Roughriders offensive line calls audible due to injuries
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Logan Ferland never let his guard down.
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Despite expecting to play the season at right guard for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2025, the 28-year-old has already been forced to change positions along the offensive line.
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With centre Sean McEwen suffering a torn ACL and his potential replacement Philippe Gagnon suffering a torn bicep in training camp, Ferland has made the move from right guard to centre for Week 1 of the CFL season.
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'You don't go into training camp expecting the play centre,' Ferland said ahead of Saskatchewan's season opener against the Ottawa Redblacks on Thursday (7 p.m., TSN) at Mosaic Stadium. 'You might be a backup.
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'In this case, I wasn't expecting it at all with the depth we had but you know, one thing leads to another.'
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After starting last year at right guard, the 6-foot-4, 300-pound Melfort product was forced to play some right tackle and left tackle last year due to injuries before starting six games at centre after Peter Godber was injured.
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This year, when the team signed McEwen in free agency, Ferland was expecting to move back to guard where he would play alongside McEwen. Now he'll be trying to learn as much as he can in the meeting room from the three-time all-CFLer.
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'I always train in the off-season to be ready for anything,' said Ferland, who was the only offensive lineman to start all 18 regular season and two playoff games last year. 'But (it's) very unfortunate. I was really looking forward to playing alongside McEwen and learning a lot from him.
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'Just having that voice from a standard centre standpoint, always continuing to learn as much as I can just to continue to elevate my game, especially as a centre.'
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After what happened last year with the team — where 13 players started along the offensive line due to injuries — Ferland, a fourth-year starter, knew to be ready for anything this year.
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That's why much of his off-season was dedicated to snapping the football, which makes the position change somewhat of a smooth transition.
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'You kind of have to expect something is going to go wrong at some point,' said Ferland, who signed a two-year extension with the Riders this off-season to stay with the club through 2027. 'It's a matter of who's going to fill in and if the right guys mesh well with the other guys.
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