It’s pretty remarkable to see someone go from the first-overall pick in a league’s draft to a training camp cut a year later, but that’s what happened with former Iowa Hawkeyes’ defensive tackle Faith Ekakitie.
Ekakitie was a solid player at Iowa, playing in 13 games in his senior year in 2016 and recording 39 total tackles (while bizarrely also making headlines for a Pokemon Go incident), and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers selected him first overall in the 2017 CFL draft (of Canadian players; Ekakitie is from Brampton, Ontario), but he played in just 14 (of 18) regular-season games in his first season and recorded just five tackles.
Even some top CFL picks take a while to break into the league, but there were indications that Ekakitie might be cut heading into this training camp, and that came to pass Saturday evening. So what went so wrong for Ekakitie? Well, even he wasn’t sure of his fit with the team this year.