The starting quarterback for the Saskatchewan Roughriders of the CFL, and a player whose last pass attempt in the United States came four years ago, Burris glanced at the surroundings and his eyes opened wide. Accustomed to playing on a surface 10 yards longer and nearly a dozen yards wider than an NFL field, and where a standard 12-yard "out" pattern might have to travel as much as 50 yards in the air, Burris suddenly wasn't as daunted by the task ahead of him.

Calgary QB Dave Dickenson has tried out for five NFL teams during the last six weeks.

"The first thing I noticed," Burris told SportsLine.com late last week, "is that I could actually see both sidelines. And when I looked down the field, the end zone didn't appear as if it was maybe in the next county or something. I mean, it all seemed so close, you know? All within my reach."

Off the field, even more so than on it, Burris is indeed much closer to fulfilling his aspiration of playing in the NFL.

At a time when the dearth of skilled quarterbacks in the college ranks dictates NFL teams seek out alternative sources of talent -- and the success of former NFL Europe, Arena League and CFL passers validate the notion that the old model for scouting is outmoded -- Burris is one of the two Canadian starters getting a lot of southern exposure from league personnel directors and coaches.

It is not inconceivable that, by the end of this month, Burris and Calgary Stampeders standout Dave Dickenson will have signed contracts with NFL teams. Named as the CFL's most valuable player for the 2000 season, Dickenson has worked out for five NFL teams in the last six weeks. Burris has auditioned for half the teams in the league and acknowledged last week that his arm "feels like Nolan Ryan's arm might have in the bottom of the ninth."

The interest in both quarterbacks -- Dickenson already is assured at least one contract offer and several teams figure to bid on Burris -- is reflective of a period in which NFL franchises seem to have collectively realized that the identity of their future starting quarterback might result from an openness to the present lack of convention in talent evaluation.

Seventeen years ago, when the Houston Oilers signed Warren Moon after he had torched CFL secondaries for six seasons and twice posted 5,000-yard campaigns, the move still was regarded as a gamble. But Moon eventually begat Doug Flutie who begat Jeff Garcia and, combined with the MVP performance of Kurt Warner in 1999, even some purist scouts who previously might never have popped anything but an NFL videocassette into the tape player, had to take notice.

"If you don't go 'outside the box' now to look for (quarterbacks), then you're kind of cheating yourself and your team," said Miami Dolphins vice president of player personnel Rick Spielman. "The way things are you have to look at all the options."

Thus all the airline travel tags slapped on the sides of Burris' and Dickenson's baggage over the last two months as they embarked on their respective audition tours.

Depending on who you talk to, Dickenson and Burris might be good enough within a year to be dependable NFL backups. At worst, both are probably better than all but a select few of the No. 3 quarterbacks on league rosters.

Said the personnel chief for one AFC team which recently worked out Burris, a former Temple star who went undrafted in 1997 despite setting 20 school records: "We're desperate for a young, developmental-type guy, OK? We're not going to get any in free agency. We could draft one in the later rounds, but here's a guy in Burris who already has game experience at a level higher than some college kid. Why not look at him?"

There are, of course, strengths and weaknesses with both of the CFL quarterbacks.

Dickenson, 28, lacks the raw arm strength of Burris but clearly is the more polished of the two. An incredibly accurate "touch" passer who reads secondaries well, and knows where to go with the ball, his brainy play is in part a by-product of the 3.84 grade point average he achieved as a molecular biology major at the University of Montana.

"I don't know if that helps as a player," Dickenson said, "but it doesn't hurt."

He threw for 4,636 yards in 2000 and had 36 touchdown passes and just six interceptions in 493 attempts. But Dickenson, who has won MVP honors at every level he's played -- including the Walter Payton Award as the outstanding player in I-AA ranks in 1995 -- isn't as athletic or as mobile as Burris. And his height, just under 6-feet, is a concern to some scouts.

"Still, the guy is intriguing, because he gets the ball to the right person all the time and you can see he knows the game," said Tampa Bay personnel director Jerry Angelo, whose team worked out Dickenson earlier this month. "He's definitely getting some buzz in the league."

At 25, Burris is three years younger than Dickenson, and also about 1½ inches taller. He is a better scrambler, able to improvise on the move, and according to virtually every scout who has watched him throw, possesses a bazooka for an arm. Burris served two seasons as a backup for Garcia then blossomed as a starter in 2000, throwing for 4,647 yards. One stat that demonstrates he is still a work in progress: His 30 touchdown passes were nearly offset by 25 interceptions.

Said Spielman: "He was amazing at the workout for us, definitely one of the strongest arms I've ever seen. He stood and threw the ball 75 yards, basically flatfooted, after a workout where he probably already had 50 throws before that. He's got to develop more touch, though, no doubt about that. He was torturing the receivers to the point where we thought we might have to put those guys in some hockey gear. I'm not going to say he could develop into a starter, because it's a different game here and he has a ways to go. But there is no denying his throwing ability."

Rumor has it that two old AFC West rivals, the Oakland Raiders and Kansas City Chiefs, might battle for Burris' services. Some feel Dickenson will wind up with another franchise in the same division, San Diego, where his brother is a member of the Chargers' front office.

There are, however, two significant caveats that must be overcome by the players and also the teams interested in signing them.

First, the agreement between the NFL and the CFL stipulates that the players must be signed to NFL contracts by the end of this month. If not, then the contracts of the players, both of whom are entering option years on their deals, revert back to their current CFL teams.

Second, because neither Dickenson nor Burris have ever participated before in an NFL training camp, their contracts would count against a club's rookie pool. The rookie pool, in essence, is a cap within the salary cap. It represents the maximum amount of cap space that a team can spend on rookies and varies by club, according to how many draft picks the team has and where those selections are made. Teams must also count any signing bonuses paid to undrafted rookies against their cap.

So if a team signed Burris to a one-year contract and awarded him a signing bonus of $25,000, that upfront money would be docked from its rookie pool. Agents for both players, and all of the teams involved in recruiting them, agree the rookie pool rule is a hurdle.

Ken Staninger, who represents Dickenson, has reiterated that his client will return to Calgary if he does not receive a suitable offer from an NFL club. It is believed that Dickenson ranks among the highest paid players in the CFL and the NFL rookie minimum salary is $212,000. Cliff Stein, the agent for Burris, all but assured his quarterback will be in an NFL training camp for 2001. That is why he scheduled Burris' workouts to end last week.

"We have until the end of the month, but we'll take the next week to seriously sort out all the teams, then we want to move as quickly as we can," Stein said. "Henry wants to get into a team's offseason workout program, have a handle on things going into minicamps, get to know the city and the people where he's going to play. We know the rookie pool thing is a factor, but we will work with a team to make it doable. I have no doubts Henry will be in the NFL this year."

Merely signing a contract and being afforded the opportunity denied him when he departed the college game would mean a lot to Burris, whose family has seen him play just five times in the last four seasons. In his tiny hometown of Spiro, Okla., few of the 2,500 residents have cable TV and Burris joked that everyone tries to illegally tap into the system that runs buried beneath the city's main street.

"When I sign in the NFL," he said, "everyone will be able to watch me. It really will be like a dream come true, not just for me, but for my folks, too. I'm a big believer that it doesn't matter where you start but more where you finish. Being out of the NFL, every time I come home, all my friends ask, 'Henry, when (are) we going to get to see you play?'

"Well, that time is getting closer and, just having been away from it for four years, I think that makes me appreciate the opportunity that much more."