Ex-Washington State QB Luke Falk signs to play with Saskatchewan Roughriders

The next snaps of Luke Falk’s professional career will come in the Canadian Football League.

The former Washington State quarterback and Pac-12 Conference record-holder has agreed to a deal with the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders, the club announced Friday.

The Roughriders also released QB Justice Hansen on Friday. Falk will be one of six signal-callers on the Saskatchewan roster, along with Cody Fajardo (Nevada), Mason Fine (North Texas), Tom Flacco (Towson), James Franklin (Missouri) and Isaac Harker (Colorado School of Mines). Fajardo was the team’s most recent starter, throwing for 18 touchdowns and eight interceptions while completing 71% of his passes.

Although Falk had one NFL tryout, last summer for the San Francisco 49ers, the Logan, Utah, native has been effectively out of football since 2019, when he was released by the New York Jets.

Falk was claimed off waivers by the Jets in 2019 and had a string of positive performances in the NFL preseason. He ascended to the team’s starting QB job when Sam Darnold was away from the team with mononucleosis and after backup Trevor Siemian went down with an injury in Monday Night Football.

In three games, including two starts, Falk completed 47 of 73 passes for 416 yards, no touchdowns and three interceptions. He was also sacked 16 times during that span. The Jets waived Falk on Oct. 12, 2019, and he was reported to have filed a grievance against the club nearly a month later, claiming to have dealt with a hip injury before his final start against the Philadelphia Eagles despite New York not listing him on the team’s injury report.

Falk was selected in the sixth round of the 2018 NFL draft by the Tennessee Titans and played in every preseason game before being waived by the team in September. He was picked up by the Miami Dolphins the following day but was placed on the injured reserve approximately one month later before being cut on May 1, 2019.

As a four-year starter with the Cougars, Falk played in 42 games and set conference records for career passing attempts, completions, completion percentage, passing yards and passing touchdowns.