Being roomies has helped three Saskatchewan Roughriders’ rookies this season.
Receivers Shaq Evans, Kyran Moore and Jordan Williams-Lambert are living under the same roof during their first season in the CFL. That arrangement has allowed them to form a bond that has aided their progression on the field.
“We’re just so close,” said Moore. “Even when we first got to Saskatoon (for training camp), we were really tight. I met (Williams-Lambert) at the rookie mini-camp (at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.) and when we got to Saskatoon, we got closer and closer.
“As the journey went along, people were saying that we were longshots to make the team and this and that. It just brought us closer together. We tried to block it all out and lift each other up.”
Through 14 regular-season games, the three receivers have been key contributors to the Roughriders’ offence.
Williams-Lambert leads Saskatchewan in catches (53), receiving yards (610) and second-down receptions (16) and is tied with veteran Naaman Roosevelt for the team lead in touchdown catches (four). Williams-Lambert also is second on the team in receptions of 30 yards or more (five) and is third in targets (72).
Evans is tops among the Roughriders’ receivers in gains of at least 30 yards (six) and longest reception (52 yards), he’s second in targets (73) and receiving yards (606), and he’s third in catches (37), second-down receptions (nine) and average per catch (16.4 yards).
While those two receivers have put up their numbers in 14 and 13 games, respectively, Moore has appeared in just six games.
He’s already second on the team in average reception (16.5 yards), fourth in catches (19), receiving yards (314) and longest reception (40 yards), and sixth in targets (30).
In Sunday’s 34-29 victory over the host Montreal Alouettes, Moore set career single-game highs with nine catches and 126 yards and scored the first receiving touchdown of his CFL career. He previously had two punt-return TDs.
“The only reason why the stats are important to me is because (Sunday) was my brother’s birthday; he turned 24,” Moore said of his brother, Rod. “There aren’t a lot of times I play on my brother’s birthday and I told him I was going to have a big game for him on his birthday.”
Evans, meanwhile, also outdid his previous CFL highs by catching six passes (on six targets) for 114 yards. He missed out on his first TD catch in the league by the narrowest of margins; a video review determined he was down by contact at the one-yard line before he crossed the goal line.
“We talk about (performing as they did Sunday) every week because we know that we have the ability to make plays when the ball is thrown to us,” Evans said. “We feel like once we get going, the team gets going because we make those big plays and the team feeds off it.”
“They’re playing some big football games, so that experience is definitely helping,” quarterback Zach Collaros noted of the first-year receivers. “They’re getting better every week.”
Moore is a 22-year-old who joined the Roughriders right out of Austin Peay University. Williams-Lambert, a 24-year-old product of Ball State University, had a stint with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints after college but didn’t play in any regular-season games with them.
Evans, 27, has a longer NFL resumé than his roommates. He was drafted by the New York Jets in the fourth round of the 2014 NFL draft and had stops with the Jets, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots and Dallas Cowboys before heading north.
Perhaps that’s why his struggles Sept. 15 against the Ottawa Redblacks were so surprising.
Evans was targeted seven times in the game at Mosaic Stadium, but he caught only one pass for 46 yards. While some of the passes aimed in his direction were off the mark, Evans also had some costly drops.
“I felt horrible because I felt like the team down …,” he said. “It was hard for me because I know people expect me to make those plays and I didn’t. So I knew that after that game, I had to come out here for the rest of the season and ball out.”
Collaros expected nothing less from Evans.
“I don’t really buy into being in your own head, whether it’s a dropped ball or a bad throw or this or that,” Collaros said. “He’s a professional, he has been playing this game for a long time, he trusts himself and I trust him. I’m not going to shy away from throwing him the football.”
The receivers aren’t the only first-year CFLers who have had major impacts on the Roughriders in their first full seasons with the Green and White.
Tre Mason is Saskatchewan’s leading rusher with 128 carries for 688 yards and one touchdown. Nick Marshall leads the Roughriders with six rushing touchdowns as the short-yardage quarterback and has two interception returns for TDs as the team’s top cornerback.
Like Mason and Marshall, defensive back Matt Elam has NFL experience. In his first CFL season, Elam has 26 tackles, four tackles for losses, two sacks and an interception.
Chad Geter (14 special-teams tackles, 10 defensive stops, three sacks) and Alexandre Chevrier (12 special-teams stops) have been effective in their first pro seasons, while Alexandre Gagne — who played in just one game in 2017 — has a team-high 15 special-teams tackles in his first full CFL campaign.
Then there’s kicker Brett Lauther, whose previous CFL experience comprised four games with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2013. In his first full season in the league, Lauther has gone 41-for-44 on field-goal tries and is on pace to set a Saskatchewan franchise record for accuracy in a season.
