The Saskatchewan Roughriders have released veteran receiver Derel Walker.
The six-foot-two, 187-pound target dressed for the club’s first game of the season and caught three passes for 28 yards and one touchdown against the Edmonton Elks. He has missed Saskatchewan’s past seven contests due to a knee injury.
The 32-year-old joined the Riders as a free agent this past off-season following a two-year run with the Edmonton Elks. Head coach Craig Dickenson felt that Walker still had “a lot of good football in him” despite his production declining in recent years. Walker attributed some of his decline to the poor play of Edmonton’s quarterbacks over those two seasons.
The four-time divisional all-star started his CFL career with Edmonton in 2015 and won a Grey Cup mere days after being named the league’s Most Outstanding Rookie. He spent four seasons with the team before a one-year stint with the Toronto Argonauts during which he was the league’s highest-paid non-quarterback.
The Texas A&M product was presumably deemed expendable following the emergence of receivers Shawn Bane Jr. and Tevin Jones, who currently rank first and fourth in receiving league-wide, respectively. Samuel Emilus is also having a breakout season, having caught 28 passes for 440 yards and three touchdowns.
Over 92 career CFL games, Walker has made 474 receptions for 6,681 yards and 34 touchdowns.
The Riders (4-4) are scheduled to visit the Montreal Alouettes (4-3) on Friday, Aug. 11 with kickoff slated for 7:30 p.m. EDT.
