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March 22, 2017

GM Kyle Walters from CFL Week

REGINA – He has the chance to be picky and to be busy. And that – in anyone’s eyes across the Canadian Football League – puts Kyle Walters in an enviable position.

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers GM spoke Wednesday at CFL Week in advance of Thursday’s Western Combine and the league’s National Combine Friday and Saturday at Evraz Place.

The Bombers hold the first overall pick, courtesy last September’s Drew Willy trade to the Toronto Argonauts, as well as the sixth and 15th selections overall. All told, Winnipeg has seven selections in the draft.

“Having the No. 1 pick certainly puts more spotlight on us,” said Walters. “It makes us go through the process and evaluate kids and know the one we want, we’re going to get and we don’t have to wait to see how the picks in front of us unfold.

“It makes it nice to go through this and puts a little more scrutiny on us, which is not a bad thing.”

Walters reiterated some of the talking points in a recent chat with bluebombers.com, specifically that the team still hasn’t settled on who it might pick first overall, or even what position group they might be focusing on during the combines.

“We’re just looking to upgrade overall depth,” he said. “Obviously along the offensive line every year you’re looking to draft and develop guys. We lost Rory (Kohlert) in free agency, so you’re looking at receivers as well. It’s the same groups. We start two (Canadians) along the defensive line so you’re looking for depth there. Your linebackers bring special teams depth and now we’re starting a Canadian free safety as well.

“We’re always looking for depth and we’re in a spot with our Canadian content to take the best player available regardless of his position.”

The next few days do help bring the prospect list a little more into focus, even if some of the top-rated players are opting to skip out or are holding their own pro days for National Football League teams.

The list of no-shows includes Mississippi State offensive lineman Justin Senior, Laval tight end Antony Auclair, UCLA defensive tackle Eli Ankou, Manitoba’s guard Geoff Gray – ranked first, second, third and fifth in the December rankings of the CFL Scouting Bureau.

“It’s frustrating,” Walters admitted. “You sure would like all of the top prospects to come here and compete. But, unfortunately that’s not the way it works. I don’t think it’s going to hurt them, it just puts a little bit more onus on the teams to do more work and you don’t have the luxury of seeing them up here all together competing against each other which is the benefit of these types of things. But it’s the way of the world now.”

The Bombers will be represented at the combines by Walters, Head Coach Mike O’Shea, Assistant General Manager/Director of Player Personnel Ted Goveia and National Scout Craig Smith.

The one-on-one player interviews begin Thursday evening, followed by testing on Friday and one-on-one battles on Saturday.

Walters said a player can change a team’s opinion in the next few days, but this look-see also must be tempered with what has popped out from the game film.

“There’s two lines of thought on that,” he said. “You watch a player on film who might not jump out at you, whether it was effort or something wasn’t just quite right and he shows up here and athletically he tests through the roof. And then you need to go back and figure out why he’s not performing and watch a couple more games and figure out his athleticism that he is showing here doesn’t show up in productivity on the field.

“And, conversely, you’re going to find a lot of guys that run around, play hard, that are tough, physical and the kind of football players you really want on your team but you need to see them to make sure there is that baseline of athleticism that allows them to compete here.”

The Bombers don’t ask any of the weird ‘If you were a tree, what kind of tree would you be’ questions in the interviews. Instead, they just want to get a feel for a player’s passion for the game and his football IQ.

Asked if a bad interview can drop a player’s stock, Walters grinned.

“It would have to be a pretty bad interview to change it,” he said. “Some guys are different. There’s more outgoing guys that are going to come across as better in that type of setting. You can’t fault a guy for maybe being shy or introverted and just being out of his element. Generally, the common ground is the football. Once we start talking football you would like to see them have a confidence about themselves, even if they are a little bit more reserved personalities.”

There are two Manitobans participating in the Western Combine on Thursday, including Bison receiver Derek Yachison of Winnipeg and defensive lineman Jeremie Drouin of the Westshore Rebels.

Eight Bisons are participating: Yachison, running backs Alex Christie and Cameron Fox, linebackers Bami Adewale and Christian Turner, defensive back Akeeno Williams, defensive lineman Kent Hicks and offensive lineman Tom Clarkson. If they impress at the Western Combine, they’ll join Bison defensive tackle Evan Foster and Winnipeggers Jordan and Justin Herdman – both linebackers from Simon Fraser – at the National Combine.

All of this, it turns out, means Coach O’Shea will continue to tinker with his mock drafts. Much to Walters’ delight, it turns out.

“Mike is a big mock draft guy,” said Walters, chuckling. “He loves it, loves it, loves it. I’m more of a ‘meh, what does it matter?’ It’s fun. I always give into him and say, ‘Yeah, let’s do some mock drafts.’ It’s a great way to spend a morning. I’m not sure the value we get out of it, but I enjoy it.

“And, boy oh boy, he’ll stake the claim that’s the most-important thing we’ll do between now and the draft.”