The Roughriders were willing to roll the dice

The Saskatchewan Roughriders were well aware before the CFL draft began that Dakoda Shepley has NFL aspirations.

That didn’t stop them from taking a player who they felt was the top offensive lineman in the draft class — even if they don’t see him for a while.

“If you let better guys go to other teams (in the draft), they’re going to get better and you’re going to keep struggling,” John Murphy, the Roughriders’ assistant vice-president of football operations and player personnel, said after the CFL draft concluded Thursday. “You have to take the best player available with the information that you have.

“We were speaking to his agent and speaking to the (New York) Jets within an hour of picking (Shepley) to know for sure what we thought and then you just make the best decision possible at that moment.

“To take a lesser player because you’re afraid that he may or may not show up, that’s just not good decision-making.”

The Roughriders used their first-round pick (fifth overall) to select Shepley, an offensive lineman from the UBC Thunderbirds.

But Shepley signed as a free agent with the NFL’s Jets shortly after that league completed its draft, so the Roughriders knew they were taking a risk when they picked the 6-foot-4, 306-pound product of Windsor, Ont.

They consider it a risk well worth taking.

“When you’re at No. 5, you’re looking at who’s the best pick for the team and who’s the best player,” said Jeremy O’Day, Saskatchewan’s assistant vice-president of football operations and administration.

“We obviously have done some work behind the scenes with (Shepley’s NFL plans). You always run the risk of not seeing him for a while, but he’s a guy who plays all three positions on the offensive line. He’s one of the best testers of the group. He has the size that fits and he’s a guy we had ranked up at the top at O-lineman.”

Shepley, 23, already is in New Jersey for the Jets’ rookie mini-camp. His parents watched the CFL draft and shared the news with him that he had gone fifth overall to Saskatchewan.

He admitted he didn’t expect to go that high, largely because of his deal with the Jets.

“I’m just not too sure what the vibe is with the coaches in the CFL right now, whether they think I’ll stick down south here or if I’ll get sent home back to Canada,” Shepley said. “I wasn’t too sure heading into (the draft), so getting my name called fifth was a surprise, but a good one.”

Shepley played four seasons on the T-Birds’ O-line, starting at guard for two seasons and at tackle for his final two campaigns in Vancouver.

A stellar showing at the CFL national combine in Winnipeg helped him move to No. 3 in Central Scouting’s final pre-draft rankings.

Shepley, who was ranked 14^th in the fall and 11^th in the winter, stood out during the testing at the combine — his 27 reps on the 225-pound bench press led all the participants — and he was a force in the one-on-one session.

According to Murphy, Shepley’s showing in Winnipeg wasn’t a major factor in the Roughriders’ decision to select him.

“His film sways your decision,” Murphy said. “He finishes. He’s athletic. He’s playing hard all the time.

“You listen to a kid who took an opportunity to go play at the highest level he could collegiately instead of taking the easy road, which would have been staying at home out east. All of those things are what we look for.”

In the second round, the Roughriders selected Calgary Dinos linebacker Micah Teitz with the 14^th pick overall.

The 6-foot-0, 229-pound product of Calgary was a Canada West all-star in 2017 after recording 36 solo tackles, 25 assists, eight tackles for losses and three sacks in eight regular-season games.

Teitz, 21, also was a special-teams stalwart with the Dinos.

In the fifth round (36^th overall), the Roughriders selected Bishop’s Gaiters defensive lineman Mathieu Breton.

The 6-foot-7, 274-pounder out of Roxboro, Que., had 22 solo tackles, eight assists, two sacks and a forced fumble for the Gaiters during the 2017 season.

Saskatchewan’s sixth-round selection (45^th overall) was Saint Mary’s Huskies defensive lineman Tresor Buama-Mafuta. The 6-foot-3, 315-pounder is a 24-year-old product of Montreal who had 17 tackles, seven assists and 1.5 sacks during his final AUS season. He didn’t play last season due to eligibility issues.

The Roughriders’ final pick of the draft, in the eighth round (63^rd overall), was York Lions offensive lineman Christopher Smith. The 6-foot-6, 290-pounder is a 24-year-old product of Brampton, Ont., who started 32 games over four seasons.

The Roughriders traded six 2018 picks in transactions made well in advance of the draft.

The Green and White sent a second-round pick to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats for quarterback Zach Collaros, a third-round selection to the Montreal Alouettes as part of the deal for quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., a fourth-rounder to Montreal for defensive back Andrew Lue, a sixth-rounder to the B.C. Lions for safety Mike Edem, a seventh-rounder to Hamilton in the deal involving receiver Ricky Collins Jr., and an eighth-rounder to the Edmonton Eskimos for defensive tackle Cedric McKinley.

Saskatchewan also forfeited a fifth-round selection to pick linebacker Brandyn Bartlett in a supplemental draft last season.

Even so, the Roughriders thought they made the most of their five selections.

“Once you saw some of the names that were coming off and how we would have judged them versus the guys we got, the 10^thpick in the draft is not going to be better than Zach Collaros,” Murphy said. “We’re pretty confident that getting Collaros and Bartlett in trade for those two picks is a good get for us.”