Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
One extended Saskatchewan Roughriders road trip of considerable importance will not include a single game.
Seven key members of the team’s football-operations side are in Edmonton for the CFL Combine, which is to run for the remainder of this week.
The Green and White is represented by general manager and vice-president of football operations Jeremy O’Day, assistant GM Kyle Carson, head coach Craig Dickenson and four of his assistants — Kelly Jeffrey (offensive co-ordinator and quarterbacks coach), Jason Shivers (defensive co-ordinator), Kent Maugeri (special teams co-ordinator) and Anthony Vitale (offensive line coach).
This septet has been dispatched to the Commonwealth Stadium Field House so that the Roughriders and the other eight teams can evaluate and work with prospects for the CFL’s 2023 Canadian and global drafts over five days instead of three.
“It’s a new thing for the league, so we’re excited to see how it works,” Carson said.
Day 1 (Wednesday) will be devoted to medical testing and measurements of roughly 100 national and global prospects.
Day 2 will consist of traditional drills such as the 40-yard dash and bench press.
The final three days will be largely reminiscent of in-season practice sessions.
Combine staples such as individual and one-on-one drills will be complemented by the evaluation of prospects in pass-skeleton and inside-run situations.
Additionally, coaches from across the league will work closely with positional groups while installing offensive and defensive packages.
“It’s an interesting thing,” O’Day said. “It’s kind of a combination of the Combine and the Senior Bowl that you would see in the States.
“We kind of talked about whether we were doing too many Regional Combines or how we should change it or whether there was an opportunity to see the guys in practice.
“Doing one-on-ones, it’s nice to see them going against each other. They’re going against the best competition in the draft. But I think what’s nice about it is that they have to learn a little bit about concepts and plays. We can see how they get coached and see how they compete in practice.
“It’s just another way to evaluate the players and we’re looking forward to seeing how the practices go.”
The proceedings will include 63 national players who hope to be selected in the CFL draft, to be held May 2.
Eight players from Saskatchewan-based universities are to participate.
The University of Regina Rams will be represented by defensive linemen Anthony Bennett and Tanner Schmekel, linebacker Josh White and defensive back Jaxon Ford. The latter player is a grandson of Roughriders legend Alan Ford.
University of Saskatchewan receivers Caleb Morin and Daniel Perry are also on the Combine roster, along with Huskies defensive back Charlie Ringland and offensive lineman Dayton Black.
In the days ahead, all Combine attendees will be interviewed by members of CFL clubs.
“We’ll also see their practice habits and how they interact with their teammates and coaches,” Carson noted. “We’ll get to see how they’re wired and how they tick. That’s a really neat part of the Combine, along with seeing how fast they run and how high they jump.”
Measurables are useful, but they aren’t the be-all and end-all.
“There are certain benchmarks, such as height, weight, speed and explosiveness, but how does that translate?” Carson said. “Does that translate into being able to catch the ball when there’s a safety coming over the middle?
“It’s a high-pressure, competitive environment. Do they flourish or do they take a step backwards? Those are the types of things we’re interested in seeing.”
The ability of coaches such as Jeffrey, Shivers, Maugeri and Vitale to see everything first-hand while working directly with the players is also beneficial.
“It’s a nice change-up,” Dickenson said. “It allows the coaches to do the actual drills that they would do with their guys and actually use the terminology they would use when they’re coaching their position groups.
“I think having CFL staffs coaching this gives us a little more of a realistic view of how the guys are going to take coaching and an idea of whether he is capable of doing the drills that we want him to do.
“It’s certainly going to be fun to watch the coaches coach and it’s going to be fun to see how these players take that coaching.
“We’re going to be able to evaluate them not only physically, but also mentally, and see if it appears that they can learn quickly the schemes and the techniques that the CFL coaches are teaching them.”
