Prospects get an opportunity to strut their stuff at CFL Combine
For the 55 participants in the CFL Combine, a marquee event during Mark’s CFL Week, how fast they run, how far they jump and how much weight they can hoist could mean the difference between playing professional football or looking for a summer job.
For the evaluators representing the nine CFL teams, it’s just part of an extensive process that includes interviewing many of the top candidates along with watching and rewatching film tendencies. The Combine wraps up Saturday.
“The Combine is a baseline measurement, but we’re going to be on a football team to play football,” said 6-foot-9 offensive lineman Mason Woods (University of Idaho, hometown Port Coquitlam, B.C.), touted as being a possible high first-round pick, on Friday. “(When it comes to playing football), I’m not going to be testing a vertical jump or a broad jump, I’m going to be out there trying to block guys and put them on their back.”
“It’s a guessing game, sometimes you’re just lucky,” said Toronto Argonauts GM Jim Popp. “There’s no perfect science. You take it in, you have a lot of eyes on a player, you sit in a room and discuss it. We’re looking at guys in pads and helmets, you get to meet a guy in a suit, you get to see a guy’s body in tight spandex where you really get to see what kind of physical shape they’re in. Those aspects of this mean a lot when you’re judging someone.”
Mock drafts and testing aside, teams have their own criteria.
“Every team has its own rankings,” said Popp. “People on TV, the media, they sit and go, ‘Hey, these are the top candidates.’ Then you go into the draft and all of a sudden, there’s somebody drafted who’s not on that list and you get that comment, ‘Well, that came out of nowhere, I can’t believe they took him.’ I can tell you, the team is saying, ‘I can’t believe you didn’t have him ranked.’”
The Combine also offers CFL teams the opportunity to interview each of the prospects. The sessions are sometimes rapidfire, with tough questions.
“It can be intimidating, but the best thing you can do is be yourself,” said Woods.
“A team asked about my weight, how it’s fluctuated over the years,” said Wilfrid Laurier defensive lineman Kwaku Boateng, who terrorized OUA quarterbacks with his pass rushing ability. “I came in weighing 210 my first year, then I weighed 225 my second year, 235, then about 250. They asked me if I’d be OK moving to linebacker. Then they asked me if I moved to linebacker, would I still be a firstround pick? I felt like I couldn’t be right or I couldn’t be wrong with my answer.
“At the next level, I think my pass rush level will set me apart. If the quarterback has the ball, I’m going 110 per cent, going after him.”
Regina Rams receiver Mitchell Picton, who led USports with 11 touchdown receptions in 2016, has been working with former Saskatchewan Roughriders fullback Levi Steinhauer.
“He’s really drilled into our brain that this is a job interview so you have to do everything to the best of your ability,” said Picton.
CFL teams will have six weeks — until the May 7 draft — to get their assessments in order.
Said Woods: “As soon as I got my invite, this became my major focus — 4 1/2 years of football has been building toward this. It’s kind of a weird feeling not knowing where you’re going to be. To find out where I’m going to be, where I’m going to focus my efforts, that’s going to be a great feeling.”
Said Boateng: “Honestly, I wish as soon as we finished all our testing this weekend, we had the draft. There’s anxiety until your name is called, if at all.”
Said McMaster receiver Danny Vandervoort: “It would be awesome (to play in the CFL). It’s one of my dreams, that’s why I’m here: I’ve been playing for 14 years, since I was eight years old.”
The evaluation process itself isn’t exact science. Testing results don’t always translate onto a football field.
“There are a lot of players who play fast on the field — they’re students of the game and get to where they need to be, they have instinct,” said Popp.
“So testing numbers don’t mean everything. We have tryout camps, everybody gets excited about how fast the guy runs. But then when you put them in a uniform, they don’t play fast. You want the guy who plays fast.
“You see something in players. It’s an art, you look at what they’re going to be in 2-3 years. I don’t take guys thinking they’re going to start for us right away, I look at it what they’re going to be able to do for us three years from now.”
Ottawa Sooners receiver Malcolm Carter made a great first-day impression, placing first in both morning events — the vertical jump and broad jump.
Carter’s jump of 40 inches in the vertical jump was 3 1/2 inches better than both Jonah Pataki (Queen’s) and Richard Gillespie (Toronto). Carter’s broad jump of 10 ft, 5.25 inches beat Acadia’s Harland Hastings (10’5”) and Waterloo’s Jordan Hoover (10’4.5”). The combine participants did bench press testing Friday night and will have the 40-yard dash, three-cone drill, shuttle, 1-on-1s and individual drills on Saturday.
Over the course of the two days, the invited players will have their moments, but there may also be some stumbles.
“It’s a bit of a roller-coaster experience,” said Boateng. “But it’s like anything football related, you quickly learn that sometimes you’ll fall and you have to man up and stand right up.”
There’s no perfect science. You take it in, you have a lot of eyes on a player, you sit in a room and discuss it.