SASKATOON — On Thursday, Nik Lewis walked away from a CFL playing career … and straight into what he hopes becomes a CFL coaching career.

Not long after the 35-year-old slotback announced his retirement, he contacted Saskatchewan Roughriders head coach-GM Chris Jones to see if he needed help at training camp. Jones was amenable — and so Lewis is helping Travis Moore coach the Roughriders’ receivers at camp.

“I had a one-day buffer (from retiring to working again),” Lewis said after Monday’s practice at Griffiths Stadium on the campus of the University of Saskatchewan. “I went from leaving the game one day to packing up the next day to come here. And now I’m in training-camp mode.”

Lewis began his playing career with the Calgary Stampeders in 2004 and spent 11 seasons with them. In 2008, Jones joined the Stamps as their defensive co-ordinator and the two men worked for the same team for four seasons.

Jones left Calgary in 2012 to join the Toronto Argonauts before moving to the Edmonton Eskimos in 2014 and then the Roughriders in December of 2015. Lewis stayed with the Stamps until 2015, when he joined the Montreal Alouettes.

After three seasons in Montreal, Lewis decided to call it a career. He made the announcement on social media Thursday — and then he called Jones.

It seems that coaching has always been in Lewis’ future and he wasted little time trying to get into the profession.

“When you’re a Division II walk-on, you don’t think you’re ever going to play professional football,” said Lewis, a product of Southern Arkansas University. “Coaching is everything I wanted to do, so this is almost my dream job — not the playing. It’s actually a little backwards, but I love to do it.

“I was fortunate enough in my career to be around some great players and great leaders who helped me develop into a guy who almost coached while he played.”

Lewis retired as the CFL’s all-time leader in receptions (1,051) and he’s fifth all-time in receiving yards (13,778). He eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark in 10 seasons, tying him for second in the league’s record book.

The 5-foot-10, 240-pound product of Jacksboro, Texas, was named a West Division all-star five times, an East Division all-star once and a CFL all-star three times.

He was a ferocious blocker as well as a prolific receiver — and he’s sharing everything he knows with the Roughriders pass-catchers.

“He has been doing a great job,” said slotback Naaman Roosevelt. “In film, he’s critiquing us and showing us the little things we need to work on — getting in and out of breaks and stuff like that. I didn’t even know some of the stuff that he has been teaching us.”

Lewis played alongside receiver Duron Carter when both were with the Alouettes, so there’s a pre-existing relationship there. Lewis also knows the likes of Rob Bagg, Bakari Grant and Roosevelt because they’ve played against each other for years.

But Lewis doesn’t have much of a history with some of the Roughriders’ other receivers, so he’s trying to create a rapport with them.

“There’s two ways to coach,” Lewis began. “If you’ve never played the game or they’ve never seen you play the game, they have to believe that you’re telling them the right thing. You have to validate that by running great drills, being knowledgeable when you talk to them and having confidence in the way you teach them.

“The second way is they’ve seen you play and they respect the way you played. Right now, I have that advantage. They’re just seeing the other side of me that they didn’t know because they haven’t been around me. Duron knows, but they’re seeing the other side of me — the more cerebral side.”

And they’re learning.

“You know he has been doing it for a long time and has seen everything,” Roosevelt said. “He’s the all-time leader in receiving in the league, so to have a guy like that around teaching and helping you out with things, you can’t do anything but listen and try to get better.”

Lewis learned his lessons when he was younger by watching players like Geroy Simon, Milt Stegall and Terry Vaughn, so now he’s eager to share that knowledge with his charges in Saskatoon.

One of the other players Lewis studied was Moore, a former Stampeder and Roughrider who’s now Saskatchewan’s receivers coach. As the duo works together, Lewis continues to learn from Moore.

“Sometimes I’ll say something to a receiver and (Moore) will use a different term,” Lewis said. “I’ll be like, ‘That’s a great term.’ But that’s how it is. People hear things differently. Having both of us here is really beneficial.”

Lewis isn’t sure how long he’ll remain with the Roughriders — he has to chat with Jones at some point to see if the arrangement ends when camp ends — but in the meantime the first-time coach will keep his eyes and ears open.

“It’s about constantly picking up knowledge,” Lewis said. “You watch film and realize you watch it differently as a coach than you do as a player. You’re watching to critique and to see what you want to do and how you want to do it more than just how they’re responding.

“It’s about learning how you’re watching film, how you’re grading the guys, how you’re doing things to get the most out of them, how you motivate the guys and pick them up on hot days. I’m still learning, but it’s good.”