CFL Draft 2015 Team Preview: Toronto Argonauts

I might be the only guy this week talking about the Argos in regards to what happens on the field as opposed to all the off field talk about their ownership/location.

Picks: 7 picks, first selection is 3^rd Overall

2014 Draft Assessment: Injuries cut short what was looking to be a very good season by top pick Anthony Coombs. His future looks bright. They also got a solid role player in FB Alexandre Dupuis. The rest of the Argos picks spent the bulk of the season on the practice roster (DB Eric Black, OL Jas Dhillon).

Potential Pipeline: TE Luke Wilson (Seattle)

Current Strengths: Depth along the O-line is pretty solid with the likes of Keeping, Van Zeyl, Holmes and Sewell. The combo of Andre Durie and Anthony Coombs (assuming both are back to 100%) gives the Ricky Ray some explosive Cdn weapons. They have some starters on defense like safety Jermaine Gabriel, newly re-acquired DL Ricky Foley and LB Cory Greenwood (who they hope is worth the 4 year wait). The ability to start up to 4 Cdn OL and 3 Cdns on defense along with Durie and Coombs give them a lot of ratio flexibility.

Current Needs: Not a ton of pressing needs but depth took a hit with the offseason departures of Shea Emry, Spencer Watt and Ivan Brown which means they have some re-stocking of the shelves to do. They only have 6 Cdn OL under contract (one of which is the aging/injury plagued Wayne Smith). They are also a bit thin on the D-line with only Foley and Cleyon Laing. They seem committed to Greenwood starting at MLB so they could use depth behind him. Also, given how literally every person resembling a receiver got hurt last season (including Durie and Coombs) another Cdn receiver to replace Watt would be a good idea.

Prediction: Van Zeyl and Keeping are getting up there in years and depth behind them isn’t anything to brag about so the Argos will be taking a lineman like Sukh Chung or Sean McEwen with the #3 pick. In the second round I could see them targeting either a lineman to compliment Foley/Laing or a receiver if one of the top ones (like Demski or Richards) if they happen to drop that far. Jim Barker likes to make draft day trades (many of which involve swapping later picks with Brendan Taman) so I expect his phone to be active on draft day.