The 27 year old Kelly has been signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. The Riders officially made the announcement this past Thursday. Kelly, who is American, specifically from San Bernardino, California, played his college ball for the San Jose State Spartans; he had quite the impressive career at that level; enough to get signed with the NFL, of course.
It was with San Jose—specifically from 2016 to 2017—that he had 17 starts in a total out of 25 games. (He redshirted in 2015 for the team.) During that time, he made 79 tackles, 12 passes defended….
He was signed to the Houston Texans but was seemingly plagued by injury during that time, leading to his being waived by Houston eventually in 2019.
This led to a stint in San Francisco, he in 2019 being signed to the 49ers Practice Squad. He would be re-signed with the team in 2020 but he would ultimately be waived later that same year.
This led to him being signed with the BC Lions in the Canadian Football League. Despite being signed with the team in 2021, he did not appear in any games for the Lions unfortunately and now this development.
Roughriders training camp to open Mid-May
It will be on May 15 that the Saskatchewan Roughriders training camp will open. They of course will be returning to Huskies turf at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.
Recently, head coach of the Riders, Craig Dickenson, stated that he wants to keep close watch on a few specific things going into training camp. In addition to that, he also spoke on the rule changes expected to be brought forth as of this writing, specifically moving the hashmarks closer together on the field, as well as others which include pushing the kickers back five yards, no yard calls being 15 yards, etc.. Here’s some of what he had to say on these matters:
“We need to decide who our starting running back is…The secondary is an area to keep an eye on. We lost a couple of players in Loucheiz (Purifoy) and Ed (Gainey) so you’re going to see some new faces in the secondary…
And then the final question I think is just to see how that receiving corps and (quarterback) Cody (Fajardo) develops…
It will be interesting to see the dynamic between the quarterback and the receivers, with a full training camp and two pre-season games, and the second year in (offensive coordinator Jason) Maas’s system…”
via Global News
On the rule changes brought forth by the CFL, announced on Wednesday, Dickenson had this to say in addition:
“I don’t think it’s going to change the game as we see it…But if it does open up the game even just a little bit, I think that was the motivation behind it and hopefully it does what it was intended to do.”
via Global News (Link above)
“Well, they’re (the defense) not excited about it as the offence — I can tell you that…We feel like what’s good for the CFL is good for all of us. I don’t think you’re going to see a huge pushback, in terms of a big shift. I think you’ll see better offence … some of these rule changes may open up the offence, just a touch.”
via regina.ctvnews.ca
As you all definitely know dear readers, the CFL Draft is set for Tuesday night and the Riders will have the 7th overall selection, as Global News reports. And on that front, Riders GM, Jeremy O’Day had this to say:
“We’re in pretty good shape as far as our Canadian talent…I don’t think there’s an area we need to focus in on more than another. When that pick comes, if we remain in that spot, we’ll be looking to take the best player available.”
via Global News (Link above)
We’ll keep you posted on all of this as it develops dear readers, as well as other Riders news.
