May 5, 2017

O’Leary: Draft preparation different for each CFL team say GMs

Johany Jutras/CFL.ca

As they inch toward Sunday’s CFL Draft, Brock Sunderland and Jim Popp do so from different vantage points.

Both are first-year general managers with the Edmonton Eskimos and Toronto Argonauts, respectively, but Popp’s seen a few more drafts than Sunderland.

“This is my 26th year in the league, so this is my 24th as a GM in the draft,” Popp said earlier this week.

Sunderland was hired by the Eskimos on April 24, giving him less than two weeks to get ready for his first draft in his new role. The experience isn’t a new one for him, though. In time spent with the Montreal Alouettes in scouting, then as assistant GM of the Ottawa REDBLACKS the last four seasons, he’s been through this process seven times.

From the outside, that process seems like a very difficult one to navigate. The CFL draft is unique, of course, in that teams are only selecting players that are eligible to play under the national status. In other sports, fans and scouts alike can look to the best of the college or amateur ranks, or around the world and make safe assumptions on who the top picks will be. The scope is more specific in the CFL, the prospects often not easily accessible on TV. Scouting needs to be invested in and active.

“I don’t know if I can compare it. I think all the drafts are different to be honest,” Popp said.

“We still start out, the NFL draft is open to everybody. When we start our draft, you’re sometimes between 800 and 1000 kids that you start out with and you narrow it down. (The CFL will) draft 71 of them this year.”

 

To Sunderland, a draft is a draft.

“(All drafts are) a subjective industry,” he said. “You’re dealing with people, so there’s no exact science. I don’t think it’s any more difficult than the NFL draft and I’ve been in both.

“The only difference is the players who are with an NFL team now, either being drafted or as an un-drafted free agent who signed or had a minicamp workout, thats the only variable. The truth is, this is not an exact science and (a draft), that’s based on opinion and it’s people. It’s human nature. You never know how things are going to play out with how a person is going to fit in with a certain culture, so on and so forth.”

The human element factors in with those making the picks, too. GMs and their staffs work tirelessly in the months leading up to the draft to explore every option of a draft, but things can always catch you by surprise.

“Things always happen,” Sunderland said. “Teams will take players much earlier or higher than we have them valued and vice versa. I’m sure we’ll take players where other teams will go, ‘Oh my gosh, they took him there.’ That’s the surprise, but if you’re well prepared there never should be a knee jerk oh-my-gosh-what-do-we-do-here moment. That just speaks to ill preparation.”

Trades can come out of nowhere, Popp said, but it’s about being prepared and making adjustments.


MORE ON THE CFL DRAFT
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» Breaking down the draft’s top 20 prospects
» Mock Drafts: 1.0 | 2.0


“I’ve been (in drafts) where the morning of the draft a trade occurs, or you get a call within 10 minutes of your first pick and it changes the course of things,” he said.

“It becomes chaotic, yes. That being said, we’ve already gone through our draft list, we’ve fine-tooth-combed it and we continue to do that all the way up to our pick.”

Both GMs and their staffs rank their top-71 players and adjust their lists as the draft progresses.

“You’ve got to be prepared and you’ve got to have a plan,” Popp said. “My theory is to always take the best player up to a certain point and then sometimes you’ll take by need, or a combination of that.”

“It’s always value. I always believe in taking the best possible player,” Sunderland said. “Your needs could change with an injury or a potential trade or all of the above. You’re never wrong when you take the best player.

“I think when you go for need you reach sometimes. If you take a player at less value at a higher position, that skews your roster. I’ve never seen good come from that.”

Draft No. 24 as a GM will be different only in location for Popp. For Sunderland, it’ll be a long-anticipated first, getting the final say on picks.

“I’m very excited,” he said. “In Ottawa Marcel (Desjardins) was very open to thoughts and suggestions. He certainly had the final call but I feel like I had a big say in that draft room. It’ll be a little different having the final, final say, but the process will remain the same and the approach will be very similar to what I’ve done in the past. I’m just excited and happy to get that opportunity to be in that seat.”