Jayden Dalke becoming versatile contributor for Riders

Despite growing up in Alberta, Jayden Dalke’s family roots were planted in Saskatchewan.

“Every Easter, I would go to Prince Albert and my parents met (there). My great-grandma is still alive so I’d go to Porcupine (Plain) and see her at Christmas,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ rookie defensive back said.

Not only are both of his parents originally from the Land of Living Skies, Dalke grew up a Riders fan with his uncle Tyler being a “big, die-hard Saskatchewan fan.”

So there was a lot of excitement in the Dalke household when the news came down the 26-year-old would be donning the Green and White in 2022. Saskatchewan took him in the sixth round (54th overall) of the CFL draft.

“(There was) lots of friends and family (and) lots of energy and, I’ll be honest, I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was just hoping for the best and I knew that I did my best leading up to it so whatever was going to happen was going to happen,” Dalke said.

“Everyone’s phones were out of sync so it would come up that this player got drafted here and eventually my dad went, ‘Jayden Dalke to the Riders’ and just got so lit up and excited.

“I missed (the Riders’) first phone call because everyone was up in my face so I couldn’t reach my phone.”

Dalke will make his return to Edmonton — where he played U Sports football with the University of Alberta Golden Bears — on Saturday when the Riders take on the Elks. Kickoff for the game is set for 8 p.m. The Green Zone pre-game show begins at 6 p.m.

“Hopefully all my fans and everything will be right behind me and that’s always a great feeling looking back and seeing half of a section or a section of people I know and familiar faces,” Dalke said. “We’re just going to put on a great show for them.”

While Dalke has become a reliable contributor for the Riders, often getting called upon whenever an injury takes place during a game, football wasn’t always an option.

The Leduc, Alta., product was seen as undersized coming out of high school, which led to very little interest in his talents.

“I was a smaller guy just put at corner and told not to worry about much,” Dalke said. “I didn’t have a lot of people coming up (to me) from universities or junior teams so I took a year off.”

But then Dalke hit a growth spurt of about five inches, hit the gym to put on 30 pounds of muscle and eventually got an opportunity with the Prairie Football Conference’s Edmonton Wildcats.
“I stuck there for four years and (the team) gave me a shot and it led to this,” the 6-foot-1, 203-pounder said.

Dalke is one of the latest Canadian Junior Football League players to make the jump to the pros at some point. The 2022 CJFL season kicks off Sunday with the Wildcats taking on the Regina Thunder and the Saskatoon Hilltops hosting the Winnipeg Rifles.

Along with Dalke, the Riders feature two former PFC players on their roster – centre Dan Clark and guard Logan Ferland.

Dalke said he can recall lining up against Ferland when both were playing junior football.

“He didn’t recognize me (when I joined the Riders) because he’s in his own world but we talked about it,” Dalke said. “I need to find some old film but I’m pretty sure we went head to head on a couple blitzes because I was playing SAM at the time.”

Dalke has some advice for players coming up in the junior ranks with pro aspirations.

“Don’t listen to a lot of the people who say you have to go the university route. I think there is a lot of development gained instead of redshirting for two years,” Dalke said. “If you can play on a junior team at a high level, I say just go for it.”

While a member of the Wildcats, Dalke was given a taste of what the pro ranks could be like, with him and some teammates being able to practise with the then-Edmonton Eskimos.

“It was late in the season when their (injured) list got high up and they needed some bodies,” Dalke said. “It was a good experience and I got to see what the calibre of players were that I would be aiming for.”

Dalke eventually played for the Golden Bears, spending a few years there before finally achieving his dream of getting drafted to the CFL.

Dalke said as soon as he got into training camp, he knew it would be tough to make the Riders.

“That was something that was new to me; I had never gone to any U18 teams or anything like that. It has been a lot of learning and sometimes it can get overwhelming but I’ve got great teammates I can lean on and coaches I can lean on,” Dalke said. “(I’m) just trying to be a sponge and best I can.”

Dalke has dressed for all eight games for the Riders so far, appearing on the roster as a special-teams player but also seeing time on defence. He’s the go-to guy if someone goes down with a mid-game injury in the linebacker corps or defensive backfield.

“If I can be the next guy up and work my way into circumstantially being a starter, that’s my end goal,” said Dalke, who has eight defensive tackles and three special-teams stops this season.
“Special teams is a whole different level than I’ve ever participated in and I think it can make a total difference so I’m going to keep going on both as best I can.”

While his main focus is trying to help the Riders get their fifth win of the season at whatever position he is called upon, he has one extra responsibility this week – ticket finder.

“Even people from Saskatchewan are coming back to Edmonton and from the Rocky Mountains coming up,” Dalke said. “(I’m) gathering as much tickets as I can from my teammates thankfully.”