O’Leary: Jordan Williams’ unlikely road to the top of the 2020 CFL Draft

If he’d wanted to, it could have worked out differently and Jordan Williams would be a name that’s been in the Canadian football collective consciousness for a year now.

The talented linebacker from Eastern Carolina University walked into an Ottawa REDBLACKS tryout last year and was just like all of the other American players that took the field. He had a hunger to continue playing the game he loved and maybe less than a complete understanding of the Canadian game. It didn’t matter. Then-REDBLACKS head coach Rick Campbell liked what he saw and he started a conversation with Williams.

That’s when Williams mentioned that his mom is Canadian.

A lot can change in a year. Too late to qualify for last year’s CFL draft, Williams waited, sorted out his dual citizenship and proved that he’s eligible to qualify as a national. Meanwhile, the Ottawa team he could have theoretically signed with as an American suffered through a three-win season and Campbell went to BC, looking for a fresh start.

Knowing what he saw in Williams at that tryout and after what Williams showed at the Ontario regional combine in March, the Lions felt the need to jump up two spots in the draft to ensure they got what they wanted.

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“Jordan’s a very athletic linebacker,” Campbell said on Thursday night, after the Lions took him first overall.

“He ended up waiting and it was a smart move. He’s a good football player, regardless of nationality. He can run, he’s very quick and fast and can contribute on special teams. I’m very excited that we were able to move up and get him.”

Whether Williams knew it or not, when he made the trip to his mom’s hometown of Toronto last month for the regional combine, he was looking at a long shot situation. Only a handful of players get invited from the regional combine to the league’s national combine and while many of those invitees get drafted into the CFL and stick with a team, they don’t often hear their names until the late into the night.

When Jermaine Gabriel went 17th overall to Toronto in the 2013 draft, it was the highest a regional combine player had ever been chosen. Williams changed that on Thursday night.

“I had nothing to lose and I had to lose everything to gain,” Williams said of his approach to the regional combine.

“I just went out there and I did everything my hardest. Whatever happened that day, at the end of the day, whether I ran a 4.4…if I tried my hardest, that was my situation.”

He also was the benefactor of the horrible situation that COVID-19 has put the world in. The Ontario regional combine is the only one that was able to take place. The CFL shut down its remaining two regional combines and the national combine the day that the Ontario regional had wrapped up. Williams’ tape and evaluations from CFL execs was literally the freshest that teams could evaluate leading into this draft.

Jordan Williams’ physicality won over Rick Campbell last year when he was coaching in Ottawa and again this year when Williams took part in the Ontario regional combine (Photo: ECU athletics media relations)

He knew that the Lions were interested in him when the people around him started getting phone calls.

“I don’t pay attention to media and things of that nature,” he said, “but when I heard them calling my athletic trainer, asking what was up with Jordan in 2018 I thought they might take me. Other than that I didn’t hear anything else differently. They were the only team that called up and asked about my injury history, things of that nature so that was a pointer.”

Williams had 252 career tackles in 45 games at Eastern Carolina. After watching film on him, Lions GM Ed Hervey was impressed with the physicality of Williams’ game.

“I think we have the luxury of our head coach getting to know him in Ottawa as an American player,” Hervey said of Williams.

“As far as the evaluation film, we had Rob Ralph (the Lions’ director of Canadian scouting and draft coordinator) out there to see him live and in person and he came back with a glowing report on Jordan.

“His film speaks for itself. His film shows he can play football and we believe athletically his game will translate to the Canadian game.”

It’s common, Hervey said, for American players to come to the CFL having spent a year or two and sometimes more out of football and still find success in this league. He sees plenty of good years in front of Williams.

“He was ready to play the previous year but because he found out the opportunity for national status, anyone would take the opportunity to sit out,” he said.

“A lot of American players we bring up sit out a year and they turn out to be special players.”

Had it worked out differently, Williams might have been a special player for the REDBLACKS a year ago. Williams’ patience paid off though and on Thursday night, he made some draft history.