Choice rewards

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This article was published 25/03/2017 (3154 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

REGINA — In a perfect world, the CFL National Combine, the final of a number of festivities held as part of the inaugural CFL Week in the Queen City, should have provided Winnipeg Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Waters with some clarity.

Instead, Walters (whose Bombers have the first- and sixth-overall picks in this year’s CFL Draft) said after watching 55 of the country’s top football prospects compete in drills Friday and Saturday, deciding who he might pick has only become that much more difficult.

“It felt good at lunch. We went to Dairy Queen. We’re having Blizzards and Peanut-Buster Parfaits… we had it all figured out and we were going to go home,” said Walters. “And then we come back this afternoon and it’s like, ‘Huh… we’ve got more work to do.’

“It would have been really nice to say, ‘Yes. Here’s what we’re doing. All’s well and good. I’ve got a great plan.’ Now the plan from lunch time is muddied. So, more work.”

The next step for the Bombers GM is to head home and watch more film — a process that will include discussions with head coach Mike O’Shea and his staff. The team has already graded every player at the combine — plus a number of others that weren’t invited to compete on the weekend — and they’ll now adjust those marks accordingly.

“You just trust the process,” said Walters. “You go through the grading process and this is just now a piece of it.”

Picking first overall has its share of benefits, including the guarantee Walters will get the guy he wants. However, with two selections in the top six, there’s also a chance the Bombers could trade one or both of the picks.

At this point, Walters said, he hasn’t heard from any team looking to move up in the draft. It’s still too early for that, with phone calls likely to ramp up in the days leading up to the May 7 draft.

“So many differing opinions, some teams may want to move up,” said the Bombers GM. “(It) will be difficult to predict what teams are going to do because there is so much parity with the top 20 players.”

As is often the case in the CFL draft, the first-overall pick is used on the best offensive lineman. If so, the Bombers will get to choose the pick of the litter, which includes Mason Woods (University of Idaho) and Dariusz Bladek (Bethune-Cookman), who made the trek to Regina this week.

Two other top O-linemen — Justin Senior (Mississippi State) and Geoff Gray (Manitoba), ranked first and fifth, respectively, by the CFL Scouting Bureau — are also up for grabs. Both Gray and Senior are pursuing interest from the NFL and neither attended the combine.

Also missing for the same reason was Laval tight end Antony Auclair, who is ranked second, and Eli Ankou, a defensive lineman out of UCLA who is ranked third.

“You’ll trust their pro-day numbers, which are very similar to this,” said Walters. “We’ll make sure we get them up to Winnipeg and put them through personal workouts closer to the draft, assuming they’re interested in doing that sort of stuff.”

Although Walters isn’t sure who he’ll take No. 1, he is sure of one thing: the Blue Bombers will get a pair of quality players in the first round.

“It’s a really nice position to be in, having those two picks in the top six. It’s exciting,” he said. “It puts a little pressure on you, which is not a bad thing.

“We’ve got a chance to add two first-round-talent players to our roster and continue to add depth and talent to our overall Canadian content which, as we all know, is paramount to success.”

jeff.hamilton@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @jeffkhamilton