{"id":468371,"date":"2026-02-11T16:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/468371\/"},"modified":"2026-02-11T16:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T16:28:10","slug":"3downnations-justin-dunk-explains-why-james-vaughters-fits-with-saskatchewan-roughriders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/468371\/","title":{"rendered":"3DownNation\u2019s Justin Dunk explains why James Vaughters fits with Saskatchewan Roughriders"},"content":{"rendered":"

3DownNation’s Justin Dunk believes the\u00a0Saskatchewan Roughriders\u00a0newest defensive lineman<\/a>\u00a0fits well\u00a0with the team.<\/p>\n

“James Vaughters\u00a0makes a lot of sense because he and Corey Mace have a relationship\u00a0going back to Calgary,” Dunk explained on The SportsCage.<\/p>\n

“He knows Mace’s system;\u00a0Mace knows him as a player. Vaughters had, I thought, an under-the-radar six sacks last season with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.\u00a0He’s a veteran guy that you can bring in there and go,\u00a0‘We know what we have.'”<\/p>\n

The 32-year-old agreed to terms\u00a0with the Riders\u00a0during\u00a0the CFL communication window and officially signed with Saskatchewan\u00a0on Tuesday, February 10.<\/p>\n

Initially, Vaughters went unselected\u00a0in the 2015 NFL Draft and spent time with the Green Bay Packers and\u00a0New England Patriots that year. He had a stint on\u00a0the Calgary Stampeders\u00a0practice roster, then with the San Diego Chargers\u00a0in 2016.<\/p>\n

Vaughters came back to the CFL and played with the\u00a0Stamps\u00a0from 2017 to 2018. Mace was his\u00a0defensive line\u00a0coach in 2018 when Calgary\u00a0won the Grey Cup against the Ottawa Redblacks 27-16. After winning that CFL championship, the Chicago native\u00a0returned to the NFL, playing for the Bears\u00a0and then the Atlanta Falcons. His last NFL team was the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2022 and then he\u00a0returned\u00a0to the CFL.<\/p>\n

Overall, Vaughters earned\u00a0$3.28 million USD while playing\u00a0in the NFL.<\/p>\n

When Vaughters came to Canada\u00a0after his second stint in the NFL, he returned to the\u00a0Stampeders from 2023 to 2024.\u00a0Calgary<\/a>\u00a0released him\u00a0on January 27, 2025 and his next team was\u00a0the Bombers. Through 17 regular season\u00a0games with Winnipeg last year, the six-foot-two, 259-pound defensive lineman registered 36 defensive tackles, six sacks and recovered one fumble for a touchdown.<\/p>\n

Dunk\u00a0credited Roughriders’\u00a0general manager Jeremy O’Day, who entered the offseason with\u00a0a league-high 44 pending free agents, and the team’s\u00a0efforts in re-signing more than half that list<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead, Dunk feels Saskatchewan needs at least one young pass rusher to step up in 2026.<\/p>\n

“Corey Mace likes to dress so many defensive linemen, those are the guys that the Riders are hoping can be the next one,” Dunk explained.<\/p>\n

“I would look at guys like Chico Bennett Jr. or Aaron Patrick\u00a0would probably be the top two guys among them.\u00a0You’re looking for that next dude that can really fit your system and understand what you’re being asked to do under Joshua Bell<\/a>, the defensive coordinator.”<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"3DownNation’s Justin Dunk believes the\u00a0Saskatchewan Roughriders\u00a0newest defensive lineman\u00a0fits well\u00a0with the team. “James Vaughters\u00a0makes a lot of sense because…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":468372,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,190922,82],"class_list":["post-468371","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-cflsaskatchewan-roughriderswinnipeg-blue-bombersjames-vaughter","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468371","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=468371"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/468371\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/468372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=468371"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=468371"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=468371"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}