REGINA – When the Saskatchewan Roughriders signed defensive lineman James Vaughters as a free agent this past off-season, it came with the kind of expectations one would expect when an elite player joins a team.
With 29 career sacks and 133 tackles heading into his sixth season in the league, there was hope that Vaughters’ experience would help add an additional anchor to what was already a dangerous defensive line corps.
Through five games this season, it’s safe to say the Riders’ bet has paid off.
With the 2026 campaign nearing the quarter mark, the 33-year-old Vaughters is on his way to a career year, having recorded four sacks and seven tackles through the first five games. That would put him on pace for 14 sacks over a full season, far eclipsing his previous best of six over 18 games.
“I’m just trying to make my mark the best I can,” Vaughters said during practice prior to the Week 6 win over Hamilton. “I've been a lot of places and just trying to contribute both mentally, emotionally and with my play to the D-line and to the defence. Just kind of trying to keep everybody kind of on schedule, as we want to go 1-0 every week. We want to go 1-0 every play and 1-0 every series.”
Vaughters would go on to get to the quarterback twice in that contest and finish with three tackles in total. All told, the Riders defence held Hamilton to only 250 yards while also coming up with a handful of huge plays to help Saskatchewan pull away late in the game.
Vaughters said making that happen was all going to be part of the team doing what they’d prepared for in the lead-up to the contest – especially in light of facing a bit of an unknown from quarterbacks Jake Dolegala and Tre Ford.
“It's kind of tough to know exactly what you're going to get, but we're trying to be ready,” Vaughters said. “I think defence is more about knowing your assignment and being able to play your assignment no matter what look you get, and I think that's what we're trying to do.
“Thankfully for a few of our guys, we've played against both these quarterbacks whether it was for different teams, so I think we just have to have both mentalities in the back of your mind and just be prepared for both of them.”
All in all, Saskatchewan’s defence has emerged as the best in the CFL through the first five weeks of the season, having allowed the second-fewest points, fewest total yards and passing yards while sitting sixth overall in rushing yards allowed.
Not too shabby, and a situation Vaughters hopes continues when they take the field in a week’s time.
“We just want to go 1-0 every week,” he said. “We can only judge it off of our later performance. That's how it goes in life. That's how it goes in sports, and we just want to do well with our next one.”
