The Saskatchewan Roughriders have selected\u00a0two talented football players\u00a0in the 2026\u202fCFL Draft:\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Mapalo\u00a0Mwansa\u00a0(Linebacker \u2013 Loughborough University) \u2013 1st round, 9th overall\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kansei\u00a0Matsuzawa\u00a0(Kicker\u00a0\u2013\u00a0University of Hawaii) \u2013 2nd round, 18th\u00a0overall\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0Mwansa\u00a0(6\u20192-230)\u00a0joined the NFL\u2019s International Player Pathway Program after signing with the Carolina Panthers as an undrafted free agent. He spent the season on the\u00a0Panthers\u00a0practice roster and suited up for three preseason games. The 22-year-old from Peterborough, England, joined the Great Britain National Team in 2024 and played for the Nottingham Caesars of the BAFA National Leagues Northern Premiership, the highest level of British American football. Mwansa helped the Caesars win the 2024 Division 1 National Final at\u00a0Britbowl\u00a0XXXVI.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The speedy defender attended the 2025 CFL Combine, completing the 40-yard dash in 4.45 seconds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Matsuzawa\u00a0(6\u20191-205)\u00a0spent two collegiate seasons at the University of Hawaii, suiting up for 25 games as a Rainbow Warrior. The native of Ichikawa, Japan, had a sensational senior season in 2025, making 27 of 29 field goal attempts for a 93.1% success rate. He also nailed a career-long 52-yard field goal on September 20 against Fresno State. For his efforts, Matsuzawa was named a Consensus All-American (the first player to do so in program history), the Mountain West Special Teams Player of the Year, and a First-Team All-Mountain West\u00a0selection. In addition, he was a 2025 Lou Groza Award finalist (awarded to the best placekicker in the country).\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Over his two seasons in Hawaii, he went 39 of 45 on field goal attempts (86.7%). As the team\u2019s kickoff specialist in 2025, he kicked 45 times for 2,780 yards (61.8-yard average) and 15 touchbacks.\u00a0He signed with the Las Vegas Raiders as an undrafted free agent following the 2026 NFL Draft.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prior to Hawaii, Matsuzawa spent the 2021\u20132023 seasons at Hawkings College, where he made 12 of 17 field goal attempts, including one from 50 yards.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Saskatchewan Roughriders have selected\u00a0two talented football players\u00a0in the 2026\u202fCFL Draft:\u202f\u202f\u00a0 Mapalo\u00a0Mwansa\u00a0(Linebacker \u2013 Loughborough University) \u2013 1st round,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637370,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-637369","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-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637369","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=637369"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637369\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637370"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}