Jaiden Woodbey is a walking, talking advertisement for diligence, determination and an unwavering faith in oneself.
And it’s that foundation — coupled with his unique skillset — which makes him a growing tour de force in the Winnipeg Blue Bombers defence.
That in itself makes for a heckuva story, for not long ago the 26-year-old product of Fontana, CA was playing indoor football with the Massachusetts Pirates after being one of the final cuts of the Los Angeles Rams in 2023. But the phone wasn’t buzzing to life with offers, so he got to work to chase down any opportunity.
Woodbey reached out to every Canadian Football League team’s coaches and GMs via e-mails, texts and even popping up on LinkedIn profiles asking for a look. And so, to have that finally come to fruition with the Blue Bombers isn’t just rewarding, it’s priceless.
“My mom was very, very helpful for this, too,” Woodbey told bluebombers.com after practice on Friday. “She reached out to CFL agents for me, they reached back to her and said, ‘He’s not on a team yet?’ I ended up meeting with eight CFL agents and they all said the same thing: ‘We thought you were on a practice squad in the NFL.’
“Shoutout to my agent now, Tom Casagrande. I’m grateful to him. He told me he’d try his best to get me something and three days later he had teams lined up and, thankfully, Winnipeg was one of them.”
Woodbey’s first year here wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, though. He spent most of the summer on the practice squad before making his CFL debut in a home win over Hamilton in September. But by season’s end he was an emerging presence in Winnipeg’s defence.
“Wood’s got some physical traits that say linebacker/moving around the box player,” said Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “But he’s got feet and some vision and open-field tackling ability that says DB, so offences would have to account for him in a variety of different ways which is what is part of the magic.”
The interesting sidebar story to Woodbey’s rookie CFL campaign — he spent the year living with safety Cam Allen and cornerback/returner Trey Vaval, each of them going through their own struggles to find a place in Winnipeg’s lineup before taking turns making an impact.
“Those are my guys. We call ourselves ‘The Dawg Pound,’” Woodbey explained. “We came here for our first year together and went through all the ups and downs. The first few weeks being on P-squad, I knew it was professional ball, but I just wanted to play.
“Then seeing my roommate (Vaval) score touchdowns, it felt like I was on the field sometimes. That was so fun and to be able to see him win those awards at the end of the year — amazing.”
That’s a word Woodbey used a lot in our conversation — ‘amazing’ — and there is still an element of pure joy in his every moment on the field. Again, when you chase this for as long and as diligently as he did, the reward means everything.
“It’s amazing right now,” Woodbey said, his face lighting up with a wide grin again. “I’m playing everything. Safety, backer, inside backer… everything. They trust me. It is a bit of anomaly to have a 230-pound pound player who can do a bit of everything. You think, ‘This is a big guy… oh wait, he’s running with the receiver. Oh wait, he’s setting the edge. He’s dropping into the zone. He’s doing this and doing that.’ To me, that’s the true definition of a versatile player.
“I give credit to JY (Jordan Younger, defensive coordinator) to be able to showcase that talent. We have guys like that on this defence, guys like Michael Griffin — who is basically the same body type as me — and it allows our defence to maybe confuse offences sometimes. It can be high risk/high reward, but if you put in the work with this defence ,you know you’ll be able to do it.
“I know what’s going on, now it’s just a matter of learning the back end of stuff. That’s the next step for my game — making sure I know what is happening with the front seven and with the back end.
“It’s just amazing to be able to play football again. My comfortability right now is through the roof.”