him two scoring runs of at least 80 yards this season. He also went 80 yards against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on July 19.
According to CFL statistician Steve Daniel, Thigpen is the first player since B.C. Lions tailback Cory Philpot in 1994 to have two TD runs of at least 80 yards in a season.
In ’94, Philpot scored on an 87-yard run against Toronto on Aug. 11 and a 92-yarder versus the Shreveport Pirates on Aug. 27.
Prior to Philpot, three players — the Edmonton Eskimos’ Jim Thomas in 1965, the Lions’ Willie Fleming in 1963, and the Calgary Stampeders’ Ed Buchanan in 1962 — had two 80-plus-yard runs in one season.
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The Roughriders added four players to their practice roster on Wednesday.
The lone national in the group is fullback Oumar Touré, a 25-year-old product of Montreal who attended the University of Sherbrooke.
The 6-foot-4, 245-pounder was selected by the Alouettes in the eighth round (65th overall) of the 2017 CFL draft. He played 13 regular-season games for Montreal in 2017, recording three receptions for 10 yards, one kickoff return for 13 yards and one special-teams tackle.
He played 24 games at Sherbrooke, posting 31 catches for 491 yards.
Running back Sherman Badie, 23, hails from New Orleans. During his four seasons at Tulane University, the 5-foot-11, 194-pounder rushed 296 times for 1,517 yards and nine touchdowns and caught 56 passes for 419 yards and one major.
Badie signed with the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals in June as an undrafted free agent and played in four pre-season games before being released.
Linebacker James Graham is a 23-year-old Chicago product who played collegiately at Illinois State University. The 5-foot-10, 211-pounder had 17 tackles, 9.5 sacks and three forced fumbles as a defensive end and also rushed 27 times for 135 yards in spot duty as a running back.
Offensive lineman Chris Schleuger is a 6-foot-4, 305-pounder out of Wesley, Iowa. The 23-year-old, who was a second-team conference all-star at the University of Alabama-Birmingham in 2017, signed as an undrafted free agent with the Pittsburgh Steelers in May.
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On Wednesday, Jones was still processing the news that former Stampeders defensive end Mike Labinjo had died Saturday at the age of 38.
“He was a great dude,” said Jones, who was Calgary’s defensive co-ordinator when Labinjo played for the Stamps. “I used to get mad at him at practice because he didn’t have the best practice habits, but on game day, he would show up. He would certainly be able to push the pocket and he could run better than you’d think.
“He was a great athlete and a really, really smart guy. He was a good player and it’s just way too early.”
Labinjo had stints in the NFL with the Philadelphia Eagles, Indianapolis Colts and Miami Dolphins before joining the Stampeders in 2007. His CFL career ended in 2011.
“I look at myself like a young guy … and when somebody who I’ve coached passes, it’s kind of shocking,” Jones said.
