Jackpot: Tyreik McAllister goes from Division II to CFL to hitting it big in Vegas (2024)

HENDERSON, Nev. -- Ameer Abdullah, a core special teams player and backup running back for the Las Vegas Raiders, spent the offseason writing his first feature film script.

He's in the third act of the 99-page screenplay, so the question must be asked: What's it about?

Abdullah smiled.

"I'm not going to share that right now," he said, lest someone steal the concept, right?

A real-world idea, then, for a treatment that Hollywood just might jump at: Football player from a small town in South Carolina has to go the Division II route as a receiver before switching positions to running back and going undrafted. Player pops on and off NFL practice squads before heeding agent's advice to head north to play in the Canadian Football League, where the field is wider and longer and has more players on the field. Player leads the league in all-purpose yards and gets a looksie by the Raiders. Player switches positions again, back to receiver, excels in the offseason as a pass catcher and punt returner and has an eye-popping performance in the team's final preseason game. Player impresses enough to be signed to Las Vegas' initial 53-man roster.

And ... scene.

Of course, the better-than-fiction yarn needs a star, and who better than CFL refugee-turned-Raiders feel-good story Tyreik McAllister?

Consider: McAllister forced his way onto Las Vegas' roster with that preseason finale performance. Not only did McAllister author a breathtaking 81-yard punt return for a touchdown in the Raiders' 24-24 tie with the San Francisco 49ers, he added an acrobatic 35-yard catch-and-run TD, two kickoffs for a combined 57 yards and also drew a key penalty on special teams.

All in a day's work for a star of the Raiders' preseason. And yet ...

Don't register McAllister for his SAG card just yet, let alone pencil him in on the Raiders' active roster for their season opener at the Los Angeles Chargers. His is a story in progress, yet one worth telling at the end of a long, arduous offseason.

"McAllister's role on offense is still to be determined," Raiders coach Antonio Pierce said. "But we know what he can do."

Enter general manager Tom Telesco.

"As a returner, you have to have some athletic ability, quickness and speed," Telesco said. "But you also have to have some feel and instincts to it, and I think he has that. You either have that or you don't."

It was something assistant GM Champ Kelly saw when he signed McAllister to a reserve-futures contract on Jan. 16, eight days before Telesco was hired.

The fact McAllister led the CFL in kickoff return average (25.3) and all-purpose yards (2,463, more than 800 ahead of his closest competitor) for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2023, after spending part of the 2022 season on the Denver Broncos' practice squad, opened the door.

He caught the attention of Abdullah the first time he fielded a punt in practice.

"His feet [were moving] kind of like the Road Runner," Abdullah said of the speedy, old-school cartoon character.

"I was like, 'Man, that dude could spin.' And to see it in live action, it just shows that it translates, and I think the world of him."

Beep Beep! indeed.

Yet despite his offseason transition from running back to receiver and his showing out in the preseason, McAllister was no lock to make the roster.

And Telesco traditionally has talks with cut players only on their way out the door. "Actually, I didn't find out until I got to the building [on cut-down day]," McAllister said. "I was waiting ... but I never got a call or a text from anyone. I knew we had a meeting ... so I'm like, 'Man, let me just go to the building, see what's going on.'

"I got here, and I was here."

McAllister, 26, was one of six receivers on the Raiders' initial 53-man roster, along with three-time first-team All-Pro Davante Adams, rising star Jakobi Meyers, speedster Tre Tucker, special teams ace DJ Turner and undrafted rookie Ramel Keyton.

None, though, ran such a zigzag route to the NFL as traversed by McAllister, who played his Division II ball at Charleston.

"Probably the most important decision I made in my life was to go to Canada because ... when I was in Denver, I didn't get to play in the preseason, so it was tough for teams to really evaluate me knowing I hadn't played, and just going off my college film," McAllister said. "So making that move, it was difficult, but I feel like it was the best decision I ever made in my life."

Asked what other NFL teams missed on him, McAllister shrugged.

"I just come in and I do my job every day," he said. "I try to get better every day and I don't worry about what other teams think. I just worry about the team that I'm playing for and how I can get better and make them better every day."

McAllister grew up in Latta, South Carolina, which had a population of 1,379 in the 2010 census. Another point to pitch in a script, no?

"One thing I love about the NFL is every year there's a story," Abdullah said. "Tyreik's been a sponge, and he knew it was going to be a big challenge for him to make this team, especially moving from running back to receiver ... and there wasn't any babying for him.

"To see him answer the call and make some huge plays for us the other night, it's just one of those stories, again, that you just look back and you're just like, 'Wow, I love the game of football because of it.'"

The end?