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March 20, 2018

GM Kyle Walters on the Combine

Ted Goveia, Mike O'Shea and Kyle Walters of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers during the 2017 CFL combine in Regina, SK., Friday, March 24, 2017. (Photo: Johany Jutras)

This is the final week for Canadian Football League football types to kick the tires and test drive this country’s best college prospects while watching them compete against their contemporaries.

The Fan Fest, the autograph signings, the announcement of the 2018 induction class into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame are all part of what made last year’s inaugural CFL Week in Regina such a rousing success.

But the movers and shakers in this league are all here essentially for one thing: to get a good look at the talent heading into the CFL Draft on May 3.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers GM Kyle Walters, it’s worth noting, is in a much different spot this week than this time a year ago when the club entered the week knowing they’d have the pick of the litter with the first-overall choice as well as the sixth-overall selection.

Ironically, the Bombers used those two picks to select two players in Iowa Hawkeyes defensive tackle and Manitoba Bisons offensive lineman Geoff Gray, who were not at either combine in Regina.

But, safe to say, combine week – the Western Regional goes Thursday at Subway Soccer South with the National Combine held at the RBC Convention Centre and the University of Winnipeg RecPlex – will help answer some pressing questions about this year’s draft class.

Walters met with the media on Tuesday to help set up the combines.

 

Here are the key takeaways from his session…

O-LINE, O-LINE, O-LINE ALL THE TIME

The Bombers opted to let Travis Bond go to the free-agent market this winter – he signed with the Saskatchewan Roughriders – as part of their move to switch from two to three Canadian starters along the offensive line. That decision came, in part, because of the solid play of Pat Neufeld near the end of last season when he was plugged into Bond’s spot when he suffered an injury in Game 16.

The other factor in play here is simpler: CFL teams have traditionally used the O-line to start three, four and sometimes five of their Canadian starters. The Bombers plan to start Neufeld, centre Matthias Goossen and Sukh Chungh up front and have promising prospects in Michael Couture, Qadr Spooner and Cody Speller under contract.

There’s also this: the CFL’s Scouting Bureau had O-linemen in the Top 4 spots of their winter rankings and five of the Top 10.

“By committing to the plan of three Canadians on the offensive line there’s always room to be adding depth at that position,” said Walters. “I would say the quality of this draft is the offensive line… the top-end quality and depth. It’s a good O-line draft and I think teams will be able to find that the linemen go early and often. You’ll probably see that this year just based on the depth and the quality of depth at that position.”

THE HOMEGROWNS GO HERE, HERE AND…

In addition to the three Canadian starters on the O-line – Chungh, Goossen and Neufeld – the Bombers’ other Canadians to take the first snap will likely be CFL Most Outstanding Canadian Andrew Harris at running back, CFL All-Star safety Taylor Loffler, and two Canadian receivers from a group that includes Nic Demski, Matt Coates, Drew Wolitarsky, Mitchell Baines, Tylor Henry, Brendon Thera-Plamondon and whoever they may draft in May.

It’s a good draft for receiver prospects, too, with Rashaun Simonise (7), Regis Cibasu (8) and Mark Chapman all ranked in the scouting bureau’s Top 10.

All that said…

“There’s no real targeted positional need right now,” Walters stated, “other than the tried, tested and true model of just keep drafting and developing Canadian offensive linemen and then hopefully they pan out after a year or two.

“I don’t think you can ever have enough depth or ever be happy with your depth. But, I don’t know that there’s a real pressing need right now from a Canadian standpoint, which allows us to take the best player, potentially, rather than draft for a need.”

THE MOST-INTRIGUING PROSPECT AT THE COMBINE IS…

Simonise, hands down. Here’s the abridged version of his story: Simonise, who played his amateur ball with the University of Calgary and Okanagan Sun, already has some pro experience. He attended training camps with the Chicago Bears and Cincinnati Bengals in 2016, and spent time with the Chicago Eagles of the Champions Indoor Football League. But it was during his camp with the Bengals that Simonise tested positive for a weight-gainer, performance enhancing drug and the CFL then opted to defer his draft year from 2017 to 2018.

There’s unquestioned talent there, but also some alarm bells clanging.

“He’s very interesting,” said Walters. “From a talent standpoint, obviously very good. But his past… he’s one where you want to hear his story. That type of interview would be, ‘OK, go… let’s hear from the time you were in high school to sitting right here, what happened? There’s so much speculation and second, third, fourth-hand stories about this young man. Let’s hear it from him and each team will make their own judgement on him. I’m sure he’ll be the most interviewed player at this combine for those reasons that there’s a big question mark around him.

SEEN AND HEARD VS. TAKING A PASS

The top three draft prospects – at least according to the CFL Scouting Bureau – have all opted to take a pass at the National Combine to attend or train their school’s pro days instead and be seen by NFL scouts. Nebraska’s David Knevel, Connecticut’s Trey Rutherford, and Ryan Hunter of Bowling Green will not be in Winnipeg this week.

That opens the door for the prospects that are attending to pop off the page. Or not.

“I guess if you’re good here it helps your case. If you’re bad here, it doesn’t help your cause,” said Walters with a grin. “It flips either way. You’re seeing much more of these pro days come up and the high-end players assume they are going to be top draft picks in our league and would rather focus on their pro day and their NFL opportunities first. That’s the way it’s always been in our league and it is what it is.

“I don’t know if any of the offensive linemen (not attending) are NFL-draftable… maybe late-round guys. But certainly (they could be) free agents and invited to NFL mini-camps. That’s the sort of stuff we’ll have to wait and see, which is going to affect the draft status of that group of offensive linemen.”

Walters did say that all the access to information available these days means those who aren’t attending are hardly unknowns to CFL types. In fact, it’s the opposite.

“All the information is out there,” he said. “For that high-end guy, the majority of your grade is coming from the film study. Then you apply their pro-day numbers from what you are seeing. It’s not as if just because they are not coming to Winnipeg for the combine, it’s a shot in the dark when you call their name. There’s certainly a lot of information you can gather.”