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Last offseason, the Indianapolis Colts signed a star wide receiver out of the Canadian Football League in Duron Carter. This offseason, it appears they have interest in another CFL star receiver. According to the Houston Chronicle's Aaron Wilson, the Colts recently worked out Eric Rogers.
Rogers has had a lot of NFL workouts recently, as at one point in mid-December he reportedly had 11 different workouts lined up. According to ESPN's Field Yates, he has actually visited or worked out for half of the teams in the NFL as of Tuesday. He briefly was with the Dallas Cowboys in 2013 as an undrafted free agent out of California Lutheran, but he ended up in the Arena Football League with the Portland Thunder. For the past two seasons, then, Rogers has played with the Calgary Stampeders in the CFL. In 2015, Rogers led the CFL with 1,448 receiving yards, was fourth in the league with 87 receptions, and was tied for the league lead with ten touchdowns. Cat Scratch Reader did a scouting report on Rogers back in 2013 and identified his strengths as his blocking, his catch radius and ability to make difficult catches, and his red zone threat, while they identified his weaknesses as his route running, top end speed, and strength. Of course, however, he could have improved quite a bit since then so that's not set in stone right now, but that's an idea of where he was at a few years ago.
Colts fans might be hesitant to embrace another CFL wide receiver signing after Carter never made the active roster in 2015, but we shouldn't judge this move based on how another receiver did. And to add to that, Carter does have talent and played very well in training camp, so it wasn't a bad signing either. In the offseason, with 90-man rosters, it makes sense to look at guys from all places who may be able to help the team. We have to recognize that not everyone who is brought in during the offseason will in fact make the team, but giving guys the shot makes sense. We'll see whether anything comes of the workout with Eric Rogers, but it sounds like he has interest and he has been productive in the CFL. If the Colts do end up signing him, it would continue a trend of giving CFL guys a shot, as the Colts have also signed guys like Jerrell Freeman, Henoc Muamba, Ben Heenan, and Duron Carter from the CFL in the past.