For some, the CFL Draft is best known for its appearance on a Simpsons episode. For the nine CFL teams, Tuesday night’s selection process is nothing to take lightly.
It certainly pales in comparison to the glitz and glamour of the NFL extravaganza, which begins Thursday night in Detroit. That event is stretched over three days and seven rounds, while the CFL draft will be completed in just a few hours.
The Argos will pick fifth, the selection a part of a trade that sent Jordan Williams to Hamilton. They won’t be on the clock again until the third round when they have the 24th, 25th and 27th selections.
Assistant general manager Vince Magri, who has established himself as an exceptional evaluator of talent, is confident about being able to add a player with the No. 5 pick that will contribute to the team right away.
The Argos are loaded with Canadian talent, not only as starters, but as backups. The team doesn’t need to select a player at a specific position, which gives them incredible flexibility.
“Picking at five, which position we could go could change depending on who is available,” Magri told Argonauts.ca “We’re not going into it thinking that we need this position, or this position, but we have it stacked in a way that I think we’re all comfortable with how it will shake out on Tuesday.”
In years past the Argos have done a series of mock drafts, where members of the personnel group and coaching staff would each represent a different CFL team, studying the needs of that team and drafting a player they thought may go there. It gave the organization a greater sense of what might happen on draft night.
The team decided to only do a few mocks this year because of the situation they find themselves in. Instead, the group worked hard to determine a list of five players that they could agree upon, to make the decision easier when the fifth pick rolls around on Tuesday.
That said, it can be difficult to come to a clear consensus. For instance, at times it seems impossible for a group of three or four people to agree on which movie to watch on Netflix, but the Argos seem to be mostly on the same page when it comes to finalizing a fab five.
“I think we’ve had good consensus across the group,” said Magri. “We’ve been in agreement about the same grouping of players over the course of our meetings and preparation. As a collective we’re on the same page with the roster and how we build it.”
That’s impressive, as this draft is far deeper than just five players, and that’s before you factor in that more than a handful of players eligible for Tuesday’s CFL draft will have either been selected by or signed by an NFL team as an undrafted free agent.
In past years that would leave the draft cupboard relatively for CFL teams, but Magri is confident the talent level in this draft class goes deeper than just the players who will explore an NFL opportunity.
“Even if you take them out it’s a deep group. The first few rounds, even without those guys who are going to the NFL there’s a lot of guys who can make our league better. You throw those potential NFL players into the mix, and it shows how much the Canadian talent pool has been growing in the last few years.”
The uncertainly of a player’s immediate availability is what makes the CFL the most unique, and most difficult draft in sports. In other leagues a team picks either the best player in a position of need, or the most talented player still on the board. In this draft, a team must weigh whether they select a player who is headed south of the border, and if so, if or when they could return to the CFL.
Sometimes it works out. Left guard Ryan Hunter was the Argos ninth overall pick in the 2018 draft but signed with Kansas City, where he would win a Super Bowl. He finally joined the Argos in mid-2022, just in time to win a Grey Cup.
Conversely, the team selected Dan Fedkerkeil in 2006 with the fifth overall pick. He signed with Indianapolis, played a few years there, then retired. He eventually came out of retirement to play with Calgary after the Argos traded his rights to the Stampeders.
The Argos are still waiting to see if Luiji Vilain, their third-round pick in 2021, will ever play in the CFL. He’s currently playing for the Carolina Panthers.
So how does a team know when to roll the dice on a player who is trying his luck in the NFL?
“It depends on a lot of factors,” explained Magri. “The NFL Draft will end sometime Saturday afternoon, that’s when we’ll start grinding through that and going through contacts, agents, teams, looking at the NFL depth charts of teams that draft or sign some of these Canadian prospects, looking at the schemes those teams run and how it fits the player’s skillset. There’s a lot that goes into it, you weigh a lot of different angles. Sometimes a guy will go to a perfect fit and be there for a long time, or sometimes you see that maybe it’s not a great fit. You’re gambling. If they sign as a free agent, you find out what the contract was and how much financial commitment is being put into it because sometimes that is directly related to the long-term investment in the player.”
Tuesday’s draft is not simply a case of selecting the best player on the board, which makes the exercise so compelling on a number of levels.
The Argos have draft picks 5, 24, 25, 27, 39, 45, 48, 54, and 72. Argonauts.ca will provide full coverage of the night’s proceedings.