Erik Andersen\u2019s second stay at Saskatchewan Roughriders training camp has been a lot more involved in comparison to last season.<\/p>\n
The 6-foot-6, 314 pound offensive lineman is preparing for his first CFL pre-season game after merely spectating camp last year while he recovered from a head injury.<\/p>\n
Read more:<\/p>\n
Now, the 25-year-old is pushing for a spot on Saskatchewan\u2019s opening night roster with health and that experience in his back pocket.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t get to go on the field last year,\u201d Andersen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was good to meet some of the guys and see what was going on. This off-season, just being able to get more into the playbook was really beneficial before coming out here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andersen has graduated as the top offensive lineman in Canadian university football, winning the J.P. Metras Trophy following his senior season with the Western University Mustangs.<\/p>\n
He helped lead the Mustangs to achieving the highest points scored per game and rushing yards per game in U Sports, while being named a first-team All-Canadian for the third season in a row.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Metras was a great way to end it,\u201d Andersen said. \u201cI got to come down to Regina for the All-Canadian banquet, that was a good time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andersen is part of a group of Canadian rookie offensive linemen at Roughriders camp, including Darius Bell and Jez Janvier, aiming to make the jump to the professional level.<\/p>\n
Of the five offensive linemen which started in the Grey Cup last November, only centre Logan Ferland was a national player.<\/p>\n
With the departure of Trevon Tate at left guard in the off-season however, Canadian Zack Fry has moved into the starter\u2019s role through the first week of camp.<\/p>\n
Roughriders head coach Corey Mace said a large piece of Andersen\u2019s camp has been adjusting to the professional schemes required.<\/p>\n
\u201cErik was a guy playing at Western, big, huge guy,\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey run the ball 700 times a game, so just different nuances of the game that he\u2019s identified that he\u2019s got to work on and what better way to do it? We\u2019ve had some really good interior linemen giving him reps each day.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Roughriders believe Andersen could be a big part of their future in the trenches, as they spent a second round pick at 13th overall on the London, Ont. product in the 2025 CFL Draft.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still a (rookie) but you see everything that you loved about him, as to why we picked him as high as we did,\u201d Mace said.<\/p>\n
That individual success in 2025 didn\u2019t translate to team success for Andersen at Western, as the Mustangs were upset 18-17 in a stunning quarter-final loss to the Guelph Gryphons in October.<\/p>\n
Despite the sting of seeing his U Sports career ended much earlier than expected, Andersen was able to end his time at Western on a positive note graduating with a degree in criminology and psychology.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a team we didn\u2019t reach our goals and wasn\u2019t as successful as we wanted,\u201d Andersen said. \u201cIt was good to go back one last season, graduated and got all my school done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Andersen has kept the door open to going to teachers\u2019 college in the future, but not before exhausting the opportunities ahead on the gridiron.<\/p>\n
He said the work has been put in to prepare for the biggest training camp of his life, now it\u2019s up to executing with the snaps he\u2019s given.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really good to get in the playbook this off-season,\u201d Andersen said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeet with some of the vets, kind of know what to expect. There\u2019s no going back (to college), there\u2019s no sixth year. Just come out every day, go as hard as you can and try to play football as long as you can.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Erik Andersen\u2019s second stay at Saskatchewan Roughriders training camp has been a lot more involved in comparison to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":677002,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-677001","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\/677001","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=677001"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677001\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/677002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=677001"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=677001"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=677001"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}