SASKATOON — Saskatchewan Roughriders defensive back Tevaughn Campbell is back in the Green and White.
The University of Regina Rams alum missed the first week of training camp for the Canadian Football League club due to a personal matter, but returned to the field at Griffiths Stadium in Saskatoon for the first time this preseason on Wednesday.
It’s a welcome return for the team after Campbell put together the best season of his CFL career in 2025, becoming a key member of the Roughriders defensive secondary.
“It's good, something you definitely miss in the offseason,” Campbell said during a post-practice media scrum. “Just being around the boys and getting to play the game you love, getting out there. Just got to get the rust off pretty much and get back to it.”
Campbell didn’t get into specifics of his delayed arrival, just that things were busy back home.
“I handled it, now I’m back ready, ready to compete, ready to get back to it,” he said.
Campbell, 32, rejoined the Riders from the NFL during the 2025 off-season and ended up having a career year, hauling in six interceptions while recording 18 tackles across his 13 games played. The Scarborough, Ont. native tied for the CFL lead in picks and was tops in interception return yardage at 205 — just 21 short of Dale West's single-season club record — including a 112-yard return in the Labour Day Classic against Winnipeg.
All that has turned Campbell into a key member of the Riders defence heading into the new campaign — and one the team will be relying on for some big plays down the road as he further develops into a standout.
Campbell made his CFL debut with the Calgary Stampeders in 2015, played with Saskatchewan in 2016 after an off-season trade, then spent two seasons with the Montreal Alouettes before embarking on a six-year NFL journey.
“Growing from last year, I know there's a lot of things people might not have seen, but things that I definitely wanted to get better at,” Campbell said. “Plays I left on the table, plays that I could have made but I didn't, and I think that kind of makes a difference in coming back and repeating or coming back and just not being as good. I just want to grow from last year.”
Getting a later start than his compatriots isn’t expected to hurt in any way, especially given Campbell’s familiarity with the team and their schemes.
“I think we just gelled so much last year that we kind of made the playbook our own, so it's really just doing what we do,” Campbell explained. “It's not really, hey, we're playing this play, make sure you know the exact calls and da-da-da-da. No, we just go out there, we play off each other. I know what [DaMarcus] Fields is going to do, Fields knows what I'm going to do, so it's just second nature.”
Having that kind of autonomy isn’t something that’s all that normal, especially in the oft-regimented professional game.
“It’s great,” Campbell said. “All the teams I've been on before, especially coming from the NFL, it's a strict regimen. If you're in the thirds, you got to be in the thirds. If you're in the quarter, you got to be in the quarter. You got to be in the flat. But here we kind of freestyle and we just make things happen. As long as the guy beside you knows what's happening, and that goes across the whole field, then you're good.”
Learning to play that way and gaining the coach’s trust to play that way comes with time and success — and there was no team in the CFL more successful last season than the Riders, who claimed their fifth Grey Cup championship in November with a win over Campbell's former team from Montreal.
“The hardest part was me just learning the person beside me and trusting that they'll be there,” said Campbell, who played his first season in the CFL since the 2018 campaign last year. “As we went on through the season, get to Week 12, Week 13. It was second nature.
"We're just out there, I know he's gonna be deep, I'm stealing something low.”
Now that it’s all hands on deck in training camp, Campbell aims to do all he can to help pick up where the team left off in 2025 and take another Grey Cup run.
“I think I'm just such a competitor, I want to say a perfectionist, and I want to be as close to greatness as possible,” Campbell said. “So I’m not content with being mediocre. Just every day I have to get better and improve just one per cent.”
Saskatchewan continues its preseason Saturday when the Riders host the Winnipeg Blue Bombers at 5 p.m. at Griffiths Stadium in Saskatoon. The Rider Broadcast Network will have the pre-game show beginning at 2 p.m., with Dave Thomas and Luc Mullinder bringing you the game call at kickoff.
