{"id":734315,"date":"2026-06-13T14:12:54","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T14:12:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/734315\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T14:12:54","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T14:12:54","slug":"riders-wr-jaylen-johnson-set-for-cfl-debut-against-bc-lions-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/734315\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders WR Jaylen Johnson set for CFL debut against BC Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Jaylen Johnson will get the first opportunity on Saturday to show he\u2019s the right piece for the Saskatchewan Roughriders puzzle.<\/p>\n<p>The wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2026\/05\/06\/five-positions-to-keep-an-eye-on-at-riders-rookie-camp\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">won one of the starting spots<\/a> in the team\u2019s offence after training camp and two pre-season contests.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s super humbling. I have to give credit to the work I\u2019ve put in and the work I\u2019ve put in with my teammates and the trust they have in me \u2014 it means a lot to me and I\u2019m going to go out there and show them why it\u2019s a good decision,\u201d the 26-year-old said.<\/p>\n<p>The Duluth, Ga., athlete signed with the Los Angeles Chargers after not being selected in the 2024 NFL Draft. He had three receptions for 53 yards in the preseason and was signed to their practice squad. He made his debut against the New Orleans Saints.<\/p>\n<p>He signed with the Riders this past off-season.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s been a great experience. Obviously, I am a rookie, so I had to prove myself and learn the ropes from the veteran guys and learn how we do stuff around here. It has been a great learning experience, and I\u2019ve had a lot of fun being out there on the field,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>Saskatchewan is coming off its 2025 Grey Cup win that saw the Green and White <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2025\/11\/16\/saskatchewan-roughriders-defeat-montreal-alouettes-25-17-to-win-2025-grey-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">defeat the Montreal Alouettes 25-17 in Winnipeg.<\/a> The newcomer believes you can tell the organization has a winning culture.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can feel it on the field and in the meeting rooms. I think this is a player-led team and those are the best teams,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2026\/03\/24\/saskatchewan-roughriders-qb-trevor-harris-locked-in-on-2026-season\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Trevor Harris<\/a> \u2014 such an experienced and great quarterback \u2014 he is upholding that standard. He will let us know if we are slacking or that\u2019s not it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s taken some patience for the wide receiver, as the Riders were one of three teams that were on a bye week to begin the 2026 CFL season. S<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2025\/11\/08\/the-play-you-dream-about-tommy-nields-late-touchdown-sends-riders-to-grey-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">askatchewan will host the B.C. Lions<\/a> on Saturday at Mosaic Stadium. Kickoff for the game is set for 5 p.m. The Green Zone pregame show begins at 3 p.m.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s so exciting. It\u2019s been a long journey. Just within the last year, dealing with injuries in the NFL and being out for so long and finally being able to play a real game again, it\u2019s something I have been wishing for every day,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just think about it all day long, and I can\u2019t wait to go out there with my teammates.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Saskatchewan will unveil the 2025 championship banner at the game. While he wasn\u2019t here last season to contribute to that win, he has noticed the room next to the banner that he hopes to help fill.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI told all my teammates that I saw you all did it last year, we have to do it again this year. You\u2019re not leaving me out of the party this time,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n<p>Also making his Riders\u2019 debut will be defensive end Desmond Evans, who will line up across from free agent acquisition James Vaughters.<\/p>\n<p>Linebacker Nick Wiebe suffered a head injury in practice and will not be playing this week, as he was added to the one-game injured list.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/depth-chart.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-977827\" class=\"size-full wp-image-977827\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/depth-chart.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"891\" height=\"706\"  \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-977827\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">(Saskatchewan Roughriders\/Submitted)<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jaylen Johnson will get the first opportunity on Saturday to show he\u2019s the right piece for the Saskatchewan&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":734316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-734315","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\/734315","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=734315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/734316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}