The Saskatchewan Roughriders are maximizing the time that remains before they are on the clock.
A busy draft day in the Canadian Football League begins Tuesday morning when the nine teams will choose from among the top Global prospects.
That event is a prelude to Tuesday night’s CFL Draft, for which Roughriders General Manager/Vice-President of Football Operations Jeremy O’Day, Assistant GM Kyle Carson and associates have been preparing for several months.
In fact, the advance work continues as the eight-round draft approaches.
“We’re actually meeting right after this press conference,” O’Day said during a Monday afternoon session with local reporters. “You go back and meet as a staff.
“You have a plan in place before the NFL Draft and then you have a plan in place when you actually see where the guys are going.”
Follow-up meetings are especially crucial in light of the fact that a record number of Canadians — five — were selected during the seven-round NFL Draft, which ran Thursday to Saturday.
“There are other little things,” O’Day added. “For the guys who have been signed in the NFL (as undrafted free agents), there’s up-front money, so a lot of work goes into finding out exactly what kind of deal they got. That’s an indication of whether they’re in that team’s plans long-term.
“The higher they get drafted in the NFL or the more money they get up-front, usually the lower they go in our draft.”
University of Syracuse offensive lineman Matthew Bergeron was the first Canadian chosen. A product of Victoriaville, Que., Bergeron went in the second round (38th overall) to the Atlanta Falcons. He was first overall in the CFL Scouting Bureau’s spring rankings.
The other Canadians chosen were Illinois defensive back Sydney Brown (Philadelphia Eagles, Round 3, 66th overall), Eastern Michigan offensive lineman Sidy Sow (New England Patriots, Round 4, 117th), Mississippi defensive end Tavius Robinson (Baltimore Ravens, Round 4, 124th) and Illinois running back Chase Brown (Cincinnati Bengals, Round 5, 163rd). Sydney and Chase Brown are twin brothers from Ilderton, Ont.
Even though some elite prospects are NFL-bound, there remains a wealth of talent at the disposal of teams north of the border.
“In general over the last number of years, the talent has gotten better,” O’Day said. “A lot of things factor into that.
“The U Sports teams are doing a great job with their guys and their strength and conditioning programs have improved over the last number of years. The facilities and the coaching have been better.
“I think the attention to the Canadian players in universities in the States has increased. Back in the day, (college scouts) would come up and bring a couple of diamonds in the rough down. They’ve figured out that there’s more diamonds than they thought up here.
“I think they’re playing at a little bit higher level and that makes them a little bit more pro-ready.”
O’Day and his colleagues on the Roughriders’ football-operations side are also getting ready for the Global Draft.
“I think the quality is pretty good,” O’Day said of the overall talent level.
“You’re always going to have the good Global kickers and punters in the draft, but this year there’s some good positional guys in there as well.”
Saskatchewan is to pick third in both rounds of the Global Draft and in most rounds of the Canadian draft.
The Roughriders’ picks are third overall (Round 1), 11th (2), 21st (3), 30th (4), 48th (6) and 57th (7).
The Roughriders’ fifth-round pick (39th) belongs to the Montreal Alouettes as the result of a July 3 trade that brought Mario Alford to Saskatchewan.
In 13 games with the Roughriders, Alford scored on four returns — two kickoffs, one punt and one missed field goal — en route to being named the CFL’s top special-teams player for 2022.
O’Day is leaving the door open to recoup some draft capital or to possibly make a deal involving the Roughriders’ first-rounder, depending on who is chosen No. 1 and No. 2.
“If there’s not someone that you really love at three, then we’d entertain it,” he said of a possible trade. “We’re having conversations already with teams. You just kind of bounce ideas off the other teams and GMs and just see what their interest level is.”
O’Day was also asked to gauge his interest level in adding an offensive lineman with a priority pick.
“As far as our offensive line, it seems like everyone wants to talk about that,” he said. “It seems like it’s on a regular basis, which is fine.
“But the reality is that we’re planning on playing with three (starting) Canadian O-linemen. We have two guys — one who has been a two-year starter for us (Logan Ferland) and one who has been starting for four years in our league (Evan Johnson) — and we signed Peter Godber for a reason.”
Godber, who spent the past four seasons with the B.C. Lions, was signed as a free agent on Feb. 14. He is to start at centre. Ferland and Johnson are incumbent starting guards.
“So that’s three pretty good players,” O’Day continued. “And we signed Philip Blake, who has been a (fourth)-round NFL Draft pick (by the Denver Broncos in 2012) and who can play multiple positions, so he’s in the mix as well.
“We also have Logan Bandy, who we drafted a couple of years ago, and he played 10 games for us (as the starting centre) last year. That’s pretty good.”
Moreover, the Roughriders drafted offensive linemen Zack Fry (Round 2) and Diego Alatorre Montoya (Round 3) last year. Both players will be at training camp when it opens May 14 in Saskatoon.
“So, by my math, if you’re starting with three and you have seven, it’s just a matter of if you think that you can draft someone in that spot who’s going to be an improvement over the players that you have,” O’Day said.
“That’s the question that we always talk about when we’re in the room: Is there a guy who is capable of playing and being better? If you sign a guy in the first round, what does that mean for your second- and third-round picks from last year that you invested in?
“We take it all into consideration, but the reality is that we’ve got four guys who are proven starters for three positions, another guy who’s up-and-coming, and then two pretty high draft picks that we have coming back.”
