Rising star Rogers ready for more in 2015

CFL.ca Staff
With files from Stampeders.com

CALGARY — When Eric Rogers joined the Calgary Stampeders late last season, he expected a slow and careful transition.

He was, after all, only 23 the day he signed as a free agent on July 7, months after being released by the Ottawa REDBLACKS. For Rogers, catching on with a CFL team and making an impression heading into the 2015 season probably would have sufficed.

After finally getting his first CFL start near the end of October, however, Rogers took the opportunity and never turned back.

“It was kind of crazy, coming in late in the season,” Rogers told Stampeders.com. “I didn’t expect to do too much, but I did have confidence in my game and helping this team win.”

Rogers made an impact overnight. He caught five passes for 72 yards in his first game, a 40-27 win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders. And after that, each game he played in was better than his last.

His regular season campaign concluded with nine catches for 149 yards and a pair of touchdowns in two starts, while his role in the playoffs only increased. In a blowout win over Edmonton in the Western Final, Rogers caught three passes for 60 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

His five-catch, 108-yard performance in the Grey Cup, meanwhile, may have been overshadowed by the play of Bo Levi Mitchell – but it certainly wasn’t ignored.

At the end of it all, Eric Rogers had become a household CFL name after just four starts.

“I’m glad everything worked out,” said Rogers. “We got the Grey Cup Championship, and now I’m ready to go for this next year.”

It’s easy to see why expectations are high for the now-24-year-old. In just four games, Rogers has 19 catches for 317 yards and four touchdowns. His 16.68 yards per catch put him among the CFL’s best, ahead of the likes of Fred Stamps, S.J. Green and even Emmanuel Arceneaux and Maurice Price.

Rogers’ emergence last season even put Price in the press box during the team’s Western Final matchup with the Eskimos, and it’s also likely the reason he was made expendable in the off-season, traded to the Ottawa REDBLACKS.

While it all happened so fast, the CFL transition according to Rogers came naturally. The team, he added, made it easy on him. The move to the outside, where receivers have less responsibility but usually a harder time making an impact, played a helpful role.

“The transition from American football to Canadian is a little different, the offences are different,” said Rogers. “Coming in at first I was going to be an inside receiver, kind of where Marquay and Nik Lewis played, and that’s a lot of responsibility coming straight from the American game.”

“They have a lot of responsibilities protection-wise, motion and stuff like that,” he continued. “When I got switched to the outside receiver, I had less responsibility and I felt more comfortable.”

“I got the playbook down and I was ready to go from there.”

Inside or outside, the sudden emergence of such a young player is unprecedented. Expecting those types of results from Rogers all throughout 2015 may be unreasonable.

Yet if one thing was made clear by the departures of Price, Brad Sinopoli and Nik Lewis, it’s that the Stampeders believe in him. Success is usually accompanied by greater expectations, and the expectations for Rogers this season are high.

Rogers could be among the CFL’s league leaders this season; a primary receiving option on one of the league’s most productive offences.

Talking over Skype from his Los Angeles home during what’s been a heated off-season, Rogers said he’s ready to help his team get after it in 2015 – just like he helped his team win a Grey Cup back in November.

“We’ve gotta come in and continue to work and get better,” he said. “We lost some guys in the receiving core and on the offensive line and defensive line. We lose guys every year.”

“We’re just trying to come in and find our identity, get better as a team, take it one game at a time and see if we can do the same thing.”

The Glendora, Calif. native is certainly less focused on numbers than winning Grey Cups, both of which he’s succeeded in early on.

Either way, the six-foot-three, 210-pound dynamo will be one to watch in 2015.