Canadian St-Juste on cusp of NFL dream after whirlwind journey

Benjamin St-Juste leaned into a three-point stance as he got set to run the shuttle drill, talent evaluators scrutinizing his every move. With the 2021 NFL Draft just weeks away, the University of Minnesota Pro Day was the final chance for the Montreal native to showcase his talent.

In the face of that pressure, the 23-year-old defensive back didn’t disappoint, blazing through the drill meant to test his lateral agility and explosiveness. Even with a slight stumble, St-Juste posted a time of 3.96 seconds, faster than any player at last year’s NFL Combine.

Show me another DB at 6’3 200+ with a 3.96 shuttle and a 6.63 L drill https://t.co/xFqy0gbiLr

— Benjamin St-Juste (@Benj_Juice) April 1, 2021

That impressive performance back on April 1 was one of the last steps on St-Juste’s road to the NFL, but the journey that’s brought him to the doorstep of a pro football career wasn’t always a smooth one. In fact, it was a journey nearly cut short by injury. But now, two years after being advised to medically retire from the sport, St-Juste is on the cusp of joining football’s elite by being selected in the NFL Draft.

St-Juste’s love for football came from his father Wilbert, who played safety for the University of Miami in 1989. Growing up in Quebec, football was always important to Benjamin, and he aspired to play at the Div. I level like his dad. At 16, he left high school to attend Cégep du Vieux Montréal, a public college that teaches pre-university and trade classes, and join the school’s football team — the Spartans — with aspirations of becoming the type of a player who would get noticed by major American college programs.

The development into a Div. I-type player didn’t come easy to St-Juste, though. He arrived at Cégep du Vieux Montréal still quite young, and needed to learn from the bench in his first year as a Spartan. He was also cut from Quebec’s Football Canada Cup team after attending a selection camp in the summer of 2014.

[relatedlinks]

Those initial roadblocks were eye-opening for St-Juste, who quickly realized the hard work necessary to become a high-level player. He possessed rare physical gifts and athletic ability, but was raw in terms of how he played his position and needed to mold himself into a great defensive back.

“Ben was always blessed, but I always told him, ‘Don’t surf on your blessings, on your talent. You’ve got to put in more effort,’” Wilbert said.

St-Juste heeded his father’s advice. And when he came for his second season with a more focused work ethic, it was evident to both his parents and the Cégep du Vieux Montréal coaching staff.

“That fuelled him to where he is now,” said Renaldo Sagesse, head coach at Cégep du Vieux Montréal.

Sagesse remembers being in awe of St-Juste’s talent as soon as he joined the Spartans — “Just by his size alone, you were impressed by him” — but what he was more impressed by was St-Juste’s increasing commitment to develop the movements, alignments and discipline key to playing his position.

As his on-field performance improved, St-Juste and his family began dedicating their time to showcasing his talent at U.S. recruiting camps like Nike’s The Opening and Rivals Camp Series. All the hard work and long drives paid off when he earned a full scholarship offer from the University of Michigan, one of football’s elite programs.

“One of the only kids in Canada to have an offer from Michigan,” St-Juste said of the accomplishment. “Like, I knew I had something special.”

's Benjamin St-Juste (@Benj_Juice) is always happy to help the next generation of football players back home. pic.twitter.com/fjmOuUDSD5

— NFL Canada (@NFLCanada) April 22, 2021

In 2017, St-Juste moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to kick off his NCAA football career with the Wolverines, but it barely had the chance to get off the ground. St-Juste appeared in 12 games as a true freshman at Michigan, but his snaps came almost exclusively on special teams. He then suffered a hamstring injury in the spring of 2018 that kept him off the field for his entire sophomore year.

Away from the football field, St-Juste worked his way back to health and felt like he was ready to return to the Wolverines in 2019. However, the program didn’t see it that way. Michigan was unsure about St-Juste’s health going forward, and doctors wouldn’t clear him to play, advising him instead to medically retire from football.

But St-Juste wasn’t ready to give up his football dream just yet. With his scholarship spot at Michigan in peril, he resolved to transfer to a program that believed in his ability to contribute on the field following the injury.

“Sometimes you need a fresh start,” St-Juste said. “You need a new environment with different people that can really get the best out of you. I think that was the situation I was in when I transferred to Minnesota.”

Minnesota — Michigan’s Big Ten rival — was one of the first schools to contact St-Juste when he entered the grad transfer portal in 2019. After clearing him medically, the university’s football program saw a player who could be a Day 1 starting cornerback for its defence, the exact opportunity that St-Juste had been waiting for.

Just grateful that I'm still playing football with a great team… cause a year ago they was telling me to retire from the sport

— Benjamin St-Juste (@Benj_Juice) August 5, 2019

St-Juste became an integral part of the Golden Gophers secondary over his two seasons in Minnesota. At six-foot-three and more than 200 pounds, his size helped him unsettle receivers at the line of scrimmage in man coverage, while his extensive wingspan meant he could cover a wide radius in zone coverage, creating narrow throwing windows for opposing quarterbacks. St-Juste flourished in pass coverage, and his 10 pass breakups in 2019 tied for third-most in the Big Ten.

With his size also came the expectation that St-Juste could be a force in stopping outside run plays, and he lived up to it. He regularly came up big against the run, racking up 45 total tackles in 10 games during that 2019 season.

“I have to show up consistently in the run game. So I take pride in not letting any receiver block me,” St-Juste said. “I want to show that I’m versatile and that I’m a complete defensive back.”

St-Juste’s 2020 season was shortened by a positive COVID test, limiting his total number of starts at Minnesota to 15. But in those games he showed the type of cornerback he could be by taking advantage of his height, length and frame. His mobility at his size is what truly sets St-Juste apart, as he showed at his pro day, and what will entice pro scouts.

“All I needed was an opportunity to showcase all that stuff. That’s the same thing I’m going to do when I get to the NFL because I feel like I didn’t reach my full potential [in college]. I have more opportunities in front of me to be even better than that,” St-Juste said.

It’s because of that potential St-Juste is expected to be drafted this week. As it stands, he’s projected to be selected in the middle rounds — although St-Juste is confident he’d be worth a higher selection.

“I may not have the same amount of film and all that stuff and mock draft [rankings] as the other guys, but I always felt that I had first-round talent,” St-Juste said.

Though his journey from Montreal through college football didn’t play out as he expected, the destination remains the same as it always has been for Benjamin St-Juste: the NFL. This weekend, he’ll finally arrive.