The Tampa Bay Buccaneers have signed wide receiver Derel Walker, according to Jenna Laine of ESPN.
The Bucs’ newest addition was a star receiver for the Edmonton Eskimos in the Canadian Football League the past two years. He put a whopping 198 catches for 2,699 yards and 16 touchdowns in 30 games. Walker won a Grey Cup and was named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Rookie in 2015.
He was just impressive in 2016, coming in second in the entire CFL with 109 catches for 1,589 yards and 10 touchdowns. As in: he ranked second in each of those categories. Pretty impressive for a 25-year old who went undrafted in 2014 after spending his college career at Texas A&M, playing on the same team as Mike Evans.
Whereas Evans dominated and played himself to a first-round pick, Walker put up just 59 catches for 903 yards and five touchdowns in two seasons for the Aggies. He got to Texas A&M after playing at the junior college level for Trinity Valley Community College.
Of course, it would be foolish to expect him to take those dominant performances in the CFL and simply translate them to the NFL. The CFL is a different beast: much bigger fields make for a much more open game, and it’s easier for receivers to put up huge numbers. There’s a reason he was playing there and not in the NFL for the past two years.
Still, it’ll be interesting to see whether he can earn a spot on the roster. The Bucs do need some depth at receiver, and he might be a nice fourth receiver — or, if the Bucs are really lucky, a starter opposite Mike Evans.