OverDrive - Lalji on Elgersma's rise with the Packers, Rourke's leadership with the Lions and the Argonauts' significant struggles

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

TSN Football Insider Farhan Lalji joined OverDrive to discuss the headlines around the NFL and CFL, Canadian Taylor Elgersma's shot to make the roster with the Packers, Nathan Rourke leading the pack with the Lions, the Argonauts' relocation for home games and the foundational team issues and more.

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apply. Join us now is far on Lulogy or TSN CFL and NFL report. How's going for Ann? Good, Mike. Dave, thanks for having me guys, getting closer and closer to that time. It should be fun. Well, we are and we're actually talking about Taylor Algersma, who had an opportunity to start to star for the Packers this weekend, ended up playing just over a full quarter, ended up throwing for over 100 yards, and leading the Packers to three scoring drives. Like, how great of a story is this to have a use? sports, a Canadian-born-bred-developed quarterback, kind of make some noise down south? Yeah, I think it's a fantastic opportunity.

It's something that, you know, all of U-Sports and the Canadian development system can really take a bow for, right? And look, at the end of the day, you can't make the exception to norm, right? Like, this isn't a case of every U-Sports kid can play in the NFL, but it does speak to the fact that there should be no limits. and if you are good enough and you meet the physical profile and you have all the measurables, no one should be able to say you can't. Whether it's in the CFL or the NFL, you should at least be able to get the opportunity.

And it's interesting because I've always felt that I don't know how seriously the CFL took Taylor Algisma until the NFL took him seriously, but what he's doing right now down there is fantastic. You know, I was texting a bit with Larry Justinus, who spent some time coaching him when he was younger, and, you know, Larry did the Football North program and is now primarily in Texas. And just a number of people that have kind of had their hands around this guy and mentored him.

And I think all of them should feel pretty good right now about how he's playing because as we went from, you know, the big All-Star game that he played in and the Senior Bowl and then eventually his first preseason game. And now this, every step has been bigger and in every step he's looked more comfortable. Farhan, I mean, you look at his chances of remaining on that roster or maybe the practice squad. I mean, you know, we all understand it's there's very little patience in the NFL for anybody that isn't right aboard at the right spot of the learning curve. I mean, in your experience, like, you know, kind of what are the odds here? I mean, he's had one really good preseason performance.

He's got another chance in one more preseason game at Lambo to make another strong impression. But if you had to sort of handicap the chances of him landing on a roster, on this roster, how do you see it? Well, look, it's going to come down to the Packers' desire to carry four quarterbacks, right? And Sean Clifford's got some pedigree because, you know, he comes out of Penn State. He's been there for a year. And really, that's who he's battling for, right? He's battling for the number three spot. And even though the NFL allows for a third quarterback to be active, right?

And not all of them want to do that, right? Because you've got to make him an inactive, which means you're eligible. elevating them above the practice roster, right? So you go from practice roster to inactive, and they can dress a quarterback who's on the inactive list. And most teams just don't carry four, right? You either have, they still, even though they've got that opportunity, most teams will still have two on the game day roster

and one more in their building, right? Generally, a practice roster player. The odd team will put three on the active roster or, you know, or take the flexibility of the league now forward. So very few have four. And so can Taylor Algersma get past just a guy that's got a better resume? You know, because it's pretty clear that Malik Willis is going to be the number two behind Jordan Love. So they're battling for three.

So, you know, see what it looks like. You know, I haven't followed Clifford, his preseason as closely. For everything I've heard, you know, they're pretty even across the board in practice. But, you know, the team has a year of investment in Sean Clifford. So, you know, we'll see if they see enough potential. But it's not going to be easy. You can't just look at what happened yesterday and say he's a lock to make the PR, because that might mean carrying forward.

I don't know what their desire is to do that. In conversation with Farhan Lollogy, Nathan Rourke, who had a cup of coffee down in the NFL, a couple of practice squads. It really started to heat it up now with the BC Lions. I think his last six games, averaging 352 yards per game. How great is it to see him kind of finally hit his stride since returning to the CFL? Yeah, it's been good. And, you know, we've seen flashes of it all season. I'm not sure that Nathan is still consistently accurate as he was in 2022, but he's still accurate enough to be an exceptional quarterback in this league, right? So I was really impressed with the second half of this game against Montreal, and that defense, even without Mark Antoine Duquesne, a couple of pieces, is still a very good defense. And in the second half, he was 10 of 11, really 10 for 10. because the last one was just kind of a throwaway at the end of the game

for over 200 yards and two touchdowns in the second half. And in the first half, he was really just managing first down. But in the second half, he was pushing the ball down the field consistently and looked really good doing it. So, you know, that part of his game is now there. So it's all there, right? And he's shown it in flashes and now he's putting more and more of it together. You know, watching the way that Nathan navigates the pocket right now

is also really, really impressive, because there's some quarterbacks that just scramble and look to run around, whereas he's okay just kind of stepping up in the pocket and sliding and knowing exactly how much time he has on every move. Okay, I've stepped up inside of this guy. I know where the blocker is. I know where the next guy is coming from. I've got a half second.

Waits for that guy to come, sets up the next block. Like, it's so calm that it makes him pretty difficult to deal with right now. Hey, Farhan, obviously, the Argos have been a loss, cause, it seems. They're 2 and 8 now after losing to the Elks. And now this kind of insult to injury, this story that emerged last week about how next

year during the World Cup, they're going to have to play so-called home games. That won't be home games at all. They'll be in Hamilton and Winnipeg and Regina. What did you make of that and what do you make of the fact that the Argos have gone from being champions to being

such a mess so quickly? Well, as far as the decision on games next year, I can't stand surprised, right? I just, you know, MLSC is just not wanted to make an effort for this team. And I can't, I can't imagine them doing what Amardomans going to do, and let's build a temporary facility and play a couple of games there.

They're going to want to choose the path of least resistance. That's what we've seen thus far, and, you know, it shouldn't surprise you. We've seen Touchdown Pacific take away Argos, or touchdown Atlantic, take away an Argo's home game and put it in Halifax, right? So they maybe feel that they're going to lose

less money by taking a game on the road, and they'll get more fans in Saskatchew and that'll be worth the additional travel cost that they've got to pay. So I don't know what the government appetite is to help. Like here in B.C., the provincial government is going to help the Lions relocate because ultimately it's not the Lions' fault this has happened.

And when you take a Lions game and put it into another place, they're going to bring significant economic impact because if they go to Vancouver Island or the Okinaw, they're going to sell out. I don't know what that looks like for the Argos, but if I'm them, I would take them to a U.S. facility, take them to London and play at Western, take them to Guelph, take him to Queens,

wherever, and bring some additional stands in and try to grow the audience in those parts of the province, but that takes effort, and it's pretty clear they don't want to do that. As far as the team is concerned, you know, a lot of people expected the Argo should take a big step

backwards a year ago when they had tons of free agent losses on defense and a Chad Kelly issue at the start of the season, and they didn't, right? They kind of hung on, Shad got back, and they wound up, you know, having a pretty good finish to the year, and they wind up winning a great cup. And so I kind of think they felt it was going to be that easy again, and it's actually gone the way many expected it to go a year ago, where the defensive roster turnover is a disaster. And ironically, like, you can't blame Nick Arbuckle.

Like, I'm not necessarily the biggest Nick Arbuckle fan as a player. I love him as a person. So if you would have asked me at the start of the year, this would be their record. I would have said, okay, I'd buy it, but I would have assumed it was going to be an offensive issue. The fact that the offense is actually doing reasonably well, you know, Cokesy has been exceptional all season. They've done a lot of good things. And for it to be a defensive and a special team's issue, that part of it surprises me. Farhan, it was great to chat as usual.

We'll do it again soon. Take care, guys. Talk to you. Absolutely. Farhan, Lulogy, TSN, CFL, NFL, insider, NFL reporter. Unmistakably Canadian. It's the music that race. Steel.

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