CFL Draft Preview: Saskatchewan Roughriders

We are 8 days from the CFL Draft. Hooray for actual football news!

For the second year in a row O’Day has all 8 of his original picks. After living through some very different regimes and approaches to drafting, O’Day is a bit of a breath of fresh air.

Taman acted like he always wanted to be a wall street trader the way he was addicted to trading picks. In 2013, we had a first round pick and then took a nap until the 5^th round. Chris Jones was actually a better early round drafter than most people gave him credit for (Judge, Bladek, Teitz, Shepley) but he never met a supplemental draft he didn’t like and would always do something weird (like draft an OL who had been out of football for over a year).

If you look back at his six drafts since becoming GM you can see impact players in every draft class:

-        2019: Justin McInnis, Brayden Lenius, Charbel Dabire

-        2020: Kian Schaefer-Baker, AJ Allen

-        2021: Everyone gets one mulligan.

-        2022: Sam Emilus, Zach Fry, Jayden Dalke

-        2023: Lake Korte-Moore, Jaxson Ford, Thomas Bertrand-Hudon

-        2024: Ajou Ajou, Dhel Duncan Busby, Malique Straker (and that's despite his first round pick still  being the NFL and his second round pick being on IR, this class could get better still).

Picks: 8 picks, first selection is 4^th  Overall

Potential Pipeline: DL David Oneymata (Atlanta/Never coming to the CFL), DL Neville Gallimore (Indy), OL Sidy Sow (New England), DL Tavius Robinson (Baltimore), OL Kyle Hergel (New Orleans).

Current Strengths:

We have emerged from some dark years and are back to drafting from a position of strength. We have no glaring needs that we have to address.

Receiver remains a strength despite the loss of Ajou. Emilus and Baker are impact starters. Busby and Picton are solid depth. Neild adds further depth.

OL is looking pretty solid. Ferland is a flat out stud. The additions of Gagnon and McEwen give us a strong starting interior. We have depth in guys like Fry and Zerr who were forced into starting roles last year and did well.

Special teams are rock solid. Other than the very predictable (and inevitable) early season slump that makes everyone doubt Lauther, he is and will be a stud. Korsak is a great punter. I think we take for granted how good Jorgen Hus is. He has not missed a game in 7 straight seasons and I honestly don’t recall him missing a snap either. Our cover teams are solid with guys like Allen, the Herdmans, Straker, Exume and Oneyka.

Current Needs:

There is theory and there is reality when it comes to our Canadian starters in the secondary. In theory we are in good shape with Lokombo and Campbell as starters and Dalke and Ford as depth. We all know I am not a Lokombo believer. Campbell hasn’t touched a CFL field in years and was not a starter when he left. In theory he could be awesome but its far from a sure thing. Ford seems to be hurt a lot. Dalke has a tendency to take penalties. Point being we could use some top end talent here.

Defense in general could use reinforcements. I love guys like Dabire, Korte-Moore and Allen but outside of the previously mentioned Lokombo and Campbell we lack bona fide Canadian starters on D.

Unless Kyle Hergel unexpectedly shows up OL is always a place where more depth is needed

Prediction:

Logic would point to a defensive player with the 4^th overall pick. That’s where we are lacking in impact players/starters. If Darien Newell unexpectedly falls to 4 we would likely grab him. Hayden Harris or Ali Saas are another possibility if we wanted to beef up the DL. That said with limited roster spots available for DL at this point we may opt for a DB like Jackson Findlay or LB like Jaylen Smith.

Second round I think we target an O-lineman. Also, given that we are keenly aware of the need to plan for the future at QB I would not rule out drafting Kurtis Rourke or Taylor Elgersma.