O-lineman waits patiently for his chance to shine

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This article was published 25/10/2017 (2934 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Every week the Winnipeg Blue Bombers play, Manase Foketi finds his name on the 46-man roster. Every team in the Canadian Football League must supply this list of eligible players a day ahead of each game, before eventually trimming that number down by two, to 44, with those decisions made public in the hours leading up to kickoff.

One of those two spots — commonly known as “healthy scratches” — has been a constant rotation of players through the first 16 games, while the other has been Foketi, a second-year offensive lineman with the team.

It’s a bittersweet position to be in. On the one hand, his inclusion on the 46-man lineup ensures Foketi is paid his full salary (practice players are paid significantly less). On the other hand, he puts in the work every week to play, only to have to watch from the bench when it matters.

“Obviously I don’t have control of that, it’s out of my hands,” said Foketi, a 27-year-old native of Hesperia, Calif., after Wednesday’s practice. “I just do what I can control and that’s to be prepared for if I was playing.”

If Foketi does get his shot, he understands it will come at the expense of one of his teammates. He started three games for the Bombers in 2016, all of which followed injuries to a unit that has avoided serious harm over the past two seasons. Dating back to Week 6 of last season, only two O-linemen have missed a total of three games due to injury.

“It’s surprising, really,” said Bombers left tackle Stanley Bryant. “You never want a guy to go down, in any case, but we have guys that can come in that can play football just as well as any guys that have been starting.”

That wall of invincibility has crumbled in the last week, with two hogs questionable for Saturday’s home game against the B.C. Lions. Travis Bond is out with an upper-body injury he suffered on the first offensive series in the loss to the Toronto Argonauts last Saturday and Jermarcus Hardrick, who tweaked something early in practice Tuesday, has yet to return to the field.

“I don’t know that those guys need a lot of reps to be ready for a game,” said Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea. “We’ll just wait until the last-ditch second to see if they can go or not.”

Patrick Neufeld, a seven-year CFL veteran, is expected to fill in for Bond. If Hardrick can’t go he will be replaced by Foketi, who has been taking reps at right tackle with the No. 1 offence.

“I have no problem playing right tackle if that’s what I got to play this week,” said Foketi, who has played most of his career on the left side. “I’ve been waiting to perform.”

It’s not the first time Foketi has been asked to be patient with football. A standout at Sultana High School, where he was named all-league, all-county and all-Southern California, Foketi played went on to play for three different colleges. He’s also battled injuries and, at his lowest point, debated whether he wanted to play the game he loved.

He played junior college at Mt. San Antonio before landing what seemed like a dream offer to play Division I with Kansas State. After two years with the Wildcats, a stint that included tearing an Achilles in his second year after just two games, Foketi wanted out, citing, among other reasons, a bad relationship with the O-line coach. Head coach Bill Snyder refused to honour a transfer to another FBS school, so Foketi finished his collegiate career at West Texas A&M.

“I want to move on and close this chapter in my life, but they aren’t letting me,” Foketi told the Wichita Eagle newspaper at the time, adding he had no hard feelings towards the team. “If someone isn’t comfortable somewhere they should have the right to leave.”

The Achilles injury and turmoil at Kansas State affected his value among NFL scouts, and a calf injury prevented Foketi from putting up strong numbers at the combine. The general consensus, however, was he could play and under the right guidance could grow to be a formidable player.

“He’s very athletic. He is extremely quiet,” said O’Shea. “And then when he gets on the field it changes a little bit and he’s on and he knows that he’s fighting on every play to win his job. He’s able to sort of flip that switch and play with a real edge.”

“Foketi is like a silent assassin,” said running back Andrew Harris. “He’s really quiet but every time he goes in he knows his stuff. He’s always on point.”

Foketi first fell onto the Bombers radar in 2014, after spending time with the Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints as an undrafted free agent. He attended Winnipeg’s mini-camp in Florida, where he impressed the Bombers coaching staff, who hoped to bring him aboard. But Foketi, not knowing much about the team or Canada — “The only team I knew was Winnipeg” — decided to hold out for another shot at the NFL.

“No one called me so I kind of forgot about football for a while, started looking at other opportunities,” he said. “Last year, I decided to give it a shot and I came up here to see what would happen.”

The Bombers signed him to a two-year deal in March 2016. Though he is still waiting for his time to shine, he has made a strong impression in the three games he has played. Matt Nichols, the Bombers starting quarterback, recalled the first game Foketi was part of, a Week 8 matchup in Toronto against the Argonauts. The Bombers won 34-17, but it was the protection Nichols said he received from his front five that impressed him most.

“It was probably the only game in my professional career where I didn’t get touched even once — no sacks, no hits after I threw. It was the only time in my career where I left after the game and felt pretty good,” said Nichols. “We have faith in all of our guys and whoever is in there will do just fine.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.caTwitter: @jeffkhamilton