By Canadian Press

Calgary Stampeders get all-star receiver Eric Rogers back from the NFL

Jun 6, 2018 | 1:00 PM

CALGARY — All-star receiver Eric Rogers is returning to the Calgary Stampeders.

The CFL team hopes the 27-year-old passes his physical and can pick up where he left off in 2015, when Rogers totalled 87 catches for 1,448 yards and 10 touchdowns before heading to the NFL.

“I think a deal has been agreed upon, but it’s always conditional on the physical,” Stampeder head coach Dave Dickenson said Wednesday.

“I’m excited to see him. I haven’t seen him in a couple of years. He’s had a couple things surgically he’s had to fix.”

Rogers attracted interest from several NFL teams and signed with the San Francisco 49ers in 2016.

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But he tore his anterior cruciate ligament in training camp that year and never played a snap for the 49ers, who released him a year later.

Rogers was both a football and triple jump star at California Lutheran.

The six-foot-three, 210-pound receiver boasted a vertical of about 90 centimetres and won a lot of jump-ball catches for the Stampeders in 2015.

If Rogers still has those highlight-reel springs, Calgary quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell can use him to spread out the offence and throw downfield.

“When that becomes official, it adds a huge weapon and a huge piece that can really come in and help this offence,” Mitchell said.

“He’s a guy I like to throw the ball to. He’s definitely one of those guys you can trust in one-on-one situations.

“He’s stopped a couple of interceptions for me and turned them into catches and some into touchdowns because he has that ability to go over guys.”

Initially signed by the Ottawa Redblacks in 2014, Rogers was released prior to training camp and joined the Stampeders in July.

He was was an impact player in the 2014 West Division final, with three catches for 60 yards and two touchdowns, before winning the Grey Cup with Calgary that year.

He was named to the CFL all-star team the following season.

Calgary caps training camp Friday with a pre-season game on the road against the Saskatchewan Roughriders, before the regular-season kickoff June 16 at home versus the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The Stampeders, who have lost the Grey Cup game the last two seasons, fell 36-23 to the B.C. Lions in a pre-season game last week.

Even if Rogers does get the medical greenlight to re-join the Stampeders, Dickenson expects to ease him back into the active game roster.

“I am a big believer in you need practice,” the coach said. “It’s not like he knows the system. Things changed.”

Donna Spencer, The Canadian Press

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