“I do anticipate a real competitive training camp at every position across the board with these Canadians fighting.”
They found future potential starters, filled positional depth needs and took a flier on a man mountain heading first to the National Football League.
And by the time Winnipeg Blue Bombers GM Kyle Walters & Co. pushed away from their Canadian Football League Draft table late Tuesday night, they were more than satisfied with the day’s work – and the hours upon hours in the days, weeks and months leading up to adding 10 more homegrown prospects and two Global players.
Bottom line: when rookie camp opens May 8th – with the veterans on the field on May 12th – the fight for work on a squad that has won more games than any other team in the league over the last four seasons is going to provide for some compelling drama every single day.
“As I’m looking at this, it looks much better today than it did yesterday (before the draft) from all the guys we added and the depth,” said Walters in an address to the media Wednesday. “I do anticipate a real competitive training camp at every position across the board with these Canadians fighting.
“We’re pretty comfortable with the high-end guys, but behind those starters there’s going to be a lot of competition for back-ups – which is what you want.”
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Walters Video:
https://www.bluebombers.com/2024/05/01/kyle-walters-may-1-2024/
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We introduced you to the 2024 Blue Bombers draft class here https://www.bluebombers.com/2024/04/30/meet-the-2024-draft-class/ and here are the main takeaways from the session with Walters…
FOUR>THREE
The Blue Bombers traded out of the first round and their eighth spot overall to grab an extra pick in the second round. That gave the club four picks in Round 2 at 13, 14, 17 and 20 while surrendering the eighth and 28th overall selections to the Calgary Stampeders.
The rationale – in a deep draft, getting four picks in the Top 20 is better than having three, especially as the difference between eighth overall and 13th, at least according to the Blue Bombers, was minimal.
“We looked at things as blocks of players and where we think they were going to go and we felt there was a strong group in that second round,” Walters explained. “We had a group of guys we liked in that mid-range second round and thinking that instead of calling a name at eight we could move back, and we might be able to pick up two guys instead of one guy to accomplish that. The only team that was even a remote possibly to deal with was Calgary because they had the two second-round picks.”
The Blue Bombers selected Connecticut receiver Kevens Clercius 13th overall, running back/fullback Michael Chris-Ike of Delaware State at 14, University of Buffalo offensive lineman Gabe Wallace at 17 and UBC defensive tackle Kevin Samson 20th overall.
CHECK, CHECK, CHECK AND CHECK
The goods on the four second rounders from Walters…
Clercius: “Physicality. He’s different. He’s willing to do the dirty work – the stuff that Rasheed(Bailey, now with the Toronto Argonauts) did around here for the last few years where he was carving out defensive ends and bringing a physicality. He brings that. His film’s like that. He plays special teams. He showed up (to the CFL Combine) and ran a 4.5 and he was big, strong, and athletic. He brings it a little bit different than most of the receivers.”
Chris-Ike: Walters called him a ‘need’ pick. The Blue Bombers didn’t have a fullback on their roster before the draft and at 6-1, 225 the club sees him as player who provides depth behind Brady Oliveira and Johnny Augustine but will also be trained to possibly take snaps at fullback. His special teams film is also said to be solid.
Wallace: “We really like Gabe Wallace. He’s played in the MAC conference and had some success. He’s a big guy, a mauler, and he’s going to fit right into our room. He’s a throwback kind of guy. We were pleasantly surprised – we knew we needed to add a lineman, for sure, in this draft and to get him where we did was one of the pleasant surprises with the way everything went.”
Samson: The Blue Bombers are stacked at Canadian defensive tackle with Jake Thomas, Cam Lawson, Tanner Schmekel – all of whom played games last year – and Collin Kornelson, drafted a year ago, all coming to camp.
“Probably not the biggest need at D-tackle…But I’ve seen this young man play for a bunch of years and he’s just our kinda guy, a throwback guy – tough, physical and a great young man. At that point (of the draft) it was just taking the best player on the board.”
THE FLIER/LONGSHOT
Giovanni Manu is a very, very large man at 6-8, 340 pounds. He’s also got freakish athletic gifts as a man who ran a 5.03 40. Understandably, that caught the eye of the 16 NFL teams who were at his pro day and, especially, the Detroit Lions, who selected him in the fourth-round last weekend.
Still, at this stage in the CFL Draft – fifth round, 46th overall – it was worth the gamble for the Blue Bombers.
“We’ll sit and wait and wish him the best of luck down there and if it doesn’t work out down there and he wants to keep playing football it will be nice to have his rights. That’s one that’s a longshot.
“For a big man like that to move as well as he did, that caught everybody’s attention. The NFL, like every single football league, is looking for offensive linemen and if you think you’ve found a big guy that might have a huge upside, they’re certainly willing to let him develop down there, for sure.”
ETC, ETC
Some thoughts on the rest of the draft class…
On Ian Leroux, the Laval long-snapper – studied closely by head coach Mike O’Shea in person at the regional combine in Waterloo. His consensus? “That’s a CFL snapper.” Walters said he’ll come to camp to learn from veteran Mike Benson before returning to college. And “he’ll be able to play in the CFL for a long, long time as a long snapper.”
On the two other OL selected in Ethan Kalra and Michael Vlahogiannis: Kalra was scouted at the regional combine and can play all positions on the O-line; Vlahogiannis struggled at the regional after injuring his finger but plays centre and is tough. Walters said his film showed much better than his one day at the combine.
The Blue Bombers dipped into their back yard in the sixth round, selecting two-time First-Team All-Canadian receiver AK Gassama. He joins Jeremy Murphy and Jonathan Rosery behind starters Nic Demski and Drew Wolitarsky in the Canadian air force.
“We like AK. Seen him for years and years. Explosive athlete. A little under-sized but a great young man and were always happy to bring a Bison, right next door, and give him a chance to compete. He’s excited. Brian Dobie is excited. He’ll come in and work his tail off for us and run around all day.”
With the final pick of the day, the team selected McMaster end/tackle Owen Hubert. Said Walters: “We just like the way he plays. I don’t know if he’s an end or a tackle, but he just runs around and plays with energy. He was a really likable guy on film with the way he plays.”
