The Tiger-Cats have made a move to potentially improve their specialist unit. American punter Simon Laryea has been signed to the Tiger-Cats practice roster. Laryea is a 26-year-old, 6′ 2″, 206 pound that had a successful college career at Mesa Community College (2015 -2016) and most recently Abilene Christian University. At Abilene Christian, Laryea had 206 punts for an average of 39.4 yards/punt, a career-long of 70 yards, and 11 punts that went from 50+ yards. He had similar results at Mesa CC before Abilene Christian with 49 punts for an average of 37.1 yards/punt and a career-long of 68 yards.

Signing Laryea to the practice squad roster is a sign that the Tiger-Cats will be looking to have competition that the punting position. Global player Joel Whitford is currently the only active punter on the Tiger-Cats roster, but with this signing, they now have 2 punters on their practice squad roster. It will be interesting to see how Whitford performs in games, and see if Laryea is allowed to compete for punting duties. Philosophically, head coach Orlondo Steinauer believes in creating a competitive environment at all positions for the Tiger-Cats. This is a great example of creating that environment to elevate the overall performance for Hamilton.

Follow me on Twitter: @AaronSauter7

Full coverage of the 2022 season on CFL News Hub