Kyle Walters isn’t about to tip the hand of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in any way. Not with the Canadian Football League Draft less than two weeks away and certainly not in the often clandestine approach to the annual homegrown talent grab.
Here’s the other thing, with respect to that: having yielded their first-round draft pick to the Toronto Argonauts with the decision to re-sign quarterback Zach Collaros, no one – not even those in the Bombers virtual draft war room – really knows who might be available when the club makes its first selection at the 18th spot on April 30th.
All that said, even just a cursory glance at the Bombers’ overall Canadian talent does offer up some hints to which side of the ball the club might be looking long and hard at with any of their early selections.
“We’ve got a pretty good idea of where (position-wise) we are targeting with that 18th overall pick in the second round,” said Walters during a conference call with local and national media on Friday. “There’s enough flexibility with the way our Canadians are on our roster that we’ll still be able to go with the best player available as long as he falls into one of the positions we’re looking to build depth at.
“Without saying too much, you can look at the roster… everybody on offence is back from a Canadian standpoint and defensively it’s not quite the same in regards to the number of guys back.”
The Bombers start six of their seven Canadians on offence in running back Andrew Harris, slotback Nic Demski, wide receiver Drew Wolitarsky, guards Pat Neufeld and Drew Desjarlais and centre Michael Couture.
There’s depth at all of those positions as well, with Johnny Augustine and Brady Oliveira listed behind Harris along with fullbacks Mike Miller and John Rush; with Daniel Petermann and Julian Feoli-Gudino – who was re-signed this winter – at receiver and with a talented pool of Canadian O-linemen in Cody Speller, Geoff Gray, Tui Eli and newcomer Chris Kolankowski.
Defensively, there are a number of solid special teamers in linebackers Jesse Briggs, Shayne Gauthier, Thomas Miles, and Brandon Calver along with defensive backs Kerfalla Exumé and Nick Hallett, while Maxime Latour proved to be a capable back-up to long snapper Chad Rempel.
The Bombers started just one Canadian on defence down the stretch last year after Brandon Alexander replaced Jeff Hecht at safety. That came in a rotation along the defensive line that included Jake Thomas and Jonathan Kongbo, who signed last December with the San Francisco 49ers. The club is also high on defensive tackle Connor Griffiths, drafted last year, but is thin depth-wise here in terms of Canadian talent in the defensive trenches.
The question management is now mulling over is bolstering the D-line further with one of their early picks in the draft, or perhaps finding the best prospect available – at any position – who might transform into a future starter.
“We’ve just had this discussion,” said Walters. “We’ve (evaluated/ranked) DBs and linebackers the last two days. Who do we see as a potential starter in those groups? And who do we see that we think can come in right now and get on the roster on special teams that might not be a starter and where do you weigh those? That’s our debate.
“It’s the same thing on the D-line… do you look at the ends to replace the Kongbo spot, which was very valuable for us in freeing up a designated import and a Global with Thiadric rotating in there last year. Do you add to your defensive tackle spot, even though with Jake and Connor we feel real comfortable with if we want to go defensive tackle? Or do you look at free safety and have somebody come in and compete with Hallett and Kerfalla at that free safety spot if we go there? There are a lot of options we have.
“We do feel comfortable with the Canadians on our roster, so we’re in a pretty good spot for (the 30th) to go with the best football player regardless of position.”
That’s critical here in assessing the Bombers heading into the draft. This team is deep and talented at all the spots it starts Canadians and isn’t approaching the proceedings with a sense of the old ‘must-find-a-starter-now’ mindset.
It’s why the club felt comfortable in surrendering the first rounder by re-signing Collaros. And it’s why Walters stressed Friday the team will not be aggressive in trying to get back into the first round by making a move. Besides, the CFL Draft has always had more intrigue and mystery to it because every team’s prospect board can look so different, depending on need, current depth and other mitigating factors like the pressure on a regime to deliver or hasten a rebuild or reload.
Some of those factors have clearly changed for the Bombers this winter, too. A Grey Cup title does have that impact.
“We’ll come up with a list of the best 18 players and we’ll know we’ll get one of those,” said Walters. “We have discussions about that first group of 18, that if every one of these players is on the board, which one do we take and why. That’s the next step of our discussions.
“There’s a possibility one of the players in our Top 10 will be available just because different teams do different things. That’s the beauty of the draft when everybody looks at things differently.”
