EDMONTON \u2014 The Edmonton Elks drafted linebacker Dariel Djabome with long-term hopes, not realizing that pick would turn into a critical piece of their defence early in the CFL season.<\/p>\n
Selected No. 3 in this year\u2019s Canadian draft, the six-foot-two, 235 native of Longueuil, Que., suddenly found himself the team\u2019s starting middle linebacker after Nick Anderson suffered a hamstring injury in the Elks third game of the season.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old Djabome had seven tackles in each of his first two starts along with a pass interception in his first game. His steady performance hasn\u2019t come as a surprise to the Elks.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not surprised,\u201d head coach Mark Kilam said this week as the 4-1 Elks prepared for their Friday night home game against the 1-3 B.C. Lions, the only team they\u2019ve lost to this season.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe drafted him thinking he would be an impact special teams guy right away and an eventual starter. We didn\u2019t think it was going to be four games in, but the guy never flinched. He wants to be great; he\u2019s critical of himself in areas where he needs to improve and he works on those areas.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defensive co-ordinator and linebacker coach J.C. Sherritt, himself an outstanding middle linebacker in his eight-year career with the then Edmonton Eskimos, was encouraged by Djabome\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe made a big jump from Game 1 to Game 2 and that\u2019s the most encouraging thing,\u201d said Sherritt. \u201cHe learned from his mistakes in the first game and applied them. To watch him do that in a seven-day span, or whatever it was, was very encouraging.\u201d<\/p>\n
Djabome was an offensive player in his early career, playing running back and receiver before switching to defence at the suggestion of coach Greg Schiano at Rutgers University.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really when I got to the States that I started playing linebacker,\u201d said Djabome. \u201cIt was really the coach telling me that they see me more as a defensive player with my abilities and my skills. That would be like the perfect position for me. I trusted him all the way and it ended up turning out good for me.\u201d<\/p>\n
And fortunate for the Elks who lost Anderson, the most outstanding rookie in 2024. He remains on the six-game injury list.<\/p>\n
Djabome learned his new position quickly and exceptionally well at Rutgers, dealing with the adjustments to defence both physically and mentally. That learning process, coupled with his dedication to training and preparation, put him in an advantageous position to fill in for Anderson, who has been one of several Elks who continue to help Djabome improve.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a really great group of leaders who have been making sure I\u2019m straight with everything, the playbook, the adjustments, so I\u2019m grateful to have great leaders in the room,\u201d he said. \u201cJust making sure everything is straight so I could play free on game day.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m grateful to have leaders like that because I know it\u2019s not every place, every organization that you have vets who put it on the line, might even like put their job at risk for other people. And then, you know, I take every day as if, you know, it was the last day.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
John Korobanik, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EDMONTON \u2014 The Edmonton Elks drafted linebacker Dariel Djabome with long-term hopes, not realizing that pick would turn…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806141,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194294],"tags":[49,48,23752,82],"class_list":["post-806140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-edmonton","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-edmonton","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806140","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=806140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806140\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}