Need to Know | Training Camp Day 16

Trey Vaval has already been through the dreaded emotional wringer of professional football, when a fellow is tapped on the shoulder and gets the ‘coach wants to see you in his office… and bring your playbook’ message.

Simply put, getting cut is football’s equivalent to being fired and it can be devastating, life changing and heartbreaking all at once.

It also dramatically changes a guy’s perspective when he gets another opportunity, just as Vaval is with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers one year after getting released by the Atlanta Falcons.

“When I got cut in Atlanta, I was distraught,” Vaval said in a chat with bluebombers.com after practice on Monday. “It was, ‘Man, I’m a rookie and it feels like I just got here, and I want to keep playing football.’

“After that I really didn’t know what to do with my life because I really didn’t have a Plan B. I always said football is what I’m going to do. I was down and depressed. And then I got that call (from the Blue Bombers) and it was time to get back in that mode of staying grounded, keeping my faith in God and getting back at it.”

Trey Vaval in action at practice on Monday

Vaval took some important steps in helping his cause in Saturday’s 15-9 preseason win over the Saskatchewan Roughriders, making three defensive tackles during his time in the secondary and then returning three punts for 24 yards and two kickoffs for 37 yards — both totals leading the club.

“The thing is, if you go back and watch the film the very first (punt return), it was in the back of my mind still that this was United States football,” Vaval admitted. “I pointed at the ball because it was kicked short. I’m used to everyone yelling, ‘Peter!’ and everyone gets away (from the ball) and I get away. And then it was — excuse my language — ‘Oh s–t, I’ve got to go get the ball!'”

Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea, a special teams regular during his playing days and in his first gig as a coordinator when he turned to coaching, noticed that moment, too. More importantly, he noticed how Vaval reacted afterward.

“He took instruction very quickly,” said O’Shea. “There were a couple balls on punt return that bounced in front of him and then shortly thereafter there wasn’t another one — he was screaming up there attacking the football, staying in bounds.

“He got pinned to the sideline on one, he put the brakes on and spun back into the fray of getting hit by three or four guys, but he was scrapping for those extra yards. That makes a difference for the return team when they see a guy who is out there fighting for extra yards compared to a guy who is not… he’s not just going to scoot out of bounds; this guy is going to go for it and put his body on the line. It paints a picture for the blockers that they better be doing more.

“Taking that kind of instruction and applying it three minutes later is pretty cool.”

Vaval praised Blue Bombers special teams coordinator Mike Miller and added, “This is the most special teams period, lengthwise, of any team I’ve ever been a part of. I’ve always been told special teams was another part of the game but here it really is. I see myself as a specialist and Mike is amazing in making sure we all know what we’re doing. I love it. All of it just gives me such a rush.”

The return game, plus his abilities as a defensive back, could be a pathway to a roster spot for the 24-year-old Blue Springs, Missouri product who split his college days between Missouri Western State and Minnesota State.

He flashed enough with Minnesota State to get his look from Atlanta and has taken what he learned from his experience with the Falcons into camp here in Winnipeg.

“Being a rookie there I didn’t know about professional football,” he said. “I didn’t know how to walk around the facility. I didn’t know anything. I didn’t know how to communicate with my teammates on the field, off the field. I didn’t know a lot of things.

“Everything I learned there I’ve brought here. I’m trying to use what I learned there here. There’s not one thing I didn’t learn from there that I’m not using now.”

After his release Vaval kept up with his daily routine of hitting the gym at six or seven every morning and then teamed up with his brother, Tyson Humphrey, in the work he does training kids in motocross.

“My family, we ride dirt bikes, so I was riding motocross every day,” he said. “That helped get my mind off what happened in Atlanta. I’m happy I did that. A lot of one thing can be… look, I love football and it’s my passion but a lot of times at the end of the day it can eat at you if you let it.

“That’s why it was so helpful for me to have something else. I mean, if you ate the same cereal every day sooner or later you might get sick of it, right? But it also meant I came in here fresh and with a clean mind.

“I feel like I’m re-energized. Football is still in my heart.”

The Blue Bombers were off the field on Sunday but back at work on Monday. Here’s what we saw in their first practice day in this week’s NEED TO KNOW…

LAWSON RETURNS: Encouraging news from sick bay with veteran Canadian defensive tackle Cam Lawson back at practice for the first time since suffering a season-ending knee injury in last year’s preseason.

Lawson, who seemed poised for a bust-out campaign after posting five sacks in a rotation with Jake Thomas in 2023, participated in the first chunk of Monday’s practice before spending the rest playing the spectator.

Cam Lawson

“Certainly, he is itching to get in there and get going again,” said head coach Mike O’Shea. “He sees his rehab partners in there running around and he wants to be part of it, too. We’re excited to have him back, but we’ll ease him into it, though.”

RECEIVER BATTLE: Monday’s practice opened with Nic Demski, Dalton Schoen and Kevens Clercius joined in the receiving corps by Keric Wheatfall and Reggie White, Jr. working with Zach Collaros & Co. Asked if Friday’s final preseason game in Regina would solidify the positions, O’Shea offered this:

Keric Wheatfall

“We’re certainly going to give everybody all the opportunities. I don’t think we’re solidifying anything yet. We’ve got a few more practices and a game and film to watch. It would be short-sighted if we said, ‘These are our guys right now.'”

Asked specifically about Dillon Mitchell, he added: “He’s absolutely coming on. Those are the things he knows… the coaching staff talks to them to let guys know where they’re at as the process goes along about what they need to do. You coach them, that’s what you do.

“Very quickly he took the coaching and put some extra work in and studied and he’s stacking better days on, for sure.”

FYI: Not practising on Monday were RB Brady Oliveira, DBs Cam Allen and Ethan Ball and WR David Wallis, along with DB Jake Kelly… O’Shea praised all four QBs who saw action on Saturday immediately after the game. Asked again about rookie Chase Artopoeus, who was 5 of 6 for 43 yards and rushed once for 10 yards after entering the game with just over three minutes remaining, he said: “He’s done a great job taking in information and then showing poise on the field. When you put a young guy who is new to the CFL in the position to run a drive where the play clock — our CFL-specific play clock really matters — and he executes it extremely well, it’s just nice to see. You don’t often get that in a training camp or first preseason game setting. But it was good by the receivers, too. There was a lot of very positive IQ footage to show from that last drive from a lot of young guys — Chase being one of them. I thought he did a great job.”

NO DROP-OFF: Training camps can be a grind, and the first real game action can be taxing on the mind and the body. Yet, O’Shea said he saw no drop-off at practice when the team got back to work.

“You look for it as a coach. I thought they showed a lot of pace today,” he said. “We put the pads on again — which may be shocking to some but not for the guys that have been here — and they continue. We had one pre-snap penalty in a lot of reps so to have that kind of discipline, that kind of pace, that kind of eagerness throughout the majority of practice I thought was excellent. A couple days after a game you’re sort of on-guard for this letdown or this coast which I didn’t see today. They may still be tired, but I didn’t see them trying to coast, which is nice.”