April 24, 2018

Breaking down Pro Days as CFL Draft approaches

Rice University

Each year the CFL’s best prospects descend upon the national combine in hopes of turning scouts heads and garnering a better draft position.

They go to the scouts to complete interviews, do athletic tests and introduce themselves to the CFL world.

For some other prospects, a pro day is deemed to be the better path of action. All the goals are the same but the setting is much more comfortable and familiar while also not having to perform in pads as the national combine invites do to culminate the combine experience.

While some players decided to host a pro day after the national scouting combine, this year five players elected to exclusively use the pro day as their evaluation setting.

Regis Cibasu ran as about expected with a hulking frame near 6-foot-3 and 235 pounds. The critique from scouts north and south of the border has been a lack of explosiveness and the ability to cut with the type of suddenness that creates separation and catches.

That is Cibasu’s curse but it’s caused by his blessing. Size and power.

Cibasu is more likely to hit you with a devastating forearm than hurdle or juke and should be a great interior slotback at the next level if a CFL team finds the right way to use him in a role that utilizes his natural abilities.

Godber is the first of an offensive lineman fearsome foursome who all played their college ball in the United States.

The Rice Owls’ most consistent offensive lineman over the last two years has the shortest arms of the four line prospects but his lower body strength and first step quickness from the guard position will make him an early draft pick.

Knevel once owned the top spot in the CFL Scouting Bureau rankings and it’s not hard to see why with his pure measurables.

At 6-foot-8.5 and 333 pounds, Knevel is one of the largest offensive line prospects evaluated since 2001. Tag on a long reach to that frame and you get the makings of a multiple-time CFL All-Star if his body continues to develop and adapts to the pro game.

While Knevel’s testing numbers might seem less than impressive, remember, these things must all be put in context. While it’s always great to have a maximum combination of size and athleticism, each player is different and finding those with a perfect combination is rare.

Knevel’s bench press could be concerning to any teams who care about that sort of thing, but again, his long arms mean he’s playing a different game athletically than his draft class cohorts.

I believe Trey Rutherford out of UConn to be the third most athletic lineman in the draft this year behind Ryan Hunter of Bowling Green and Dakoda Shepley of UBC.

The advantage Rutherford has over anyone in the 2018 offensive lineman draft is his quickness. Looking at the 10-yard, shuttle and three-cone times paints the image of a man swinging well above his weight in quickness tests while carrying considerable size.

No wonder the Huskies toyed around with using Rutherford in a variety of unique positions on the field in hopes of exploring this unique combination and talent.

The CFL is about to get an absolute gem of an athlete out of North Bay.

Ryan Hunter has the perfect frame to call guard in the CFL home for a long time. He cut considerable weight ahead of his workout to get to a healthier place and it showed at the Bowling Green pro day, where the now-former Falcon rated in the top fifth of CFL offensive lineman prospects since 2006 in all but one test (vertical jump).

What might be more impressive is the ability of Hunter to maintain strength – 25 reps on the bench – while cutting down to become quicker.

He is a pro-ready player with the ability to assist the improvement of any CFL team on the field quickly.

I believe Hunter helped himself the most in 2018’s pro day circuit, followed closely behind by Rutherford and Godber. All the players who worked out exclusively on campus this year deserve to be in or around to the single digits on draft day depending on the influence of post-NFL draft signings.