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TSN’s NFL Team Canada all-22 depth chart is complete
Last year we launched TSN’s NFL Team Canada for the very first time, an all-22 depth chart completely filled by players who grew up playing football in this country.
By Dave Naylor
Last year we launched TSN’s NFL Team Canada for the very first time, an all-22 depth chart completely filled by players who grew up playing football in this country.
We did it because last season marked the first time every spot on offence and defence could be filled by a Canadian National Football League player.
There were 37 Canadians on NFL rosters at the outset of last year’s training camp, but that number dipped to 36 when quarterback Nathan Rourke was released early on, first by the New York Giants and then a short while later by Atlanta.
The most important piece of our jigsaw puzzle was gone, leaving our depth chart incomplete.
This summer there are 35 Canadians set to attend NFL training camps, and two of them happen to be quarterbacks – Wilfrid Laurier’s Taylor Elgersma of London, Ont. and Indiana University’s Kurtis Rourke of Oakville, Ont.
And while seeing two quarterbacks born and raised in Canada arrive in the NFL in one season may be more blip than trend, that doesn’t diminish the significance of their arrival.
It highlights the fact that players developed here can reach any position on an NFL field.
Gone are the days when Canadians were mostly offensive linemen or special teams players.
This NFL season will bring us Cincinnati’s Chase Brown and Carolina’s Chuba Hubbard as star running backs for their respective clubs.
It will bring us the Buffalo Bills counting on Brampton, Ont.’s Josh Palmer at receiver and Oakville’s Michael Hoecht along their defensive line to fulfill their Super Bowl quest.
It will feature Tennessee Titans rookie receiver Elic Ayomanor of Medicine Hat, Alta., one of two receivers from his province at training camp, along with Ajou Ajou of Brooks, who is with the Colts.
It will feature a pair of pass-catching tight ends in the New York Giants’ Theo Johnson of Windsor, Ont. and Cincinnati’s Tanner McLachlan of Lethbridge, Alta.
And it will feature Canadians patrolling the defensive secondary – with the New York Giants' Jevon Holland, in Los Angeles with both Benjamin St-Juste and Deane Leonard suiting up for the Chargers, and in Philadelphia, where Eagles safety Sydney Brown became Canada’s most recent Super Bowl winner last season.
With Canada broadly represented for the 2025 NFL season, our depth chart is complete.