Chris Jones has been at CFL combines and evaluation camps for more than a decade now.
In that time, Jones has seen the participants improve immeasurably — not to mention the events themselves.
“I remember my first year (in the CFL) in 2002; I had come from Alabama and had been around some really good football,” the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ vice-president of football operations, general manager and head coach said Saturday during a break at the CFL’s national combine at the Credit Union EventPlex.
“I was shocked at how unprepared (the players attending the 2002 combine) were at that point and, quite honestly, the emphasis that we as a league put on the combine and the numbers that we got. We’ve come so far as a league, not only with that but (with) the presentation, the TV, the coverage — and the kids have really responded by coming prepared.
“You don’t see a lot of guys getting single digits on the bench press and things of that nature that used to be the case.”
Jones and his colleagues from around the league have spent the past three days watching players who are hoping to land jobs in the CFL.
The league held a western regional combine on Thursday, after which five players were selected to advance to the national combine. That event ran Thursday, Friday and Saturday at Evraz Place.
Players went through interviews with interested teams Thursday and Friday — Jones said those chats are his favourite part of the combine — and did testing (vertical and broad jumps, 225-pound bench press, 40-yard dash, three-cone drill and shuttle run) on Friday and Saturday.
The slate Saturday also included positional drills and one-on-ones, all conducted under the watchful eyes of scouts and player personnel types.
Obviously, the combine can affect a player’s standing for the May 7 CFL draft.
“They can probably move up a round or two, especially if they run well and then show good in the one-on-ones,” Jones said before watching the one-on-ones. “If they do both those things, then they’re going to move up the boards.”
The Roughriders currently hold the second pick overall in the draft, behind the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Bombers’ selection may change the Roughriders’ plans on draft day, but Jones said there’s “redundancy” at virtually every position that will leave Saskatchewan with a quality player at No. 2.
Teams have their draft boards set, but the combine likely will result in some changes.
“We’ve already got who we feel like are the top five guys at every position or top 10 guys at every position,” Jones said. “What’ll happen is some guys will move up and down based off what we see today in the one-on-ones.
“You do have to be able to play in a team setting but you also have to be able to win your one-on-one battles.”
Jones has a reputation for moving players to different positions after signing them — for example, safety/linebacker Kevin Francis was a receiver in college before the Roughriders selected him in the 2016 supplemental draft — and Jones saw a couple of similar projects in the players who were on hand this week.
A prospect’s ability and willingness to move may very well have been addressed when the Roughriders did their homework on every hopeful.
Jones and his staff phoned players’ position coaches, strength coaches and head coaches to try to get a handle on each prospect’s work ethic, injury history and personality.
Getting those questions answered may have been more important in the cases of players who didn’t attend the combine. Of the top eight players on the CFL Scouting Bureau’s December rankings, six didn’t attend the combine.
“The more information you can gather about somebody, the more that you know, and the more that you know, (the better chance) you can make educated decisions,” Jones said. “We’ve got to make sure that we get the video from (the absent players’) pro days and have people at the pro days to try to evaluate the difference between them and the kids that we have here.”
