Dinos attracting interest at CFL draft
Six local players listed among elite in the league’s prospect rankings
A six-pack of Calgary Dinos are on tap to be selected in the CFL Draft on Thursday.
The complete Canada West CFL Prospect Rankings are out ahead of Thursday’s CFL Draft, as the conference’s top prospects wait to hear which CFL team calls their name on draft night.
And in terms of team representation, the Dinos are the top Canada West squad, landing a total of six players on the list that was released Tuesday.
The school’s contingent is led by offensive lineman Darius Ciraco, of Burlington, Ont., at No. 3 among Canada West draft prospects. He’s listed 13th in the CFL’s final draft rankings.
Right after him at No. 5 in the CW CFL Prospect Rankings is teammate and fellow O -lineman Ryan Sceviour, a Calgary native. He’s at No. 12 in the league’s final rankings.
At No. 6 on the conference list is Dinos linebacker Micah Teitz, who is 19th on the CFL Scouting Bureau list. Teitz is also a Calgary kid.
Also in the top 10 is Dinos defensive lineman Brett Wade of Regina, at No. 9 among conference prospects.
Linebacker Boston Rowe of Calgary and defensive lineman Joel Van Pelt of Lethbridge are ranked 12th and 16th respectively in the CW CFL Prospect Rankings.
The 20-player list was unveiled a day after the top five prospects were released in collaboration with 3 Down Nation. Voted on by coaches from the conference’s six football programs, the rankings provide a glimpse into how the coaches view the top draft-eligible players from their Canada West competitors.
Both the UBC Thunderbirds and the Regina Rams came in just behind the Dinos when it came to players on the list, as five Thunderbirds and five Rams made the cut, including No. 1 prospect Dakoda Shepley, a UBC offensive lineman.
Former Dinos receiver Rashaun Simonise of Vancouver comes in at No. 9 in the league’s ratings. Simonise was among five draft-eligible Canadian prospects who last year received anti-doping rule violations for the use of banned substances and had their draft eligibility deferred by a year by the CFL as a result.
Simonise has been playing wide receiver for the Baltimore Brigade of the Arena Football League. He has also been a member of the Chicago Eagles of the Continental Indoor Football League and the NFL’s Cincinnati Bengals.
Ciraco, Sceviour, Teitz and Simonise have all been All-Canadians at some point in their careers. Sceviour was a second team AllCanadian for the second consecutive season in 2017, while Ciraco and Teitz were second-teamers in 2015.
Simonise was a first team AllCanadian in 2015.
Last year, 56 U Sports players were selected in the 2017 CFL Draft (out of 71 total picks), including six in the first round.