Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
After Montreal Alouettes’ GM Kavis Reed said that he’d be open to trading the first overall pick in Thursday’s CFL Draft, a pair of draft experts wondered what it might take to turn speculation and feelers into reality.
On the Alouettes’ season preview conference call on Monday, Reed said that other teams had inquired about a trade and that if the offer was right, both short and long-term for his team, he’d entertain it.
Pressure to distance the Alouettes from their 3-15 finish from last season could dictate whether or not Reed makes a move, according to TSN’s Duane Forde.
“I guess the first thing in terms of whether or not it’s worth it, that depends on what someone is willing to give,” Forde said during Tuesday’s CFL Draft conference call.
“I do think that given the Alouettes’ situation where, quite frankly I think there’s a degree of pressure to be successful this year, particularly for Kavis Reed in his second year as the general manager. It’s very easy to look at the possibility of getting more immediate help than what you might get in the Canadian Football League draft in order to sort of expedite getting your record back on track.”
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Trey Rutherford has emerged as a possible favourite to go first overall (University of Connecticut)
Forde said that if the Als were to trade their pick, maximizing the return would be crucial.
“I think what you’d have to look at, at the very least, is a younger, established Canadian starter, plus whether it means trading down in the first round so that you’re still getting a pick for your future,” he said. “Maybe an early second-round pick. But I think your very minimum is one established starter and a relatively high pick for your first-overall pick.”
CFL.ca’s draft guru, Marshall Ferguson, saw it as a better option for Reed to hold onto that No. 1 pick and make use of it.
“We were talking about it on The Waggle (on Monday) that if Montreal wanted for some reason to move that pick that they’d need to get something back immediately,” Ferguson said.
“A starter, which would make sense to help them now, but you’re also be giving up the idea of building the future out of this draft class.”
Ferguson noted that the Als’ next pick in the draft is at 19, the first selection of the third round. That’s a long and important stretch of the draft to be without a pick.
“Is there necessarily a player out there that you value high enough to get immediate value out of that you think can help you right now that’s going to be a better player, three four five years from now than somebody that you’re going to try to draft and develop? I think that’s a fair question to ask as well,” Ferguson said. “I personally don’t see it. I think the Alouettes would be wise to stay where they’re at and take either Trey Rutherford like I have or take Mark Chapman, like Duane is talking about.”
As Forde mentioned, Reed is only heading into his second year as the Als’ GM. He’s had the unfortunate luck, though, of inheriting a team that had already missed the playoffs in consecutive years before he took over. Last year’s 3-15 record included an 11-game losing streak to close out the season. Some signs of improvement this season would go a long way for Reed.
“Given the situation that Montreal is in and given the situation that Kavis Reed is in, yeah, you can talk about sort of building for the future out of this draft class but I think it becomes a real fine line, depending on how the Alouettes think they’re going to do this year, if you are drafting for somebody else, basically.
“Like most of us, I want to see Kavis do well for a number of reasons and be successful there, but just recognize that situationally there’s a certain immediacy, I’ll call it, a sense of urgency for Montreal.”
Kavis Reed (left) continues to narrow down his choices with the first overall pick (Montreal Alouettes)
Reed said during the team’s mini-camp in Florida two weeks ago, and again on Monday’s call, that he and his staff had four to five candidates in mind with the No. 1 pick and were in the process of finalizing their decision.
Both Forde and Ferguson had ideas on prime candidates to be eying up the Alouettes’ pick.
“I find a lot of times that the trades in the first round, particularly in terms of moving up, it’s not necessarily about a positional need as it is really wanting a particular player,” Forde said.
“I think if you start looking at teams that may have an interest in a receiver, there’s not the same depth where Mark Chapman particularly stands out. You start talking about teams that might have an interest, it’s probably the teams that have a little more of a need for a Canadian receiver. Saskatchewan is one of the teams that comes to mind with that, that doesn’t necessarily have a lot of depth at the receiver spot right now that that would be a possibility.”
“I would say if there is a team that might want to move ahead, even if it’s from three to one or from 12 into the middle of the first round…maybe BC would try to get up earlier to try to make a move with (new GM) Ed Hervey there, to try to make a statement,” Ferguson added.
“The reason I say that is they’re playing in the ultra-competitive West and BC has to get out of the basement. The only way they’re going to do that is if they protect Jonathan Jennings. The only way they do that is (to add quality offensive linemen). I think that might be a move they could do to address their roster pretty quickly.”
