{"id":767773,"date":"2026-06-29T00:19:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-29T00:19:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/767773\/"},"modified":"2026-06-29T00:19:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-29T00:19:15","slug":"edmonton-elks-justin-rankin-off-to-best-cfl-rushing-start-since-kory-sheets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/767773\/","title":{"rendered":"Edmonton Elks’ Justin Rankin off to best CFL rushing start since Kory Sheets"},"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: Edmonton Elks<\/p>\n

Edmonton Elks\u2019 running back Justin Rankin hasn\u2019t just been the CFL\u2019s most explosive offensive weapon<\/a> through the first four weeks of the season. He\u2019s also off to the best rushing start the league has seen in a decade.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old has carried the ball 46 times for 387 yards and four touchdowns amidst Edmonton\u2019s surprising 3-0 start. That has included 100-yard performances in all three outings: 102 yards against Ottawa, 179 yards against Montreal, and 106 yards this week against Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

According to CFL Stats<\/a>, that marks the first time that a player has recorded three consecutive 100-yard rushing performances since 2013. That was accomplished by Saskatchewan Roughriders\u2019 running back Kory Sheets, who managed to extend his century streak to a whopping six games. He would have nine total 100-yard outings that year.<\/p>\n

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Sheets had 442 rushing yards through his first three outings in 2013, and would ultimately finish with 1,598 yards. That placed him second in the CFL behind Jon Cornish, who claimed the rushing crown with 1,813 yards. However, the Riders\u2019 star got the last laugh thanks to a dominant playoff run, in which he set a Grey Cup record with 197 rushing yards.<\/p>\n

Rankin may be slightly behind that pace currently, but he\u2019s a more dynamic weapon in other areas than Sheets. He\u2019s added 13 catches for 154 yards thus far \u2014 already 58.3 percent of the Saskatchewan back\u2019s 2013 receiving total.<\/p>\n

Now in his third CFL season, Rankin has professed a desire to become the first player to record 1,000 yards rushing and receiving in the same season<\/a>. He\u2019ll need to average 55.6 yards per game in each category to achieve the feat. As it stands now, he\u2019s averaging 129 yards on the ground and 51.3 yards through the air \u2014\u00a0 on pace for 2,322 yards rushing and 924 yards receiving.<\/p>\n

Those lofty numbers are sure to adjust as the sample size grows, but Rankin will attempt to pump them up further when the undefeated Elks face the winless B.C. Lions on Saturday, July 4, in Kelowna. Kickoff is slated for 7:00 p.m. EDT.<\/p>\n

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\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: Edmonton Elks Edmonton Elks\u2019 running back Justin Rankin hasn\u2019t just been the CFL\u2019s most explosive offensive weapon…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":767774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[166835,166836,49,48,7028,520,23752,77213,527,241380,272896,2002,259936],"class_list":["post-767773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-cfl","tag-edmonton","tag-elks","tag-football","tag-justin-rankin","tag-kory-sheets","tag-league","tag-rushing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767773","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=767773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/767774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}