Photo courtesy UBC athletics
Combine season has arrived once again, CFL fans, with the invitational camp being held this Friday, followed by the humongous CFL Combine presented by New Era from March 19-24, in Winnipeg.
As the top National and Global prospects get ready to strut their stuff for the player personnel types, here are a few thoughts that come to mind ahead of the talking, the lifting, the sprinting and the hopping.
CFL COMBINE presented by New Era
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THAT NAME IS FAMILIAR
Ben Hladik has been a sensational find for the BC Lions, a young and still up-and-coming linebacker who piled up over 100 tackles last season.
Now, we get a combine look at his brother, Brad, who’s been playing on the other side of the ball with the UBC Thunderbirds.
At six-foot-four and 235 pounds, Hladik has been a load to deal with as a tight end.
Robert Mimbs was a fabulous player, a fast and bruising running back who rushed for over 1,341 yards in 1990 and then for 1,769 in 1991 as a Winnipeg Blue Bomber. Then he ran for 1,461 more as a Saskatchewan Roughrider in 1996. His son, D’Sean, has been catching passes for the University of Regina and we’ll get to see him in action at the combine.
And the late Michael Soles was in so many ways a heart and soul player for both Edmonton and then Montreal after being drafted fifth overall in 1989. More than that, he rushed for over 3,000 yards and caught passes for over 3,500 during his career. His son, Anthony, has been running out of the backfield for the Queen’s Gaels the last three seasons and now he’ll get a chance to boost his stock ahead of the draft.
It’s great to see the next generation carrying the torch for their dads.
THE HEAD-TURNERS
Gavin Cobb rode a strong Combine performance into the 2022 CFL Draft (Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca)
It’s intriguing when a lower-ranked athlete starts to generate a little buzz at combine. Sometimes it’s that slow-building totality of the numbers they put up in testing. Sometimes, it’s word getting out that they have been extremely impressive in their team interviews. And sometimes, it’s the loud gong of a head-turning day of showing out during the one-on-one drills. Guys like receivers Gavin Cobb and Daniel Oladejo come to mind, recently.
It’s so much fun when a just-off-the-radar football player inserts themself brashly into the draft conversation. No doubt, somebody you haven’t heard much about will do just that first at Waterloo on Friday and then in Winnipeg.
FROM EVEN FARTHER OFF THE RADAR
Prior to the CFL combine, we have the Invitational Combine, coming up this Friday at the University of Waterloo.
The roots of this combine are in an event that TSN’s Duane Forde used to run prior to the big show in order to give even more players a chance to show what they can do. Do not discount players in this field.
I recall covering the 2012 national combine in Toronto (at that time it was called ‘E-Camp’), where the first player to be invited from a Forde event gained a spot. He was a gutsy, positive-minded offensive lineman from Mount Allison University.
Mike Filer went from a player on no one’s mind to a fifth-round draft pick of the Calgary Stampeders. Then he went on to a terrific, eight-season career as a Hamilton Tiger-Cat.
More recently, linebacker Jordan Williams came from one of the forerunners of the invitational — the Ontario Regional — to become the first overall pick in 2020.
Don’t sleep on the latecomers.
THE “EXPLOSIVE” DRILLS
Drills that track sudden changes and agility often provide a window into which players are ready to play at the pro level (Christian Bender/CFL.ca)
Years ago, I had a CFL general manager tell me something that I’ve never forgotten when it comes to the combine and that is that the explosive drills are the ones you should really pay attention to.
Everybody loves the 40, everybody loves the bench press, sure. They’re fun, they’re spectacles. But if you want to get a good idea who has the sneaky skills to translate great college headlines into a solid pro career, take a look at the drills that showcase explosive, off the mark tangibles that can give a player an edge during a game.
Vertical leap and broad jump are the two that give you a measure of a player’s explosive abilities and when you combine that with something like the 3-cone drill, you get a great picture of a player’s potential when it comes to beating an opponent in those split-seconds that can make all the difference.
ONE-ON-ONES CAN MAKE A HUGE DIFFERENCE
Testing is fine and all and the numbers from them at the combine are great fodder for comparative conversations as we head toward the draft.
But the one-on-one and unit drills are absolutely the most compelling aspects of the CFL combine for me. Sometimes, a prospect shows in these drills that the whole is much greater than just the sum of their testing parts.
The CFL knows this too and that is why what used to be a Sunday-only session of one-on-one drills not so many years ago has grown into three days of practices, allowing for a good long look at a prospect’s football IQ as well as how those testing numbers translate to the field of play. Which is what matters most, after all.
I mentioned Oladejo and Cobb, above. They each got tongues wagging with crisp routes and sure hands during practice drills during their combine appearances, boosting their draft positions in the process. And watch for the athletes who get tabbed to try a few reps out of position, as that means coaches are very much intrigued by the notion of where they might best fit the pro game.
Last year, for instance, defensive lineman Anthony Bennett was asked to take some reps at linebacker. He went on to be selected eighth overall by the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
