AVAILABLE HERE<\/a>.)<\/p>\n\u201cIt\u2019s going to be a little rough for me because they\u2019re going to be showing that banner,\u201d says Letcher Jr., whose smile indicates he is a good sport about it all. \u201cThey beat me and my old team.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019ll be fun, for sure, to come out of the tunnel. It\u2019s going to be electric. I\u2019m excited to finally be able to run out on this side of the green.\u201d<\/p>\n
Letcher Jr. derives comfort from knowing he already has a Grey Cup ring, earned with Montreal in 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been fun to see the guys (with the Roughriders) get their rings, whether it\u2019s their first or second or third,\u201d he says. \u201cI already have a ring as well. Not to brag, but I understand how it feels to win a ring and experience that.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I get to see what it\u2019s like on the other side, with losing one, and I get to see how they feel on one side as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has all been fun and exciting. I\u2019ve been excited since I first signed. I\u2019m just ready to get in my pads and cleats on Saturday and have my way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 5-foot-7, 180-pound receiver\/returner signed with Saskatchewan on Feb. 3.<\/p>\n
Roughriders fans hope he makes another quick adjustment to new surroundings.<\/p>\n
In only four regular-season games with Montreal in 2023, he scored on a 99-yard punt return and a 125-yard missed field goal return. He added a 105-yard kickoff-return TD in the Eastern Final against the Toronto Argonauts.<\/p>\n
Letcher Jr. followed up in 2024 by leading the league in all-purpose yards (2,329) and being named the Alouettes\u2019 Most Outstanding Special Teams player. He scored on a 100-yard punt return and a 128-yard missed field goal return as a second-year CFLer.<\/p>\n
The latter major \u2014 the seventh-longest missed field goal return in league history \u2014 was registered at Mosaic Stadium on Aug. 16, 2024.<\/p>\n
In nine games last season, Letcher Jr. averaged 11.0 yards per punt return and 25.1 yards per kickoff return. He also caught his first CFL touchdown pass.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis abilities obviously speak for themselves, but he\u2019s such a great personality,\u201d Roughriders Head Coach Corey Mace says. \u201cI think everybody is ready to see him do it with the live bullets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Especially since Letcher Jr. was rested for both the Roughriders\u2019 pre-season contests.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m looking at the timer upstairs every day,\u201d he says while being interviewed in the Roughriders\u2019 locker room. \u201cEvery time I walk past it, I take a picture of it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m ready to go. I\u2019m ready to play with the guys. New colours. New team. New coaches. I\u2019m excited.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love the facilities and the atmosphere on the team. My teammates are welcoming and I\u2019m meshing well with the guys. It\u2019s just a matter of bringing it all together and going out there and fighting for one another on game day.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Letcher Jr. is looking forward to (almost) every aspect of his first game with the Saskatchewan Roughriders.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":730691,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-730690","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\/730690","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=730690"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/730690\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/730691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=730690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=730690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=730690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}