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Alfieri’s Day 16 Training Camp notebook: Fajardo hitting his stride, Ento’s move to corner

We’re officially into the home stretch of training camp. There is less than one week left until it wraps up this weekend. Camp will conclude after Friday night’s game when the Alouettes host the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at Percival Molson Stadium.

Many key veterans, including quarterback Cody Fajardo, were back on the field after a few days off. Fajardo didn’t make the trip to Ottawa, but he watched the game on television.

“It’s tough, especially when you watch the team play and you feel like you’re not part of the team when you’re not there,” the Alouettes starting quarterback said. “It was an exciting win. One thing I stressed to the young guys was that it’s the first time we’re going to put this new Alouettes brand on tape. They made a lot of us veterans proud by fighting until the end. That’s what happens in the CFL. It always comes down to the last three minutes. Things were a little slow to start which is to be expected in a preseason game. For me, it was a mini-bye week. There were some nerves, like I’m starting camp over again.”

Fajardo, who looks completely healthy, is coming off a knee injury that limited his mobility when he was with the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2022.  The extra time off likely helped the 31-year-old recharge his batteries heading into the final week of camp.

“I feel like I have finally hit my stride in these last couple of practices,” he added. “Going into my first preseason game, I’m just excited to get out there with live bullets again, get hit again. That’s the hardest thing about camp as a quarterback is that sometimes you get throws off that you normally wouldn’t in a game. Our guys up front have done a tremendous job against our defensive line that gets after the quarterback.”

Ento moves from receiver to cornerback:

Kabion Ento made a difficult transition when he left the University of Colorado to sign with the Green Bay Packers.

The former wide receiver played a little bit of defensive back when he was back in high school in his hometown of Pine Bluff, Arkansas. But he was used as a receiver at the college level with East Central College (Mississippi) and Colorado.

During the pre-draft process, scouts from across the NFL were vocal about their desire to see Ento make a full-time move to cornerback, so that’s what he did. The 27-year-old has good length, and he showed some physicality on special teams, which is likely why scouts felt he was a good fit to play in the secondary.

“I got comfortable playing corner shortly into the transition during my first camp with the Packers,” Ento, who spent three full years in Green Bay between 2019 and 2022, said. “We were doing joint practices with the Houston Texans, and I had a pretty good joint practice. That was one of the first moments where I believed I could actually do this.”

During his time in the NFL, he got to line up against one of the best receivers in the game, Davante Adams, who was a teammate of his.

“If he’s not the best in the league, he’s one of the best in the league, and he’ll tell you every day,” Ento admitted. “He says that if you step in front of him, he’s going to give you everything he’s got, and I got that and I appreciate that because it has made me into the player I am today. I respect him, and I love everything he did for the game and for me.”

He didn’t play football in 2022 after he was released by the Packers in training camp. When the Alouettes called last winter, he jumped on the opportunity to come to the CFL.  The Canadian game is different than what Ento is used to, but he has shown an ability to adapt in the past.

“It’s a new experience,” he said of his first camp with the Alouettes. “I thought being a defensive back was going to be a new experience. Coming to Canada and learning the new rules has been an experience too because there are so many more rules than I expected. Everything is new, but I feel like I’m adjusting well.”

Ento was solid during last Friday’s preseason victory over the Ottawa Redblacks. If he continues to play well, he could be in line for a spot on the active roster when training camp ends this weekend.