The Canadian Press
There wasn’t any other option for Tyrell Sutton but to re-sign in Montreal this off-season.
Call it what you want: devotion, faithfulness or just following his mother’s advice, Sutton is committed to spending his career as an Alouette.
“I understand that it’s been going wrong for a certain amount of years (in Montreal) and there’s no loyalty in this game but I’m all about the struggle,” Sutton said during Mark’s CFL Week in Winnipeg. “My mom always told me once I start something, I have to finish it and I feel like I have to finish the job over here in Montreal.”
Sutton signed a one-year extension with the Alouettes in January, about a month before he was set to hit the free agent market. While some may have used the opportunity to test the waters and get out of a team that has finished at or near the bottom of the league in each of the last few seasons, the thought didn’t even cross Sutton’s mind. Not even for a moment did he entertain the idea of finding a new city and a new team to call home.
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Sutton poses at the TSN content shoot during Mark’s CFL Week in Winnipeg (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
“I’m a guy that likes to play in one place,” he said. “I’ve been bouncing around from league to league, team to team and one thing that I like is stability. I haven’t had it much in my career and being able to say that I’ve played in one place would be a positive for my career. At the same time, I’m not one of those guys that likes to jump ship just because things are going wrong.”
The versatile back has played his entire five-year CFL career with Montreal, amassing 3,156 yards and 14 touchdowns on the ground while also pitching in with 1,198 yards and three majors through the air. Before joining the Alouettes in 2013, Sutton spent time in the NFL with the Green Bay Packers (2009), Carolina Panthers (2009-2010) and Seattle Seahawks (2012) and in the UFL with the Sacramento Mountain Lions (2012).
While the Alouettes finished last season at the bottom of the East Division with a 3-15 record, the five-foot-eight, 213-pound running back was a bright spot on the team’s roster. He helped Montreal finish the year in third place in the league with 1,718 rushing yards, just behind the Winnipeg Blue Bombers (1,824) and Edmonton Eskimos (1,734).
With inconsistent chemistry between quarterbacks and receivers last season, Sutton was turned to quite often to run ball up the field. In 14 games he tallied 152 carries for 843 yards and five touchdowns. He also caught 44 passes for 312 yards and a major score.
“It’s hit or be hit,” he said, explaining what makes his style of play so different than the rest of the league. “You can ask a few defenders that have been here, they don’t like my running style. As long as they don’t like my running style, I love it. Like Marshawn (Lynch) said, ‘nobody wants to be hit in the face over and over and over again.’ And so that’s the mentality. If you don’t want to do it, then I’m going to make sure that you don’t want to do it.”
“I like to think of myself as an NFL-calibre type of running back, a bruiser type of running back that can do just about everything,” he continued. “But they don’t see that type of ferociousness up here with guys attacking defensive players.
“Having that mentality, it hurts my body a little bit more because I’m dishing out more than I probably should be but at the end of the day, I get pumped up by hitting people. That’s the way my body goes, the more I get to hit people, the more I get going.”
Heading into his sixth season with the Alouettes, Sutton is optimistic things will start to turn around (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
Heading into his sixth season in the CFL and at 31 years old, that ‘hit-or-get-hit’ style of play takes a toll on Sutton’s body. That’s why he approaches his off-season training a little differently than other CFL players.
Some players push their bodies to the limit for hours each and every day in the six months they’re away from the gridiron, but Sutton likes to take things a little easier. He says, “you must let your body rest up, heal, lick your wounds and then after that you get back into it.”
Using the time off to rest is how the running back is hoping to extend the longevity of his career in the Canadian game.
“It’s kind of light,” he said of his off-season workout regimen. “I’m at the point now where it’s kind of maintaining but I have put on a little bit of mass and weight. It’s about five to six days a week of yoga, stretching, it’s a little bit of everything. I’m trying to use as many resources at my disposal and that includes, like I said, stretching, trainers, yoga, anything that you can think of.”
Heading into the 2018 season, Sutton hopes that his team can find some sort of consitency. A new head coach, a steady hand under centre and depth at key positions are the first few steps to pushing the Alouettes back into contention in the East Division.
“Once you get the continuity (it’s better)” he stated. “The example being a Calgary (Stampeders) type of team. They’ve had the same coaches, the same staff, the same players for a decent amount of time. That was the same way that Montreal was in their glory days back in 2009, 2010. We had the same guys, same basis and it was understood what the motive was.
“We just need to get back to that. We just need to understand it’s a new regime, nobody is scared of us anymore. We have to understand that it’s about laying a ground work. It’s about having a foundation. We have that foundation and we’ll be on the up and up.”
