CFL Draft 2015 Team Preview: BC Lions

BC is unique in that they still have all 7 of their picks and have not acquired and trading any other picks.

Picks: 8 picks, first selection is 5^th Overall

2014 Draft Assessment: After many years of managing to acquire multiple 1^st rounders the BC were forced to trade theirs away to get Kevin Glenn. With their remaining picks they did add some role players in Pascal Lochard and Casey Chin but their O-line was where they really needed the help but the only player the drafted there was T-Dre Player and he in not even close to pro-ready. He also gets demerits for blatantly making up his first name. Your name is Tchassakid… you can’t turn that into T-Dre any more than I can call myself R-Dre Prophet.

Potential Pipeline: n/a unless OL Danny Watkins decides he ever wants to play football again.

Current Strengths:

Offensive playmakers is something they have in abundance. Andrew Harris, Shawn Gore, Marco Ianuzzi, and newly acquired Austin Collie (though he can only be one big hit away from qualifying as a Manitoba citizen) plus depth guys like Kito Poblah, and Rolly Lumbala. Chris Rwabukamba is definitely an upgrade at safety over the garbage they’ve been fielding the past few years. Jason Aragki is a solid special teamer and Casey Chin maybe be developing into one as well. They have Dean Valli at OL who is solid and Kirby Fabien and Hunter Steward who are developing. If he ever gets is off field issues sorted out Jabar Westerman has all the tools to be an impact DL. Bo Lokombo is a guy to watch. He was never expecting to come north but is now a fixture on the Lions roster.

Current Needs: Their O-line is still a concern. It was among the weakest in the league and while that was mostly due to the weak imports tackles they were playing the interior still has concerns both in terms of starters and especially depth.

While Rwabukamba is an upgrade at safety, I would still be looking to build there given how long it has been a source of weakness for the team. Other needs include building depth at DL if they want Westerman to factor in as a starter.

I won’t even bother commenting on needing a kicker. Paul McCallum will become the first player to play in 3 consecutive centuries.

Prediction: BC will be joining in the early run on O-linemen. OL used to be a source of pride for the team but now they just hope to get by. Buono and Tedford will be eager to start turning that around. Buono has also shown he will make riskier picks (Watkins, Lokombo) so guys like Tyler Varga and Brett Boyko will definitely be on his radar.