EDMONTON – Malik Henry is ready for a fresh start.
When the Elks wrap up their preseason in B.C. on Friday night against the Lions, the Elks rookie quarterback will have the chance to create his own CFL narrative and potentially earn a spot on the roster.
“I’m excited. It’s going to be a great time for me to show the coaches and everybody what I can do,” Henry said. “It’s just going to be a good time to be out there getting the feel of a real live game.”
The 25-year-old quarterback first came into prominence as a five-star recruit for Florida State University, before becoming a starring personality in the Netflix series ‘Last Chance U’.
It’s a period in his life Henry has long sought to move past. He was a still teenager at the start of the series set at Independence Community College and has spent much of the last half decade trying to erase the mistakes of youth and grow as a person and quarterback. The Inglewood, California native has been plying his trade in the Indoor Football and Arena leagues the last three years to great success. As a member of the Carolina Cobras in 2023, Henry led the NAL (National Arena League) in passing yards with 3,116 and threw for 60 touchdowns.
Elks General Manager and Head Coach Chris Jones sees all the ability in Henry to be a CFL quarterback.
“Yeah, there’s no doubt about it. He’s got an extremely strong arm. Physically, he can make every throw,” Jones said. “Now it’s a matter of, does he have the mental aptitude to get us in out of the huddle without taking penalties and pre-snap stuff that we’ve had sometimes in the past? So, it’ll be interesting. He’s done a real nice job so far.”
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Malik Henry (#16) warms up ahead of the Elks first preseason game against Saskatchewan on May 25
ADJUSTING TO THE CANADIAN GAME
Henry has his work cutout for him if he hopes to make the Elks opening roster.
Between rookie camp and training camp, the 6-foot-2 signal caller has had less than three weeks of on field sessions to install offensive coordinator Jarious Jackson’s playbook. All the while he has had to compete for reps with as many as six other Elks quarterbacks, so the odds are certainly steep to overcome. Still, Henry feels the game is starting to click and he is starting to parse through the differences between Arena Football and Canadian Football.
“I think the adjustments have been going well. I’m continuing to get better at it day by day, “he said. “The playbook is starting to slow down for me and just seeing the reads on the field is also starting to slow down for me as well.”
“I’m starting to make better reads, starting to hit my underneath routes and get down to my check downs. So, I think it’s going pretty good.”
The differences in the Canadian game and Arena game are vast. Just the size of the field alone is a huge adjustment with the Arena field representing less than 20% of the total area of Commonwealth Stadium’s turf. Add in four extra players in Canada and there is a lot more processing a quarterback must do in order to operate a team’s offence.
“In the Arena league if you could see it, throw it. If not, hit somebody else, but it’s not really a check down. It doesn’t work the same,” Henry said. “I might just be reading one side of the field in the Arena League. Out here I have to go from right to left or left to right and then back down to running back, so my progressions are just a little different out here.”
Henry has the benefit of working in an experienced and diverse QB room to help prepare himself for the task at hand. There is over a decade of pro experience with McLeod-Bethel Thompson, while number two quarterback Tre Ford was developed exclusively in the Canadian game. The Elks rookie has been putting the internal resources to his advantage.
“I just try to listen to everything that they have to say. They have a lot more years on me in this game,” Henry said. “I just take whatever they tell me and try to input it into what I have to do every day. They’ve been very helpful. It’s a good quarterback room. We all respect each other, and I think that helps with the bond for all of us and the team.”
Henry tosses a pass to an Elks wide receiver during Training Camp
LAST CHANCE ELKS
Henry will likely have an entire half of football to show he is capable of competing at the CFL level. Coach Jones plans to start last year’s camp standout Jarret Doege against the Lions, but Henry is expected to be the one who finishes off the game.
“I just want to have a successful day,” Henry said about the opportunity. “I have the second half, so I expect to just go in there, control what I can control, be within myself, and just play the game that I love.”
“I’m a gamer, so I feel like if I go out there, play fast, I’ll have a good time.”
Henry wont be the only one battling to show he belongs on the Elks roster. The game against the Lions will be the final audition for many inside the locker room. Coach Jones split up practice on Wednesday to give his undivided attention to the traveling group. He knows there are difficult decisions coming up after the game with the Elks roster needing to be cut down to 46, excluding 10 practice roster players and any six-game injured list members.
“All these guys aren’t making our team, so it’s extremely vital for them as an individual and as a football players because they’re staring down the barrel of not playing football possibly ever again. It’s a pretty big deal for these guys,” Jones said. “It’s a big deal for us as an organization because we feel like we’ve got some good players that are going to get on that airplane play and we’ll find out which one of them is going to fit (with us).”