Steinberg’s MMQB: One of my favourite times of the year

Even during the off-season, there are some really good stretches of time to be a football fan. We’re in one right now. With the NFL Draft in the books, the lead-up to the 2016 CFL Canadian Draft is in overdrive now. We sit just eight days away from one of the most important days on the CFL calendar and things have taken some really interesting twists.

Future watch

I love this time of year. Spring is in the air, training camps are very much on the horizon, and it’s draft season. This is a really cool time period we’re in right now. With the NFL’s draft complete, and with undrafted free agents having signed, we have a much better idea of how one draft is going to affect the other. Now we can start to get a really clear picture of how things are going to shake out come next Tuesday at the CFL Canadian Draft.

Congratulations to David Onyemata. The Manitoba Bisons defensive tackle was the lone Canadian drafted over the weekend in Chicago as he went in the fourth round to the New Orleans Saints. It was a great moment for a player who just picked up the sport five years ago, but it also throws a brand new wrinkle into next Tuesday’s proceedings.

Onyemata was the CFL Scouting Bureau’s top ranked prospect coming out of the final rankings published last week. If history is any indication, though, we won’t see him selected anywhere near the top. He will get selected, though.

RELATED: FINAL CFL SCOUTING BUREAU RANKINGS

2015’s top ranked prospect was Rice defensive lineman Christian Covington. He ended up dropping to the BC Lions in the fifth round after being taken by the Houston Texans a few weeks prior. The 2014 example was McGill’s Laurent Duvernay-Tardif. The Kansas City Chiefs selected the number one ranked CFL prospect before the Calgary Stampeders selected him in the third round a few weeks later.

So just like that, one potential first round pick has fallen down the draft board, but he’s not the only one. With Canadians Tevaun Smith (WR, Iowa), Elie Bouka (DB, Calgary), Arjen Colquhoun (DB, Michigan State) and Mehdi Abdesmad (DL, Boston College) signing free agent NFL deals following the draft, four more potential first round picks have fallen a little further back.

So what will the top of the draft board look like in eight days? While that is still very much up in the air, we have a pretty good idea of who is going to be in that mix. Oklahoma offensive lineman Josiah St. John is now the top ranked prospect not expected to drop with Laval’s Charles Vaillancourt, also an offensive lineman, right behind him.

But Vaillancourt presents another really interesting case. He joins a sizeable group including Acadia’s Brian Jones, Taylor Loffler of UBC, and Calgary’s Mercer Timmins as players accepting invites to NFL mini-camps. Now, mini-camp invites shouldn’t affect draft positioning very much, if at all, but it’s another interesting wrinkle to keep your eye on.

This is what I love about this time of year. There is so much that goes into a Canadian Draft selection, and so many different factors to consider. Some really good players will drop down the order, because that’s always the case. But there’s a very positive byproduct of that.

Now the spotlight shifts to other deserving Canadian talent. Alex Mateas was last year’s first overall selection out of UConn. After being eased along in his rookie season, Mateas has a very good chance of starting on Ottawa’s offensive line this season. The year before, it was Laval offensive lineman Pierre Lavertu going first overall to Calgary. All he’s done since then is take home a West Division All Star nod in 2015.

There’s one more twist to consider. Many believe the Saskatchewan Roughriders are very much ready to trade their first overall selection in this year’s draft. That means that number one pick is totally up in the air, depending on who ends up making the selection. A team may want Vaillancourt so bad they’re not willing to wait and see if he drops to their position. Maybe the same is true for his Laval teammate Phillipe Gagnon.

In the end, there are so many permutations we might see come next Tuesday it’s difficult to predict. That makes things exciting, and it makes the next week fascinating as teams finish off their final preparations. Most importantly, at least for me, it’s why this is one of my favourite times of the year.

Fantasy football (Part two)

Speaking of drafts, we started the MMQB fantasy draft last week. We’re putting together the best CFL fantasy roster possible, at least in our eyes. Below you can see how our little team is starting to take shape as we make our next two selections, this time on the defensive side of the ball.

Justin Capicciotti, DE
Saskatchewan Roughriders

Once again, we’re coming at this from the perspective of starting a team to have sustained success. That’s why I go with Capicciotti who is entering his first season with Saskatchewan after signing there in free agency. There are a few different aspects that push him to the top of my list at defensive end.

First off, the guy can ball and is just starting to come into his own. Capicciotti got better and better as the 2015 season went along and had developed into a dominant force off the edge for Ottawa in the second half of the season. With just two years as an everyday starter under his belt, I’m still not sure Capicciotti knows how good he can be. He finished the year with 12 sacks, good for third in the league, and I fully expect that number to be higher this year.

Then you take into account his age and his status as a national player. Capicciotti is 26 years old and won’t turn 27 until the very end of the 2016 season. Of the league’s elite edge rushers, he is one of the youngest, which is a nice boost. Oh, and let’s not forget he’s Canadian. Capicciotti brings that element to the table unlike some of the other guys I considered when making this pick.

Ted Laurent, DT
Hamilton Tiger-Cats

This one was a no-brainer for me because I don’t think there is a more dominant defensive force in Canadian football than Hamilton’s Laurent. The contract the Tiger-Cats signed him to to prevent him from leaving in free agency is testament to that. When talking about defensive tackles, the conversation starts and ends with the two-time CFL All Star.

Laurent is the type of player that teams game plan specifically for in head-to-head matchups. Don’t let his 2015 sack total fool you. Laurent went from nine sacks in 2014 to three last year; you can attribute a lot of that to the increased attention paid to him from the outset of the season. Stats definitely don’t tell the whole story with Laurent.

Much like the Capicciotti selection, Laurent’s status as a national player is important to note, too. I would have selected him here regardless of his birthplace, but him being Canadian is a nice feather in the cap. And, having turned 28 in January, there’s still plenty of time left as a dominant force.

Quick hits

This has been a very important off-season for the CFL. I think the increased use of video is a positive and I love the partnership with the NFL in developing officials. A brand new, comprehensive drug testing policy has been rubber-stamped. Now, the league and its players association have upped the ante on player safety.

Starting this season, we’ll see the addition of an injury spotter at every game while the focus on preventing and studying concussions continues to be a priority. Seeing so many of these positive league stories come one after another this winter has been really good to see.

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The MMQB will take a brief hiatus next week as CFL.ca goes into overdrive on draft coverage. First and foremost, this is your one stop shop for all things leading up to, during, and following the draft. And if you haven’t already, now is the time to hit the follow button on Justin Dunk’s Twitter account. JD is in the CFL “must read” category all year, but this is the time when he blows it out of the water most.