Kevens Clercius -- photos by Cameron Bartlett
Kevens Clercius arrived in Winnipeg just over a year ago for the Canadian Football League Combine with the measurables that jump out to every personnel type studying draft prospects.
His physical listed him at a solid 6-2, 217 pounds and his sturdy hands stood out with every introductory handshake and every pass he latched onto during the practice sessions.
He posted solid testing numbers — including a Top 10 40 time — and flashed a physicality in his sessions that drew nods of appreciation from the assembled coaches.
And yet in every one-on-one interview he did during the Combine — all nine teams spoke to him — he kept getting the same question: what’s with your numbers at the University of Connecticut, where he had just five catches for 56 yards and one touchdown in his final season and 49 receptions in 37 games over three years with the Huskies?
There’s a long story there, but the basic gist of it was this: the Huskies had undergone a coaching change during his days at UConn and the new staff had their own younger receiving prospects they wanted to get on the field.
We bring all this up to open Part II of our CFL Combine Preview — this year’s edition begins Thursday in Regina — because in many ways Clercius represents the importance of the event to the player and to the teams trying to evaluate the assembled talent.
“I knew going into the Combine I would get questions about my time with the Huskies,” began Clercius in a conversation this week with bluebombers.com from his home in Montreal. “But afterwards I felt I would be a first or second-round pick because of my testing and the discussions with the coaches and performing at the practices.
“When it was over, I felt a lot more confident than I did going into it. What I remember going into the Combine is it didn’t matter if you came from a big school like Alabama or something, once you got on the field, they wanted to see how you practice and how you are as a person.
“It was a way for me to prove why I was there, that I belonged there. I just wanted to practise hard and have good energy.”
The Blue Bombers made Clercius their first pick, 13th overall, in last year’s draft and he subsequently dressed for all 18 regular season games, including 12 starts, as well as starting the Western Final and Grey Cup. He finished the year with 32 receptions for 352 yards and a TD — more than his 2022-23 totals with the Huskies, combined.
“Kevens is 100 percent a great example of why the Combine is so important,” said Blue Bombers GM Kyle Walters. “(UConn) had some coaching changes and maybe he wasn’t a great fit to their system. Generally, when they bring in a new coach down there it means some other guys get pushed out a little bit. But Kevens chose to stay and that was something we liked.
“We liked his physicality, of course. We saw it on film and said, ‘That’s a tough dude.’ But there was nothing in his film that jumped out and said he was going to be a starting CFL receiver because there just wasn’t the body of work. Then he showed up and tested well and really helped himself out at the combine.
“He’s a great kid. Character through the roof. He really, really jumped up our draft board with his combine performance.”
The Blue Bombers followed up their Clercius pick by selecting fullback Michael Chris-Ike 14th overall, guard Gabe Wallace 17th overall and defensive tackle Kyle Samson at the 20th spot. All four of them dressed for games in 2024, as did defensive end Owen Hubert — an eighth-round pick, now with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — while long snapper Ian Leroux and receiver AK Gassama will be in training camp this year.
The club’s fifth-round pick, massive O-lineman Giovanni Manu, was a fourth-round pick by the Detroit Lions last year and remains on their roster after not playing last year.
Clercius entered last year’s event as the 20th-ranked prospect in the CFL Scouting Bureau’s final pre-draft rankings — the Bureau only does a Top 20 — with Wallace listed 12th.
Now, every team approaches the Combine with the basic goal of evaluating and then finalizing their draft boards, but the Blue Bombers also put a ton of stock into intangibles not measured in testing or necessarily on the field.
“That’s an organizational philosophy and everybody thinks differently on that,” Walters explained. “Certain scouts or organizations say there has to be a minimal testing standard or ‘we’re not even going to look at this guy because we can develop an athlete.’
“We’re not like that… that’s the nice thing with Mike (O’Shea, head coach) and I being together for so long. I know the type of guy Mike wants in the building. Obviously, they need to have that athletic component, but we put a little more stock into their grittiness, their toughness. Are they Blue Bombers type guys — meaning does a love of the game come out on film or in the interview process? That’s what we say all the time. Maybe that player doesn’t always have the testing numbers of another player, but we tend to go with that type. It’s just an organizational belief.
“It was the same thing with Michael Chris-Ike as Kevens — he was late to a training camp one year in college (Delaware State), there was a coaching change and he struggled just to get on the field down there. When he did, it was pretty good. Same thing… he showed up at the combine and tested through the roof.
“Those two guys probably jumped the highest on everyone’s draft boards, particularly ours, after seeing them in person. Those two are great examples as to the value of the combine.”
Clercius, FYI, conducted his phone interview with us this week during a break from a session at the gym and motivated more than ever to reward the club’s faith in him.
A year ago, he came into camp just hoping to crack the roster and, again, by season’s end had established himself as a starter after an injury to Drew Wolitarsky. And with Wolitarsky now in Hamilton, Clercius’ name is written in ink as a starter heading into camp this May.
“I didn’t know what to expect coming in last year — I thought I would be more of a special-teams guy,” he said. “Then a couple of players got hurt and I just took the approach of taking every play like it could be my last play.
“I’m just so grateful for everything. Hopefully I can do the same thing this year, except more.”
