It appears that Chris Jones subscribes to the philosophy that a great football team can never have enough pass rushers. Jones acquired a trio of sack machines over the off-season by signing Justin Capicciotti, Shawn Lemon, and Eric Norwood.
Now you can add Jonathan Newsome to that list.
“He’s a tremendous player,” said Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach and general manager Chris Jones. “He can really get after the quarterback.”
The Riders announced the signing of the 25-year-old defensive lineman on Monday. Newsome spent the past two seasons of his career playing in the NFL with the Indianapolis Colts. The Cleveland, Ohio product led the Colts with 6.5 sacks in Newsome’s rookie year, but his production plummeted in 2015. The Colts released Newsome the following off-season.
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READ MORE: CFL veterans Eric Norwood and Clarence Denmark join Saskatchewan Roughriders
Some players sulk when they come up to the CFL after getting cut from their NFL team. Newsome isn’t one of those players. He doesn’t care about getting paid less money or having to learn the unique rules of the CFL. Newsome simply wants to play football.
“My motivation is going out here and playing the game I love,” said Newsome.
“It’s not about the dollar amount, there’s no price on this for me, it’s just a blessing to be getting paid for it anyway.”
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Newsome is quickly making his presence felt within his new organization. He arrived in Saskatoon around 8 p.m. CT Sunday and hit the field at 9 a.m. Monday. It only took Newsome one practice to make a good impression on Saskatchewan’s defensive line coach Ed Philion.
“I liked him, I really did,” said Philion. “We threw him out there and we’re telling him on the fly what responsibilities he had and he was pretty darn good at it.”
“I think he’s got potential to be a good player for us.”
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