Edmonton’s Jones holds a fistful of picks
Elks GM has six of first 31 selections, including No. 1
Chris Jones says he has fielded offers for some of his 2024 Canadian Football League draft picks, but hasn’t found one to his liking.
But the Edmonton Elks head coach and general manager is keeping an open mind before the start of the draft Tuesday night.
Jones has six of the first 31 picks, including No. 1. The Elks will also open both rounds of the league’s global draft Tuesday afternoon.
“There’s been some calls about the first one, there’s been calls on the second (No. 10) and even the third (No. 18),” Jones said Monday. “I guess they think we’re stupid or something (because) they give us offers we have no interest in even considering. But the good thing is every year there’s at least two in the first round that you go, ‘Oh my God, what are they doing,’ because people view things differently.”
The abundance of early selections will allow Jones to select players who could bolster Edmonton’s Canadian content this year. But Jones can also have an eye toward the future and take Canadians who will be attend- ing National
Football League training camps. Or he could deal any of his early selections to land a veteran CFL player. Edmonton last made the league playoffs in 2019 and has won a combined 11 regularseason games the past three years.
This isn’t the first time Jones has held the first selection. In 2016, as Saskatchewan’s head coach and GM, he kept it to take Oklahoma offensive lineman Josiah St. John. Two years ago, Jones traded the first pick to Montreal for the fourth pick and rights to Canadian offensive lineman Carter O’Donnell, who is currently with the Arizona Cardinals. Alouettes GM Danny Maciocia then took Syracuse linebacker Tyrell Richards No. 1.
All nine CFL teams will have firstround selections. Following Edmonton, in order, will be: Ottawa, Saskatchewan, Calgary, Toronto, B.C., Hamilton, Winnipeg and Grey Cup-champion Montreal.
Should Jones keep the first pick, the sentiment is he’ll use it on a receiver. Nick Mardner, a six-footsix, 206-pound Oakville, Ont., native, is the top-ranked receiver on the CFL Scouting Bureau’s list of top prospects at No. 7 and has NCAA experience at Hawaii, Cincinnati and Auburn.
Mardner wasn’t taken in last weekend’s NFL draft but got an invitation to the New York Giants rookie mini-camp. Many CFL officials consider Mardner as the most pro-ready receiver of the draft.
Laval receiver Kevin Mital moved up 10 spots to No. 10 on the final Scouting Bureau list. The six-footone, 215-pound Mital was the 2022 Hec Crighton Trophy winner as Canadian university’s top player.
Arguably the most pro-ready prospect is Cincinnati linebacker Joel Dublanko. The six-foot-three, 240-pound American spent time with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and Seattle Seahawks before playing in 2023 with the USFL’s Philadelphia Stars. He was deemed eligible for the CFL draft because of a Canadian parent.
Four of the top eight Scouting Bureau players were picked in the NFL draft: top-ranked Isaiah Adams of Ajax, an offensive lineman at Illinois; tight ends Theo Johnson (Penn State) and Tanner McLachlan (Arizona); and UBC tackle Giovanni Manu, a fourth-round pick of the Detroit Lions. Four more — offensive linemen Theo Benedet (UBC), Kyle Hergel (Boston College) and Anim Dankwah (Howard) and QB Casey Bauman (Augustana University) signed free-agent deals with NFL teams.