Canadians hoping to hear NFL’s call this weekend
Quartet of players could be late picks in this week’s draft or sign as priority free agents
The Canadian with the best hope of being selected in this week’s NFL draft is an offensive right tackle, Justin Senior of Montreal.
A three-year starter at Mississippi State, the 22-year-old helped protect Dallas Cowboys starter Dak Prescott during his last two years as a Bulldog.
The NFL draft runs Thursday to Saturday.
Senior is one of four Canadians who have the best shots at being drafted — if only late Saturday afternoon when the final two of seven rounds take place.
The other three Canadians: tight end Tony Auclair of Notre-Damedes-Pins, Que. (a Laval University product); offensive guard/tackle Geoff Gray of Winnipeg (University of Manitoba), and defensive lineman Eli Ankou of Ottawa (UCLA).
Senior, the son of Jamaican immigrants, faced many of U.S. college football’s best edge rushers at Mississippi State competing in the Southeastern Conference (SEC) against the likes of Alabama, LSU and Florida.
“Like they say, the SEC is the closest thing to the NFL,” Senior said at the NFL scouting combine. “It really makes me feel good about what I’m doing. It’s like, ‘Oh, I’m not that far off.’ ... Now it finally feels like something I can attain.”
Although some draftniks originally pegged Senior to be a middleround draft pick, his stock apparently has slipped.
“I like Justin Senior,” NFL Network lead draft analyst Mike Mayock said. “I’ve got him at the top of the sixth round right now. He’s got size. He played at a major college in a major division.”
Mel Kiper, ESPN’s longtime draft analyst, said Monday he sees Senior either as a “late-round” pick or a priority free-agent signee shortly after the draft ends early Saturday evening.
If his NFL dream fails to materialize, Senior has a fallback. Since September he has been rated the No. 1 CFL draft prospect by that league’s scouting bureau.
Auclair, the Laval tight end, and Gray, the Manitoba O-lineman, were invited to take part in a U.S. college all-star bowl, the EastWest Shrine Game in St. Petersburg, Fla. There, both caught the eyes of NFL talent evaluators, scoring numerous interviews.
Auclair sees himself as a prototypical tight end who can block as well as catch.
Now 6-foot-5 3/8 and weighing 257 pounds, the 23-year-old said he has been hoping to play in the NFL since he was eight.
Ranked the No. 7 CFL draft prospect, Auclair said he has visited with 10 NFL teams.
“Auclair is really interesting to me,” Mayock said. “He’s a big, strong kid that’s athletic and tough. But he also happens to face the deepest tight-end class in years ... There is a chance he could go late in the draft.”
Gray, 22, started his last three years with the Manitoba Bisons — mostly at right guard.
A competitive weightlifter on the side the past four years, Gray has studied mechanical engineering at UM and hopes some day to specialize in thermo-fluids.
Pro football is his focus now. He’s the No. 3 ranked CFL prospect, but has NFL aspirations.
“I’ve got Gray as a priority free agent,” Mayock said. “Don’t think he’s going to get drafted. But I think he’s going to be in somebody’s camp.”
The Green Bay Packers flew the 6-foot-6, 315-pounder down for his lone NFL team visit.
Gray fits the bill as a lineman who is quiet and unassuming off the field, but ferocious on it.
“I would say that I’m definitely someone who plays with an aggressive edge,” he said.
Ankou is the No. 2 CFL draft prospect. In four years with the Bruins, he played every position along the defensive line. That versatility should help him.
“I’ve worked out for the (L.A.) Rams, (L.A.) Chargers and Dallas Cowboys, and I’ve visited the (Indianapolis) Colts and Green Bay Packers,” the 22-year-old said.
Asked to assess the draft chances of Auclair, Gray and Ankou, ESPN’s Kiper said:
“The tight end has a chance, maybe, late. But I’d say, for me, the way I grade them out: lateround or priority free agents, (and) I would shade priority free agent for all of them, pretty much.”