ROB VANSTONE: Roughriders hope to add more Cups after productive CFL Canadian Draft
draft party
If you looked closely, the Saskatchewan Roughriders offered clues as to their plans for Tuesday’s CFL Canadian Draft.
The team’s Draft headquarters at Mosaic Stadium included Defensive Co-ordinator Joshua Bell — who shares a surname with two of the first three players chosen by the Green and White.
But there was even more foreshadowing.
Head Coach Corey Mace arrived at the supper-hour session with some of his favourite snacks. In short order, he ingested six Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.
Make note of that number — six — because the Roughriders ended up drafting offensive lineman Albert Reese IV … in the sixth round!
This stuff practically writes itself!
(EMPLOYEE’S NOTE: Especially with AI! Clean out/up your desk.)
This employee’s responsibilities on Tuesday —let’s see if he survives Wednesday — were as follows:
• To dutifully document Saskatchewan’s eight selections. (For a review of how the team fared, CLICK HERE.)
• To challenge the eating feat of C. Mace by Hoovering the supply of potato chips at a dangerous pace, each •crunch carefully calculated to irritate everyone else in the room. (Nailed it!)
• To take you, the reader, inside the room for those moments when the Roughriders were on the clock and, well, it came down to crunch time.
With the way the first two rounds unfolded, you could say the Riders had their cake (or one of the Reece’s Pieces) and ate it, too.
At 6:02 p.m., the Roughriders were poised to select Michigan State Spartans defensive back Malcolm Bell with the ninth overall pick, to conclude the first round.
“Everyone good?” Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O’Day inquired. “Anyone want to say anything?”
Although O’Day has the final call, he invites discussion and, if necessary, disagreement.
There was nary an objection from a Football Operations team that also consisted of Mace, Joshua Bell, Kyle Carson (Assistant General Manager and Director of Player Personnel), Paul Jones (the veteran Assistant GM participated remotely from his home base in Alabama), Larry Dean (Assistant Director of Player Personnel), Kent Maugeri (Special Teams Co-ordinator), Marc Mueller (Offensive Co-ordinator) or Jordan Greenly (Director of Football Operations).
A consensus having been established, Malcolm Bell was a Roughriders draftee.
“The (Spartans) green looks too good on you,” Mace told the new first-rounder within minutes of the pick being made, “so we’re going to keep you in that.”
Having drafted Bell, O’Day made this prescient point: “We’ve got a good shot at a receiver down the road.”
Alabama State pass-catcher Dylan Djete went to Saskatchewan with the 18th overall selection. Thus concluded the second round.
“I’m excited for you,” Mace told Djete over the phone. “We’re all excited to have you in the building.”
The additions of Djete and the UBC Thunderbirds’ Shemar McBean (Round 7, 65th overall) are timely after the off-season departures of Canadian receivers Tommy Nield (who signed with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as a free agent) and Ajou Ajou (released). Plus, Regina-born receiver Mitch Picton became a free agent on Feb. 10 and has not signed a new contract.
Djete and McBean are to join a Saskatchewan receiving corps that includes fellow Canadians Samuel Emilus (the team’s 2022 first-rounder), Kian Schaffer-Baker (fourth round, 2000), Dhel Duncan-Busby (third, 2024), D’Sean Mimbs (sixth, 2024) and Daniel Wiebe (eighth, 2025).
Shortly before Djete was drafted, Maugeri read aloud a glowing testimonial from one of the receiver’s coaches, who lauded him as a player and a person.
“Sounds like a Roughrider,” O’Day stated.
So does “Bell,” given the events of Tuesday.
Darius Bell, a highly touted offensive lineman from East Carolina, was snapped up by Saskatchewan with the 29th overall pick. Just like that, the Roughriders owned the rights to both Bells whose names appeared on a scroll-like list of candidates that is part of the 2026 CFL Canadian and Global Drafts Media Guide.
Round 4 was notable for: (a) Saskatchewan’s selection of University of Calgary Dinos linebacker Osasere Odemwingie; and, (b) Flawless pronunciation of the player’s name when Greenly, who has a broadcasting background, phoned in the pick to CFL headquarters at 7:33 p.m.
“I learned that at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology,” Greenly said, proudly, after the 38th overall selection was made.
From there, the players went off the board nearly as quickly as the potato chips had been devoured during Round 1.
7:44 p.m.: Saskatchewan claimed offensive lineman Jez Janvier in the fifth round (47th overall).
7:56 p.m.: Reese IV was chosen in Round 6 (56th). Jones and the 6-foot-7, 330-pound offensive lineman’s father, Albert Reese III, go way back. Reese III was a defensive tackle with Edmonton (from 2000 to 2004) during Jones’ lengthy tenure with the Alberta-based club. O’Day, a former Roughriders centre, lined up against Reese III 14 times over five seasons.
8:07 p.m.: McBean in green! Round 7 (65th).
8:19 p.m.: The final selection of the Draft, period, was Ryan Speight. The Wilfrid Laurier fullback went to Saskatchewan in Round 8, 74th overall.
And that was a wrap — which would have been a much healthier food choice than some of the delicacies detailed above.
