Why Cameron Wake is a legend to the sport of football
By: Jeremy Trottier
Cameron Wake had one of the more impressive careers in the NFL for a pass rusher, and certainly had an interesting story on how he got to the league. Wake spent 10 seasons in the NFL, and another 2 in the CFL, which is how he made his way up the ranks. Cameron started off as an undrafted free agent out of Penn State, which led him to be signed to the New York Giants practice squad prior to being cut. This led him to move onto a short-lived career with the BC Lions of the CFL, where he would accrue 39 sacks in 2 seasons and won the Most Outstanding Defensive Player both of the two seasons he spent there. In 2007, he had a total of 23 sacks for BC, as well as 5 forced fumbled and 3 fumble recoveries, 1 for a touchdown.
The Miami Dolphins would take a shot on Wake, signing him for the 2009 season, which spurred a career that essentially no one saw coming. He would go on to make the pro bowl in 5 of the next 7 seasons (2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016) as well as making the second team all-pro 3 times, first-team all pro once, and a heap of other records that he went for. He is second all-time in Dolphins franchise history for sacks with the team (98) and is second all-time in sacks by a UDFA at 100.5.
Wake’s best season in the NFL came when he got moved to outside linebacker (2012), as he would have 53 tackles and 15 sacks that year. While Wake was most notorious as a Dolphin, and will primarily be remembered as one, his 100th sack came for the Tennessee Titans in 2019 against the Cleveland Browns, where he sacked Baker Mayfield 2.5 times and pushed himself to his final total of 100.5 sacks on a career. Unfortunately, Wake’s last season was cut short after 9 games where he would be placed on IR and then cut. Regardless, Cameron Wake is up in the list of undrafted free agents to make the league and thrive, and truly changed the game for the better by proving CFL players/players outside the NFL can still be elite when transferring.
