{"id":628667,"date":"2026-04-25T23:06:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-25T23:06:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628667\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T23:06:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-25T23:06:10","slug":"ajou-ajou-release-gives-dhel-duncan-busby-opportunity-with-saskatchewan-roughriders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/628667\/","title":{"rendered":"Ajou Ajou release gives Dhel Duncan-Busby opportunity with Saskatchewan Roughriders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/p>\n

One man\u2019s misfortune is another man\u2019s opportunity. Especially in professional football, where careers can change with one decision.<\/p>\n

Ajou Ajou\u2019s poor judgment<\/a> allows the chance for another player to step up and possibly earn a starting role with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. Based on the way general manager Jeremy O\u2019Day and his football operations staff have constructed the 2026 roster, three Canadians could start in the receiver group.<\/p>\n

After starting in the 112th Grey Cup<\/a>, Ajou was pencilled in with the first-team offence. However, following his suspension and subsequent release<\/a>, that spot has become open for competition. Canadian pass catcher Dhel Duncan-Busy becomes the front-runner to start as the team\u2019s third national target.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s fair to say,\u201d O\u2019Day told 3DownNation when asked via videoconference.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Dhel deserves an opportunity to play. He\u2019s been with us for a number of years. He\u2019s thought highly of by his teammates. I think that\u2019s naturally what we would look at in the roster would be to give Dhel a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 26-year-old was selected in the third round, 23rd overall, during the 2024 CFL Draft<\/a>, 36 picks prior to Ajou being chosen in the same class. He suffered a hand injury in his first training camp that year, but flashed as a rookie and improved in year two.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s going to have a great career, a great long career. I think that he\u2019s learned more than anything over his first two years how to be a pro. I think this could be a year where you really see him take off,\u201d Trevor Harris told The SportsCage<\/a> in March.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Dhel is a great player. I\u2019ve been a big believer in Dhel from day one. Unfortunately, his rookie year, he fractured his hand in camp, missed some time, and he got a little behind the eight ball that year. Then last year, we ran into some issues, personnel-wise and ratio-wise and whatnot. But I\u2019ll tell you what, I\u2019m a big believer in Dhel Duncan-Busby.\u201d<\/p>\n

The six-foot-one, 207-pound receiver has suited up in 25 regular-season games for the Riders. He\u2019s recorded 45 receptions for 543 yards with two touchdowns. In the 2025 West Final, the Vancouver, B.C. native registered three catches for 27 yards in Saskatchewan\u2019s 24-21 win over the Lions.<\/p>\n

112th Grey Cup Most Valuable Canadian Samuel Emilus<\/a> and Kian Schaffer-Baker<\/a> are bona fide Canadian starters, Duncan-Busby aims to join them, while D\u2019Sean Mimbs and Daniel Wiebe provide competition.<\/p>\n

The Roughriders hold the ninth overall pick in the 2026 CFL Draft, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 28 at 7 p.m. EDT. All CFL training camps are scheduled to open on Sunday, May 10. Saskatchewan plays its first preseason game against the Calgary Stampeders on Monday, May 18, and its first regular-season game against the B.C. Lions on Saturday, June 13.<\/p>\n

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Football insider, reporter and analyst.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders One man\u2019s misfortune is another man\u2019s opportunity. Especially in professional football, where careers can…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628668,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,89648,49,48,7028,521,522,520,168653,214293,68627,172058,10599,45083,55574,112017,24373,4400,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-628667","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-3down","9":"tag-3downnation","10":"tag-ajou-ajou","11":"tag-ca","12":"tag-canada","13":"tag-canadian","14":"tag-canadian-football-league","15":"tag-canadianfootballleague","16":"tag-cfl","17":"tag-cfl-draft","18":"tag-dhel-duncan-busby","19":"tag-grey-cup","20":"tag-kian-schaffer-baker","21":"tag-regina","22":"tag-riders","23":"tag-roughriders","24":"tag-samuel-emilus","25":"tag-saskatchewan","26":"tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","27":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628667","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=628667"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628667\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}