‘It’s our job to push each other as Canadian quarterbacks’: Taylor Elgersma nipping at Kurtis Rourke’s heels despite different paths to NFL Draft

From the day he arrived at Wilfrid Laurier University, Taylor Elgersma has taken a simple and brutal approach to quarterback competition: to respect the starter, you must try to take his job. Now that he’s on the verge of NFL Draft history, he’s attacking teams’ big boards with a similar deferential indifference to the depth chart.

Entering the offseason, the idea that anyone could contend with Indiana’s Kurtis Rourke to be the top Canadian quarterback available would have seemed ludicrous. Set aside his status as the top-ranked prospect in the CFL Draft, this was a player in the Heisman conversation who had established himself as a consensus NFL Draft pick. Yet, in just a few short months, Elgersma’s stock has risen dramatically enough to merit mention in the same conversation.

“I’m excited for both of our opportunities. We’re both Canadian quarterbacks trying to take that next step and make it in the league,” Elgersma said in an interview with 3DownNation. “He’s definitely someone that I have a ton of respect for. I think he’s a heck of a football player, and I know he’s going to do really great things in this game. I think it’s our job to push each other as Canadian quarterbacks and try to showcase for scouts why we deserve to be ‘the guy.’”

While they’ve never met, the similarities between the two pivots are striking. Though two years apart in age, they grew up less than two hours away from each other — Kurtis in Oakville and Taylor in London. Both possess prototypical size at nearly six-foot-five and over 220 pounds, with all the toughness to match those big frames. Each took his team to unexpected heights, then struggled in the biggest moments.

Elgersma won the Hec Crighton Trophy as the top player in Canadian university football last season, while Rourke took home the Jon Cornish Trophy as the top Canadian in American college football. They even received invites to rival all-star games, with Rourke being forced to bow out of the East-West Shrine Bowl due to ACL surgery and Elgersma getting a last-minute shot to strut his stuff at the Senior Bowl.

Despite those parallels, a gap in perception continues to exist. Elgersma’s debut on the CFL Scouting Bureau rankings came in at number 20 in January — 19 spots below his Canadian contemporary. When it comes to the NFL, an online consensus mock draft website has Rourke rated as the 181st best prospect in the class, according to its aggregated data. Elgersma hasn’t been projected higher than 274th by any recognized media outlet.

Of course, every scout and organization will make their own personal assessment, but there is no denying that the logo on the side of each player’s helmet changes the way they are perceived. After having proven himself at a Power Four program and competing in the College Football Playoff, Rourke is considered a cleaner evaluation. Elgersma knows that everything he’s put on tape will be scrutinized and second-guessed because he played north of the border.

“I could sit there and look at why I played up here, why he played down there, but that’s just the reality of it. I can’t make excuses or say that this is why, and this is not why,” Elgersma said. “Ultimately, he deserved his shot down in the States, and he’s made the most of it. That’s super exciting for him, and my job is just to keep pushing the envelope as someone who played U Sports.”

Those willing to delve into that ‘why’ may find themselves wondering how differently these two players would be viewed if their paths had been reversed.

Rourke was never a lock to be an NCAA passer and received just a single scholarship offer from Ohio University. Coaches have previously gone on record stating they never would have recruited him if his older brother, Nathan, wasn’t already the Bobcats’ starting QB. Without that fortunate connection, Kurtis may not have found his Division 1 footing, and his life-changing transfer to the Hoosiers would be nothing but a fairy tale.

Elgersma didn’t pick up a football until he was in Grade 11 and had no sibling to open doors for him. COVID-19 restrictions spoiled his best-laid plans to reclassify and showcase his talent at U.S. camps. Laurier was the best opportunity in front of him, and he seized it with both hands, knowing that being just as good as an NCAA prospect wouldn’t get him the professional opportunities he dreamt about. He had to be significantly better than the competition to even get a look, which meant winning a Hec Crighton Trophy was a bare minimum requirement for the next level.

“I don’t know if I necessarily would describe it as weight, but it’s a reality that I’ve lived in for a long time, ever since I stepped on campus. I knew the realities of Canadian quarterbacks making it in the pros,” Elgersma explained.

“There have been a lot of Hec Crighton winners that have not become professional quarterbacks, but you have to prove you’re the best in Canada before you can try and prove you’re the best in the States against these American prospects that I have to beat out. I felt it, and I understood it. It’s my job to make it so they can’t not pick me, instead of hoping they do.”

Before his final season with the Golden Hawks, Elgersma had gained enough notoriety to consider potentially transferring to an American school, as several other notable U Sports players have successfully done in recent years. However, he ultimately decided to put an end to those discussions, fearing that anything less than an ideal fit would set his career back right as it was peaking. Unlike his counterpart at Indiana, no major programs were willing to offer him any guarantees of a starting job without ever seeing him throw.

Staying in Canada has afforded Elgersma one unique advantage over Rourke that American evaluators may not fully appreciate. Through the CFL’s U Sports Quarterback Internship program, he’s taken part in three professional training camps before ever touching the field as a rookie — two with the Toronto Argonauts and one with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. Though most participants in that program are treated as an afterthought, Laurier’s pivot ensured he wouldn’t be.

“You get out what you put into that program. They only want to develop you if you show them a reason why you deserve to be developed,” Elgersma remarked. “When I went to Toronto, I was the first guy in the building, last guy out — 5:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. every day. I learned that playbook inside out and was working with those quarterbacks as closely as any of the guys that were taking starter reps.”

After approaching his pre-draft process with a similar gusto, Elgersma has proven there are still plenty of reasons to develop him. On the heels of a strong performance at the University at Buffalo pro day, the buzz about him becoming the first U Sports QB drafted to the NFL since 1982 is growing amongst personnel people. Rourke remains a much safer bet to get picked, but with his health situation potentially dropping him down boards, there might be far less space between the two when all is said and done than anyone could have possibly imagined.

That’s how it should be, and there is an argument to be made that Elgersma’s raw tools and howitzer of an arm make him a higher ceiling prospect than Rourke with his four-down polish and in-rhythm production. You won’t find Taylor making those arguments, though, preferring instead to focus on himself while continuing to shake off the U Sports stigma.

“I don’t compare myself to him. I know he’s a great player and a great competitor. My job is to try and be the best quarterback in this class,” Elgersma said. “The way that I see it is it’s my job to go and prove that I should be the guy picked over top of him and it’s his job to prove why he should be the guy picked over top of me.”

The 2025 NFL Draft will run from April 24 to 26 in Green Bay, Wisconsin. The 2025 CFL Draft will follow on Tuesday, April 29, at 8:00 p.m. EST.

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