Trevor Reid is still only 25, but he’s already spent a full season as a starter at the most important position on one of the best offensive lines in the CFL. And that was a couple of seasons ago.
The massive—6-foot-5, 307 pounds—native of Griffin, Georgia returns to Canada and immediately becomes the leading contender to start at left tackle for the Tiger-Cats, who have moderately re-framed their offensive line.
“It was an opportunity I couldn’t turn down,” says Reid, who played for the Saskatchewan Roughriders in 2024, starting all 18 games for a unit that was among the CFL leaders in preventing sacks, then pursuing opportunities in the NFL and the United Football League in 2025 and early 2026.
“It’s a great coaching staff, the fans are great. It’s just a good city and a good environment.”
Reid went unselected in the 2023 NFL draft, after three strong seasons at the University of Louisville where he was meticulously tutored by Dwayne Ledford, now the Baltimore Ravens’ offensive line coach. In his 24 starts in college with the Cardinals he allowed only five sacks in 646 pass-blocking snaps.
He then spent time with the Philadelphia Eagles and Atlanta Falcons but was released from each before playing an NFL game and headed north to Saskatchewan for the 2024 season. He emerged from a multi-player competition at training camp as the starter for the entire season as the Riders reached the playoffs for the first time since 2021 and lost to Winnipeg in the West final.
He left Regina to sign a reserve/future contract with Minnesota of the NFL but was waived last April. Like many other young Americans, he waited to see what the new United Football League had in mind and was selected by the Dallas Renegades last month on the second day of the UFL draft.
“It was just starting and seemed a bit disorganized so I thought it was best to come back to the CFL and to Hamilton,” he told Ticats.ca. “And I like what I see in the offence here. Kenny [Lawler] and Bo [Levi Mitchell]?
Oh, man. And there’s a lot of depth and ability on the line.”
Which includes the presumptive starter at the other tackle, Quinton Barrow.
They were the two starting tackles for the East team in the 2023 East-West Shrine Bowl for college seniors and one of the quarterbacks they protected was Aidan O’Connell now with the Las Vegas Raiders.
“He’s a great guy and it’s going to be a great fit for me knowing that I have veteran guys I can look up to. I think I have the right tools to get adjusted.”
He says his game revolves around his athleticism “and being very physical.”
Reid grew up in the Atlanta suburb of Griffin, and is the nephew of Charlie Clemons, who played for the Blue Bombers from 1994-96, with a brief stop in Ottawa, before embarking on a seven-year NFL career that included a Super Bowl championship with the St. Louis Rams. It was on Clemons’ advice that Reid came to the CFL, following his college career.
His cousin Chris Clemons, Charlie’s son, spent 14 years as an NFL defensive end, also winning a Super Bowl in Seattle’s only championship prior to Sunday night.
“So it was right in front of you, with your family,” Reid said. “And it inspired me because they came from the same place as me. Growing up and seeing those guys, the houses and their cars, it always hit me that I can’t just be a regular guy, I have to work really hard for what I want.
“Those guys paved the way for me.”
He didn’t start playing organized football until his sophomore year of high school and while he had the motivation, latent talent and work ethic, he didn’t have the academic marks. So he enrolled at Georgia Military College.
“At high school I wasn’t a bad kid but I wasn’t a good kid and I think military school gave me the discipline and the character that I needed,” he explains. “And I wouldn’t change any of it for the world.”
He was named a first-team All-American, was ranked as the top tackle in all of U.S. JUCO football and was recruited to Louisville where Ledford said, “his athleticism is rare.”
The two were reunited for a while in the summer of 2023, when Reid was trying out for the Atlanta Falcons and Ledford was the line coach.
“He’s got all the physical tools,” Ledford said at the time. “So the more he becomes comfortable the better off he’s going to be.”
The Ticats’ sentiments, exactly.
