CFL Draft 2013: Saskatchewan Roughriders

Picks: 4 picks, first pick 4^th overall

2012 Draft Highlight: Both top picks, Ben Heenan and Sam Hurl, saw significant playing time in their rookie season.

2012 Draft Lowlight: Only made 4 picks. 1 didn’t make the team, one didn’t leave the PR and will not be back in 2013. Hard to build Canadian depth like that.

Potential Pipeline: n/a

Needs: Given that they are planning to start 2 Canadians on the D-line, top priority should be building depth there. Ideally they would love to land Charles or Gaydosh but interest from other teams and the NFL may force them to consider a secondary option like Mulumba or D’Aguilar (and even those might not be a guarantee). They may also look to draft a safety giving the commitment to Butler as the starter. Guys like Mike Edem or Jermaine Gabriel come to mind. Other needs include depth along the OL (tackles of course being the most important) and a receiver who actually has some promise. Given the limited number of quality receiving prospects, the limited number of picks they have and the low priority the team will be placing on this position, it’s unlikely the WR is in the cards this year though.

Prediction: Taman will decide he doesn’t have enough picks to draft all the guys he wants and trade away picks from next year to get them… thus perpetuating the cycle.

As an added bonus prediction, I will make the relatively safe assumption that we draft an OL from the U of R (likely Chris Mercer). Of the 8 O-lineman drafted out of a Saskatchewan University (U of R or U of S) since 2008, half of them have been drafted by the Riders (Heenan, Neufeld, Ackerman, Hutchins) and 3 of the others have been part of the team at some point (Labatte, Rempel, Hashem).