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“He’s a former defensive player of the year in this league. It was a challenge that I was expected to accept, and I just wanted to build off of where I was last year,” said the six-foot-one, 207-pound Ladler, a Vanderbilt product. “I wanted to help the team as much as possible by being a playmaker on the defence.

“It was a challenge that I’d be willing to accept for the rest of my pro football career.”

Though not necessarily in Edmonton.

Photo by Ian Kucerak / Postmedia

The 25-year-old native of Stone Mountain, Ga., has been pursuing NFL opportunities of his own this off-season – having worked out with the New York Jets and the Philadelphia Eagles in December – and not for the first time, either.

In fact, it was the two games he played during a short stint with the Buffalo Bills in 2014 that disqualified Ladler from being the shoo-in as Eskimos nominee for most outstanding rookie – a nod which, instead, went to Zylstra, who spent the first 12 games of that year on Edmonton’s practice roster.

“My resume was cut short from my rookie (NFL) season,” recalled Ladler, who signed as an undrafted free agent in Buffalo and was among their final training camp cuts in 2014, before being signed to their practice squad the next day and finally getting promoted to the active roster. “I did break my forearm, so I didn’t have any tape, really, to show after that.

“That’s the less-fortunate part about it. I didn’t have a real rookie season down south, but I still got credited a season, so it made me ineligible to be rookie of the year up here. But at the same time, it’s still a blessing in disguise just to be able to have an opportunity to play again.”