Versatile receiver Mathis giving Elks a boost ahead of Bombers clash

EDMONTON — Edmonton Elks wide receiver Zach Mathis has an interesting statistic line: one receiving touchdown, one interception return touchdown.

Mathis’s 48-yard interception return touchdown in Edmonton’s 27-12 victory over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last weekend gave the third-year Elk an equal number of touchdowns on both sides of the ball.

“That’s an amazing stat just to have that,” Elks quarterback Cody Fajardo said of the unusual stat. “He’s a guy who’s been on and off the roster all year. We’ve asked him to do a lot of things special team wise. Obviously, everyone wants to be a starting player and when you have to do that grunt work of the special team week after week it gets monotonous, but he’s put his head down.

“He’s a glue guy for this team.”

The six-foot-seven wide receiver from Tampa, Fla., who also plays on special teams, said after practice this week that he wants to play a bigger role for the Elks but is willing to do whatever he can to help the team win.

“I wanted to have more of an impact on offence throughout the year, but I mean, at the end of the day, I don’t just play receiver, I’m a football player. So any way I can help the team I’m going to do it.”

What he did in Hamilton was intercepti a pass thrown on a fake punt by the Tiger-Cats and take it to the end zone to give the Elks a 21-6 lead.

“I never thought I’d ever get a pick-six in pro football, or even any level since I haven’t played defence since high school,” Mathis said. “So definitely unexpected, but probably one of the most fun plays I’ve ever made because running down the sideline into the end zone really fired me up. It was awesome.”

Mathis has six catches for 90 yards and one touchdown, coming in a Week 15 win over the Calgary Stampeders, in limited playing time.

He will be in his backup wide receiver role Friday evening when the 12-4 Elks entertain the 8-8 Winnipeg Blue Bombers. An Edmonton win will clinch top spot in the West and give the Elks a bye into the division final.

Winnipeg is in a battle for third place in the West with the 8-8 Saskatchewan Roughriders and the 8-9 Stampeders. But a win over the Elks would assure the Bombers of at least fourth place and a crossover to take the East Division’s third playoff seed.

The Blue Bombers split the season series with the Roughriders and hold the tiebreaker with a better point differential over those two games. The Bombers also hold the tiebreaker over Calgary after winning the season series with the Stampeders.

“We’re treating this like a playoff game,” Fajardo said. “That is exactly what we want, a playoff game here in front of our fans versus a team that’s fighting for the playoffs.

“I’ve been telling the guys this week, this is almost like two games because if we find a way to win this game we guarantee ourselves that bye, so essentially you’re winning the West semifinal.”

The Elks are looking for a third straight win over Winnipeg, having beaten the Bombers 23-18 in Week 4 and 22-18 in Week 12.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 15, 2026.

John Korobanik, The Canadian Press