Tevaughn Campbell still wears No. 26 for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
That much remains the same.
But a lot has changed for the Canadian-born cornerback between stints with the Green and White.
The stadium, for starters.
The Roughriders were housed in their historic facility, once known as Taylor Field, when Campbell debuted with the team in 2016.
Nine years later, once again a Roughrider, his stall is located in an expansive dressing room at Mosaic Stadium — a state-of-the-art facility that officially opened in 2017.
“It has been a while,” Campbell reflected leading up to Thursday’s CFL regular-season opener between the Roughriders and the visiting Ottawa REDBLACKS.
“I’ve been thinking about it and going, ‘Man, that was 2016 … it’s 2025.’ I feel young, though. Young at heart.”
Nearing 32 — his birthday is on June 14th — he retains the speed that helped him become a premier multi-sport athlete at the University of Regina.
In addition to playing with the Rams, he was an elite sprinter for the U of R Cougars.
Time flies even faster.
“When I first came here, I got my son a jersey and all that stuff,” Elijah Campbell’s proud father said with a smile.
“Obviously, it doesn’t fit now. It’s nine years later.”
A decade ago, Campbell was selected by the Calgary Stampeders in the third round (22nd overall) of the 2015 CFL Draft.
Just like that, he was a teammate of then-Stampeders defensive lineman Corey Mace, who is now in his second season as the Roughriders’ Head Coach.
Campbell became a Roughrider on Feb. 11th, 2016, when he was acquired for a fourth-round selection in the 2017 CFL Draft.
In 17 games as a first-year Roughrider, he registered one interception, one sack and two fumble recoveries — one of which was returned for a 14-yard touchdown.
After beginning the following season on the practice roster, Campbell was dealt to the Montreal Alouettes on Aug. 15th, 2017. Saskatchewan also relinquished a pair of third-round Draft picks (in 2018 and 2019) for quarterback Vernon Adams Jr. and a fifth-rounder in 2018.
Campbell spent the remainder of the 2017 season and all of 2018 with Montreal. He signed with the New York Jets on Jan. 4th, 2019 and began a long stay in the NFL that also included time spent with the Los Angeles Chargers (2019 to 2022), Las Vegas Raiders (2022) and Jacksonville Jaguars (2022 to 2024).
Overall, he played in 37 NFL regular-season games, including 11 starts with the Chargers. He scored touchdowns for Los Angeles on an interception return (in 2020) and after recovering a fumble (2021).
Now he is on the verge of playing in his first regular-season game since Oct. 29th, 2023, when he helped the Chargers defeat the host Pittsburgh Steelers 20-10.
Not only that, he carries a personal five-game regular-season winning streak into Thursday’s contest. What excites him about the 2025 opener?
“Just playing again,” Campbell replied. “I think the last few years of my career, my journey was a lot of uncertainty. Just going out there and being able to play, being able to put it all on the line, for a regular-season game is exciting.
“Playing with the guys beside me is something special.”
Campbell is the newcomer (sort of) in a starting defensive backfield that is otherwise intact from last season. He and Marcus Sayles man the corners. Rolan Milligan Jr. and DaMarcus Fields are the halfbacks. Nelson Lokombo is at safety.
“He’s a cerebral player and he’s only getting better with the comfort with the system and the people who he’s playing next to,” Mace said of Campbell.
“His trajectory is consistently climbing, which is really good to see.”
Mace added that Campbell is “extremely bright” and “has all the twitch and all the speed in the world.”
But it did take a short while for him to get up to speed on the Canadian game after spending so long playing four-down football on a smaller field, with one fewer player on each side.
“You could tell, because Mace and (Defensive Backs Coach and Pass Game Co-ordinator Joshua) Bell would keep coming up to me and say, ‘It’s not the NFL, brother. It’s not the NFL,’ ” Campbell said with.
“You’ve got to adjust to the field and definitely to the waggle and to a lot of the rules, again. I’ve got a short-term memory, so I kind of blocked all that stuff out of my mind. Now I’ve just got to retrain myself to remember it.”
Campbell remembers a time, seemingly a heartbeat ago, when he was a second-year CFLer and a newcomer to the Roughriders.
He is still, in some ways, the same player. The blazing speed is still an attribute. The friendly personality is also reminiscent of 2016. But so much has been added to the resume since then.
“I think I was just at a different point of my life where I was younger and I was more of a rookie coming in,” Campbell said.
“Now I’m the vet. I’m free. I can kind of do what I want. Just playing feels more comfortable. It feels more relaxed.
“It’s just a great place to make plays.”
