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March 21, 2023

“I can’t wait to get started.” | CFL Combine Preview

If they were so tempted, Kyle Walters and Mike O’Shea somehow resisted the urge to gleefully rub their hands together upon arrival in Edmonton at the Canadian Football League’s Combine.

After all, the hours upon hours of watching film of Canadian prospects can bring a certain level of tedium. And so, getting to see some of this country’s best homegrown talent up close and personal over the next few days at the Commonwealth Stadium Field House not only helps cures the winter blues, but is another signpost on the CFL calendar that training camp and the season is approaching.

And every GM and coach celebrates that.

Walters and O’Shea met with the national media during a 15-minute session Tuesday on the eve of the CFL Combine and weighed in on a slew of topics leading up to the CFL Draft and Global Draft, both scheduled for May 2nd.

Here is an abridged, highlighted version of what we’ll call our ‘CFL Combine Preview’:

Walters on what information the combine can provide, other than from what is taken from film study or speaking to college coaches:

“The best thing about the combine is the competition level that you get to see them in in person. You get to see them competing against the best. I’m excited about this year where you get to spend more time with them (the combine has expanded to five days this year) rather than, generally, the players do their testing and then maybe 10 minutes of indy (individual drills) and 10 minutes of one-on-ones and then they’re on their way. You get an extended period to evaluate them. This is a big piece of the puzzle with the testing they’ll go through and then seeing how they compete.

“We always talk about pulling out the passion from players – do they really love the game? Watching them practice for three days is going to give us a better answer in that regard, that’s for sure. It’s good. I can’t wait to get started.”

Walters, when asked how this week’s Combine impacts the team’s draft board:

“I would say right now it’s been mostly film study and watching them play throughout the year. They’ve been graded and they’ve been looked at, but this is a huge piece of the puzzle. We’ll go back with the coaches after this, they’ll watch and put that piece of the puzzle together. So, in a couple of weeks, we’ll start really putting together a Top 70 list.

“Right now, within the positional groups I’ve got a pretty good idea of who I like based on the film study. It’s always interesting to come out here and see a couple players that maybe you didn’t see much on film or not as much as you like, and they come out there and test really well and have a great week and you raise those players up a little bit.

“Conversely, those are the tough ones – when you see players with really good film and you like them and then they don’t have a great week this week, that’s sort of the conundrum you find yourself in, the really good film vs. maybe not a great combine week and where you slot them in.”

Walters, on whether the team comes into the Combine already knowing what they need from the draft or has an open mind as to what might unfold over the next few days:

“We will certainly look at our roster and say, ‘Well, here’s some areas where we sure could use some depth with our Canadian talent.’ But – and I’ve said this to Mike and Ted (Goveia, Assistant GM/Director of Player Personnel) already – we just can’t reach for a player because we believe it’s a positional need. That tends to get you in trouble. We’ll just make sure we draft players we like and that fit all the criteria Mike was talking about.

“If they’re good football players regardless of position we’ll find a spot for them on our team.”

O’Shea, when asked what he puts the post stock in over the next few days – the interviews with players, what they see on the field or the whole event:

“It has to be the whole thing, like in any training camp situation. This is like a little minicamp for them, and you have to evaluate everything. You try and take in as much detail as possible, try to be aware of everything they’re doing.

“We have the benefit of some extra days and being around them in a training camp/mini-camp setting where they’re going to be in the classroom learning and see what they can take out on the field. As always, physicality and toughness and compete level is going to be very important. And then, once again, pretty well equal to that is how these guys conduct their business. Are they ready to be a pro or not? And focussing on what they can do and not really worrying about what they can’t.”

O’Shea participated in the 1993 CFL Combine – not sure it was called that then – here in Winnipeg at the Golf Dome. He was asked how the combine has changed since then:

“Well, we’re not feeding them Big Macs in between drills and working out at the soccer dome, jumping up and doing the vertical against an ‘I’ beam with chalk on your finger (laughs).

“It’s all good. In my mind, throwing all these guys into a situation like that for an hour where it’s really less than ideal could tell a lot about guys. A lot of these kids have the benefit of coming from really well-funded programs and they have everything at their disposal… not all of them. But ‘Hey, here’s some cinderblocks… throw them around for a bit and then run around on a slippery field and do your best.’ I like to see that, too. Put them in a tough, stressful situation.”

Walters on the success of the club in finding Global prospects:

“We take it serious and once the players are in the building – and we’ve talked about this through the years – whether it’s Canadian, American, German, Japanese, French, it doesn’t really matter what your passport says. Once you’re in our building, you’re treated equally and will be expected to perform and if you’re dressing on game days then you’re going to step on the field.

“It’s as much about giving these guys an opportunity, rather than us doing anything different than anyone else. There are some good players in this draft again. There will be some fringe NFL guys that we’ll have to wait and see and there’s a strong group of punters, as always. Now we’ll get to see some of the players from the Global combines that we’re not too familiar with. So, we’ll get to see them run around and compete with some of the Canadian kids. It’s exciting for them.”

Coach O’Shea, when asked about the CFL’s annual offseason free agent frenzy which led to a ton of change around the league:

“There was a significant number of big moves, and I thought some teams loaded up pretty darn good. From our standpoint – and that’s all we really worry about – we managed to keep a lot of guys and add a couple pieces that we weren’t sure we were going to get necessarily, and we did. And we kept some guys that we weren’t sure we were going to get to keep.

“Our football team is probably as intact as it can be in a cap-situation, free-agency situation-type league that we have. We’re pretty pleased. What everybody else does… well, that’s their plan. As a fan it’s neat to look at from afar, but as a head coach I don’t spend a lot of time worrying about what other teams do.”

Further to that, O’Shea offered this when asked about what Kenny Lawler adds and how he sees the Blue Bombers receiving corps:

“It’s damn good. It’s pretty simple. Kenny has talked about being the best receiver in the CFL and that’s where his name belongs. We’d like to give him the opportunity to catch more footballs and the group around him is damn good, too. We’ve got to find a way to manufacture more footballs and get them out there on the field of play.”