Inside The Huskies

Tuputala Heads To Canada Looking for Pro Football Breakthrough

The Husky linebacker faces a big challenge to earn a Saskatchewan roster spot.
Dan Raley|
An ominous looking Alphonzo Tuputala stares down Penn State QB Drew Allar.
An ominous looking Alphonzo Tuputala stares down Penn State QB Drew Allar. | Skylar Lin Visuals

Linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala, who's never had anything handed to him on the football field, signed with the CFL's Saskatchewan Roughriders this week to become a member of that franchise's expanded practice squad.

The former University of Washington linebacker joins a Canadian team that a year ago added his one-time Husky teammate in edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui in the same practice squad capacity and then released him less than a month later.

CFL teams operate with 45-man game-day rosters that permit only 20 Americans to be active, or less than half. These franchises typically carry 10-15 players on a practice squad and can add five more in an expanded mode for up to a month, with Tuputala fitting into the latter category.

Alphonzo Tuputala and Zach Durfee celebrate a defensive stop.
Alphonzo Tuputala and Zach Durfee celebrate a defensive stop. | Skylar Lin Visuals

The 6-foot-2, 230-pound defender from Federal Way, Washington, was a three-year starter for the Huskies, opening 40 games during his six-year stay in Montlake, and he went undrafted in April.

This past summer, his hometown Seattle Seahawks invited Tuputala to rookie mini-camp, signed him to a free-agent contract and released him.

Tuputala is a tough-minded player with average quickness who piled up 234 tackles for the Huskies, including 13.5 tackles for loss, 8 sacks, 3 pass break-ups and a fumble recovery.

He also had a 76-yard interception return in a 35-28 win over Utah in 2023 that ended up as a fumble after he dropped the ball on the 1-yard line thinking he was in the end zone.

Alphonzo Tuputala lines up on the UW edge besides playing linebacker.
Alphonzo Tuputala lines up on the UW edge besides playing linebacker. | Skylar Lin Visuals

He was an All-Pac-12 honorable mention selection in 2022 following his first season as a UW starter for Kalen DeBoer's coaching staff. In 2023, he opened14 of 15 games for the Huskies in their run to the CFP national championship game.

He came in as the least heralded of four linebacker recruits in his 2019 class -- along with Miki Ah You, Daniel Heimuli and Josh Calvert -- and he was the only one who stuck with the Huskies and used all of his eligibility.

Tuputala beat out teammate Carson Bruener for a starting linebacker job in both seasons the DeBoer coaches were in place before the veteran defenders started side by side in 2024 for Jedd Fisch's staff.

Bruener became the only player from that UW team who was drafted, going as a seventh-rounder, and he subsequently earned a roster spot with the Pittsburgh Steelers, his father Mark's former NFL team.

Tuputala has a challenging situation to become a pro football player, especially by starting out on the expanded practice list, which is a temporary assignment.

Tupuola-Fetui went this route, didn't stick and appears to be out of football. He was was a recent visitor to a Husky home game.

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Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

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