Emilus adds to already-deep Riders receiving corps

There’s a lot of excitement around the Saskatchewan Roughriders this year, especially the receiving corps.

The team is deep with talent and loaded with more options for quarterback Cody Fajardo this season.

Some of that excitement is surrounding 2022 CFL first-round draft pick Samuel Emilus.

He made a bit of a late appearance to camp after he accepted an invite to NFL rookie camp with the Arizona Cardinals, which forced him to miss the Riders’ rookie camp due to scheduling.

So what did he take from the experience in Arizona to get him ready for the CFL season?

“Really, I was just trying to be a sponge and just gather the most information that I can. Everybody teaches different stuff in different matters depending on where you’re at, so I was just trying to gather every (piece) of information to make me a better receiver,” Emilus said about the three days he spent in Phoenix.

And that didn’t go unnoticed by Roughriders head coach Craig Dickenson, who says he has liked what he has seen from Emilus so far.

“From what I saw, he’s moving well, I think he’s grasping the playbook and those are the two main things you want to see — a guy that can move and he’s learning,” said Dickenson, who wasn’t concerned that Emilus missed rookie camp.

“I think he got his running in down there, so part of the goal of rookie camp is to get their legs under them and I think he was able to do that at rookie camp in Arizona.”

But overall, even though it is the same position, the NFL and CFL are two different games and players have to adjust to playbooks and how the game is played.

“I’m getting ahold of it a little bit and I’m getting back to it. So it’s an adjustment, yes, but it’s not going to take as much time as other people coming from the United States,” Emilus said after his first few days at main camp.

The Montreal product played his college football at Louisiana Tech, which is located in a diehard football state.

“It’s different from every place,” Emilus said. “Some states, football is everything; other states, it might be another sport. But in Louisiana, it was cool and I loved it because everybody loved football. They breathe football (and) they live for football so it was a different experience.

“I had the chance to meet new people and just a different culture of football, so it was cool.”

He also spent three seasons at the University of Massachusetts before playing his final year at Louisiana Tech.

But now he’s with the Green and White and joins one of the biggest fanbases in the CFL.

He’s happy to be playing north of the border even though the weather can be harsh at times, but luckily he has some experience.

“I would say it’s cold, but for me, I’m a Canadian, so I’m used to it,” Emilus said.

Aside from the weather, he knows he’s going to have to work hard with how deep the team is at receiver, but they’ve already built great chemistry.

“The whole receiving group is helping me adjust my game and helping me with the playbook,” he said. “We’ve got a deep receiving group. I don’t think nobody is going to stop it this year.

“We’ve got a dynamic group, (an) aggressive group — we’ve got everything, to be honest. So I’m just glad to be in that group, because at the end of the day we’re just competing and making everyone better.”

Dickenson is happy with his corps of receivers and hopes Emilus can make some big plays.

“We’re happy we have him, we think he’s a good player and everything we’ve seen tells us we drafted the right guy,” he added.

Emilus says he isn’t setting a lot of expectations for himself this year. He’s just going out to play football and do whatever the team asks to help them win.

But one game he has circled on his calendar is when the Riders travel to Montreal in late June when he can play in front of his friends and family.