Sports

6-Foot-6 NFL Draft Sleeper From Canada Reveals How He Learned To Play Quarterback In America

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Taylor Elgersma NFL Draft Canada Quarterback
Christian Bender / Laurier Athletics

Taylor Elgersma is a name that you should know as the NFL Draft quickly approaches. The 6-foot-6 quarterback hails from Canada and only played American rules football for the first time last month.

The Senior Bowl presented him with a really cool opportunity to learn the game from some very talented players and coaches.

To be clear, Elgersma is not unique in his country of origin. A large number of football players from Canada have played in the National Football League. Former Ohio and Indiana quarterback Kurtis Rourke is also in this current draft class and he grew up in Ontario. It is a unique distinction.

Elgersma did not play Division-III, Division-II, FCS or FBS football at any point in time. He played his entire college football career at Wilfrid Laurier University in Ontario. They call it ‘U Sports’ up there.

The Golden Hawks reached the national championship in 2024 at 11-1 and their signal-caller was named as the Hec Crighton Award Winner, the Heisman Trophy of Canada. Elgersma completed 73% of his passes for 4,252 yards and 35 touchdowns with seven more touchdowns as a runner.

NFL scouts caught wind of the Canadian phenom, which got him a historic invite to the Senior Bowl.

Taylor Elgersma became the first quarterback from a U Sports team to participate in the premier college football All-Star game. He learned a lot while he was there.

Don’t sleep on Taylor Elgersma!

First and foremost, the 6-foot-6, 213-pound quarterback learned how to play 11-on-11 with an NFL ball. They play 12-on-12 in Canada.

Elgersma also experienced what it is like to go under center without any vertical pre-snap motion for the first time. It was all new to him.

Although there was a learning curve, he threw a few darts that got people talking.

Elgersma roomed with former UCF, Oklahoma and Oregon quarterback Dillon Gabriel while in Mobile. The former told CTV News that his roommate was a big help. Very few players in this year’s NFL Draft class have more experience than Gabriel so that pairing was impactful throughout the week.

He was an unbelievable guy to room with the entire week. We really helped each other every single night through the playbook stuff. We would sit there, echo our calls back and forth to each other, talk through our reads, talk through our progressions. I think that having a guy that you can be working with through all this stuff, and the big thing for us, was we were just there to support each other.

— Taylor Elgersma, via CTV News

In addition to what he learned from Gabriel, Elgersma got his first taste of American football culture. It was a total culture shock— in a good way.

You notice the culture of the South, which was one thing for me. That was pretty cool. Some of the events we did, the Mardi Gras parade, the way that football is seen down there is just something pretty special.

— Taylor Elgersma, via CTV News

Perhaps the most important part of the week was the interview process. Elgersma spoke with all 32 NFL teams about his unique college football career and how his skillset could translate to the league.

Interviewing is one of the things that I look forward to in the whole draft process because teams get to learn more [about me] as a person and learn how you talk or how you see football, how you understand football. That’s something for me that I really need to showcase to teams is that, just because I haven’t played 11-on-11 football, is that I have the brain, and I have the football IQ to be able to pick up the game fast.

— Taylor Elgersma, via CTV News

Taylor Elgersma will get his next opportunity to show what he can do when Laurier holds its Pro Day in March. NFL scouts are chomping at the bit to see how he continues to grow. Stay tuned!