CFL Combine | Day 1

REGINA — It was in the early days of the Kyle Walters/Mike O’Shea regime when the entire Canadian Football League world knew what area the Winnipeg Blue Bombers would be targeting with their early picks in the annual draft.

“Back then,” began Walters during a break at the Combine on Thursday, “we weren’t sure we could even field an offensive line without grabbing guys early in the draft.

“We’re not in that kind of shape now.  I’m glad we’re not in that spot anymore.”

Walters chuckled then, and his honesty — plus the 10-plus years at the helm later — has given him a unique big-picture perspective on the Combine and how it impacts the CFL Draft, which goes later next month.

The Blue Bombers aren’t as desperate at these affairs as they were back in 2014-15 and with years of stockpiling Canadian talent, they’re much better prepared to bob and weave and roll with the punches than in the early days.

And so, yes, losing All-CFL cornerback Tyrell Ford to the Edmonton Elks in free agency stings. Ditto for guard Liam Dobson, who was a West Division All-Star last year and parlayed that into a big payday this winter with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

Yet, with three picks in the Top 20 of this year’s draft the club is certainly in position to reload and not fret about finding the minimum seven Canadian starters needed by rule.

Remember, too, that a year ago the Blue Bombers had more Canadian snaps than any other team in the CFL, earning them a bonus pick at the end of the second round.

“We played with eight or nine Canadians for most of last year so losing Liam or Ford, of course it hurts, but it’s not like we’re going, ‘Oh my God, we’re down to five (starters),'” said Walters in a conversation with bluebombers.com during a break from meetings on Thursday. “We’ve still got seven Canadian starters returning from last year with two on the OL (Pat Neufeld and Chris KolankowskI, the tailback (Brady Oliveira), two Canadian receivers (Nic Demski and Kevens Clercius), a D-tackle (Jake Thomas or Cam Lawson) and Redha (Kramdi, at dime). That gives us some flexibility with where we want to go in the draft.

“So, you look at the totality of your Canadian roster and ask how does it fit in, or what positional players are we looking for to add? Losing two very good Canadian starters certainly affects your Canadian depth heading into next year. We certainly need to add all the picks in this draft to replenish the stock, which we’ve done traditionally in the last decade where we’ve lost some good Canadians we’ve drafted and have been able to replace them and have guys step up. We don’t expect this year to be any different than years past, it’s just one is tough, but losing two is obviously tougher.”

There is no clear-cut No. 1 prospect in this draft, which is said to be deep along the defensive line. And the chatter that the Blue Bombers need to grab an offensive lineman early overlooks the depth Gabe Wallace and Tui Eli offer behind Neufeld and Kolankowski and the possibility of the team starting three Americans instead of two up front.

“Look, the worst thing you can do going into a draft is to be thinking, ‘we need to do this,'” said Walters. “That’s the worst mentality because you get fixated on a position you almost will yourself to think that particular prospect is a highly rated player just because he fits a positional need. That’s very dangerous early in the draft to grab a guy just because of that.

“We go through the whole process, and we draft the best football player. Now, if it’s a choice between A, B or C and you like them all equally then you go with the player that might fit your roster the best. Most of all, we’ve got to get guys that want to contribute, and you want to give guys you draft a spot to come in and compete and have a chance to win a job.

“Overall, across the board — with the exception of defensive tackle where we’ve got plenty of Canadians — you could make the case we could use depth across the board,” Walters added. “I really like our top-end Canadian talent, but we could use depth and that’s a nice spot to be in going into this draft. We’ve got a lot of areas where we could use some extra depth behind the guys who are starting, so let’s just go get ’em.

“We’re sitting with three picks in the Top 20 and we plan on nailing those and getting some guys who can come in and help us win football games.”

Other notes from Day 1 of the Combine, which featured mostly height and weight measurements of the prospects, with practices, on-field drills and reps and one-on-one team interviews heating up the event on Friday…

CANUCK QB TALENT… was a popular topic with coaches and GMs from each team meeting with the media on Thursday and with Nathan Rourke and Taylor Elgersma both drawing considerable NFL interest.

Question is, with the pair of throwers getting that much attention down south, how will that impact their CFL Draft status? And at what point is the potential reward of landing one of those two — even down the road after an NFL shot — outweigh the risk of using a higher pick on them?

“Every team looks at that differently,” said Walters. “You’re going to have your list of names and once there’s a certain drop-off in talent you have to decide what you’re going to do. If the Stanford receiver (Elic Ayomanor), for example, is a second-round pick in the NFL then he’ll be way down (in the CFL Draft). Is Rourke going to be a fifth or sixth-round (NFL) pick? Is Elgersma going to be a priority (signing as a priority NFL free agent if he isn’t drafted)? Then you take all that and figure out where they fit into your overall draft ranking.”

COLLAROS CONTRACT CHATTER: Walters when asked by 3Down Nation’s Justin Dunk if he has had any discussions about a contract extension with QB Zach Collaros, who is entering the final year of his deal:

“No, nothing yet. With the way we’ve been with the cap and the way things are we generally don’t do extensions leading into the season. We’ll deal with all that stuff postseason, as we normally do.”

Asked if he thought this could be the last year for the veteran pivot, he added:

“I don’t want to put words into Zach’s mouth. I know he loves football. I know he loves to compete and generally guys like that just want to keep playing and playing until they’re told they can’t play anymore.”