Destin Talbert may not be as audaciously vocal as many pro football players but he doesn’t have to be. His game results do the talking for him.
The Ticats’ 26-year-old boundary-side halfback plays one of the toughest defensive positions—many insiders still consider it a defence’s most challenging spot—in the CFL, but he doesn’t get anywhere near the credit that he deserves. Underrated by the general football public? Without doubt.
The short side of the Hamilton secondary returns intact from last season when All-CFL safety Stavros Katsantonis and shutdown cornerback Jamal Peters flanked Talbert in a formidable wall of coverage and aggression that repeatedly forced quarterbacks to quickly search elsewhere for an opening.
The Cats were second in passes knocked down with 72, just one behind CFL-leading Winnipeg. About 17 per cent of those were recorded by Talbert, who had a dozen, runner-up in the entire league to the incomparable Hall of Fame-bound defensive end Willie Jefferson.
Often, pass interference calls ride shotgun for a defensive back with a lot of pass knockdowns, a bit akin to how strikeouts are often the price of doing business for prolific home run hitters.
But, says Talbert, who’s entering his third season in Black & Gold, “I think I have one career PI right now. I’m just trying to play it true, play it honest. I’m not looking to grab, I’m not looking to cheat. I’m looking to win, one-on-one, eye-to-eye, man to man.” Over his two Ticat seasons he’s tallied 22 passes broken up (PBUs), five interceptions, a touchdown on a fumble return and 113 tackles, while playing all 18 games both years.
His goal in Year No. 3 “is more of the same with more interceptions; I’m looking to convert more of those tips into picks. It feels good to get the PBUs and I feel like I’m locking down my side but I want more of those takeaways and those plays that stick out.”
Talbert was a receiver when he played high school in Darien, Illinois, where he’d moved as a 10-year-old from Lexington, Ky. He still holds the school single-game and career records for touchdowns and receiving yardage, and says a receiver’s ball-catching instincts can help a defensive back.
“I’d say so,” he says. “In college, once you transition to the secondary and get more confidence you remember, ‘Hey, why am I not just going and catching the ball, like I did in high school?'” You switch to DB and you think about knocking the ball down and not letting the receiver catch it, but eventually once the ball’s in the air and you have a chance to make a play you remember your roots as a receiver and you’ll get it.”
Talbert went from Illinois to five years at North Dakota State, a powerhouse in the NCAA’s Football Championship Subdivision, and won three national titles. He is the author of one of the most iconic moments in North Dakota State history when late in the 2021 national semifinal against James Madison, his team up by six points, he fended off a tall receiver to his outside with a basketball-like arm extension and leapt high to snare the jump ball with one hand and sent the Bisons into the final, which they won.
The video of that improbable one-handed Kenny-Lawler-ish catch is plastered all over YouTube.
“It’s still a blur,” Talbert says. “I remember more from the video than from the actual experience. I’ve seen the video over and over. It was the most exciting play of my life. The game was winding down, and I remember the defensive call we were in. I was hoping the quarterback would throw it my way. As soon as he threw it up in the air, it was my turn to make a play….just like I do up here now.
“The quarterback looked the other way, then locked in on my guy and I leapt up and caught it. I kind of just fell down and was shocked on the ground for a minute. Then I got up and started screaming and yelling and the crowd was going crazy. It was a heck of an experience.”
Talbert went undrafted by the NFL, New Orleans Saints, then was chosen by the Seattle Sea Dragons of the XFL in the 2023 rookie draft. But when the XFL and USFL merged into the new United Football League before the season started, the Sea Dragons weren’t included in the new loop.
So he signed with the Ticats in January of 2024, and made the team with what head coach Scott Milanovich described today as one of those day-after-day emergences that all clubs are hoping to find at training camp. That first season he had a great game against Ottawa with a couple of interceptions and a pair of knockdowns, although he says, “I’m sure I’ve had games that were more complete where I felt I was just on and they couldn’t throw it my way but I didn’t get the same opportunities.”
The even-keeled Talbert usually has a wide smile on his face and he’s very talkative among his defensive back cohorts but says becoming more of a vocal leader is “still a work in progress.”
“I still get that comment that I’m quiet. I’ve talked to my DB group about that: I’m much more of a talker than I was coming out of Lexington or going through high school in Darien. I never talked much at all then. I’d have my headphones on and I’m not going to say too much to you.
“But then later in college, by my third year or so, I started to have to have a leadership role (he was a team captain as a senior). And guys were looking up to me for advice, and what to do on certain plays.
“More and more I’ve come out of my shell. I’m still not extroverted but I’m definitely approachable. It’s still something I’m working on day-to-day but I’m a lot more talkative than I was a few years ago.
“But it’s a label that sticks with me. I talk a lot around the DBs, but I’ll hear someone say, ‘DT never talks’ and I’m like, ‘Me? I thought was talking a lot this year.'”
If enough of those tips do turn into picks, he won’t need to talk; everybody will hear him.
