Andrew Mahon/CFL.ca
If you’ve followed along on the lead up to the CFL Draft, there are some names that should be automatically attached to the topic at this point.
We’ve heard a lot about Joel Dublanko and Kevin Mital, the two players who saw their respective draft stocks rise after their showings last month at the CFL Combine presented by New Era. If you’ve kept up with the CFL Scouting Bureau’s rankings, or have an eye to the ongoing NFL Draft, you’ll know the names Isaiah Adams, Theo Johnson, Theo Benedet, Tanner McLachlan and Kyle Hergel, to name a few.
The high profile names are there for a reason, but one of the best parts of the CFL Draft is seeing that later-round selection that ends up carving out a nice career for themselves. It’s something Marshall Ferguson touched on in his pre-CFL Draft call with Duane Forde on Thursday.
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“My favourite part of the draft is the second round, which might seem counterintuitive,” Ferguson said.
“I’ve always believed that the first round is where we overhype things and some teams take shots in the dark, or maybe you’re hoping or maybe it’s a futures pick, or you want to be able to have possession of a player for when they eventually do come up. The second round is where you typically go and get the player who’s going to be in training camp on your roster and give you a chance to play right now.”
The same can apply to the later rounds of the draft as well. Jamie Nye does an excellent job detailing some of the biggest draft steals over the last 20 years. Players like Stavros Katsantonis (fourth round, 36th overall in 2020), Luc Brodeur-Jordain (sixth round, 48th overall, the final pick 2008), Derek Wiggan (fourth round, 34th overall in 2014) and Kian Schaffer-Baker (fourth round, 30th overall in 2020) to name a few, came from the depths of the draft to establish themselves as major forces in the CFL.
When the draft shifts from TSN’s televised portion to its online broadcast on Tuesday night on TSN+, the pace of the picks quickens but their importance remains the same. I asked Ferguson and Forde who they thought were sleepers in this draft. Both give us lots to think about ahead of Tuesday night.
Talent in the trenches
Luke Brubacher (No. 89, right) has first round pick-type athleticism, Marshall Ferguson says, but could slide further in the CFL Draft (Cameron Bartlett/CFL.ca)
“A name that we haven’t mentioned yet that we talked a lot about at the combine is Luke Brubacher,” Ferguson said.
“He could be easily a first round pick because he’s got that type of athleticism and looks really, really good in a uniform and creates and all the rest. But he also could basically slide to halfway through the second round. Then somebody gets him and you go, ‘Wow, why didn’t you go in the first round?'”
Ferguson then looked to the opposite side of the line of scrimmage and saw an elite offensive lineman whose NFL options may push his name down the draft board.
“Another one for me, depending on what this ends up looking like in terms of how hungry teams are to go and get those offensive linemen that may or may not be in camp with you this year is Christy Nkanu from Washington State.
“I easily think that if there were not so many of these offensive linemen (with NFL interest), that likely you’re going to have to wait on, that he would probably easily be a first round pick. Based on some of the (NFL option) stuff get pushed into early second, maybe even late second, I can’t imagine him getting to the third round. So if he’s there middle to late second round.
“Nkanu and Brubacher for each side of the line of scrimmage to me could be those guys that they get that gold label five years down the road and we’re all going, ‘What? Who went ahead of them? Why did they get picked (so late)?'”
Potential too strong to overlook
Forde referenced a couple of RSEQ players that may be somewhat under the radar: Laval defensive back Christophe Bealieu and Concordia receiver Ezekiel Tieide. He said Tiede may be “among the highest ceilings of that (receiver) group” in this year’s draft class. He also mentioned UBC defensive tackle Kyle Sampson and McMaster d-lineman Mitchell Price as possible sleepers.
The one name that floated toward the top of Forde’s list though, is one that Canadian football fans will know well: receiver Ajou Ajou.
The Brooks, Alta. product moved to Edmonton and attended Harry Ainlay High School in his grade 10 year, before making another move in his senior year to Clearwater Academy in Florida. He started his NCAA career at Clemson, transferred to South Florida in 2022 and after a coaching staff change, moved again, this time to Garden City Community College in Kansas for the 2023 season.
Ajou has shown flashes of elite athleticism and at six-foot-two and 211 pounds — which is lighter than he was in his Clemson days — looks the part of someone who could star in the CFL. His performance at the CFL Combine in Winnipeg, where he ran a 4.85-second 40-yard dash and dealt with an ankle injury in the practice sessions that week didn’t help his draft stock. Forde still wonders though, if Ajou could get the stability in the CFL that’s eluded him the last few years and start to build on the potential he has.
“There was a time where you certainly wouldn’t have talked about him as as a sleeper,” he said of Ajou, “but he quickly got maybe pushed to the side a little bit or pushed down people’s list at the combine.
“Those from Alberta will recognize that this is a guy that’s seen as a freak athlete. Everything he touched in every sport, quite frankly, kind of turned to gold. He’s the provincial high jump record holder, still in Alberta. He was great at a lot of things.
“His career has kind of gone sideways, through his time south of the border but he’s another guy who is a young guy still in this draft. And when you look at that frame and look at a guy who I think has, maybe out of necessity, found a motivation to work that he hasn’t always had…I think he’s a guy that there’s potential for a very high ceiling there.”
When evaluating prospects, Forde places a lot of emphasis on what these athletes were in high school. That speaks loudly to him on Ajou.
“This is still a young dude with a lot of athletic potential,” he said. “Part of it admittedly is hope on my part. Hope that he finds an opportunity and finds his way, whether it be this year maybe he goes and plays U SPORTS football for a year and shows up again in a year. (He’s) a pretty unique guy that maybe has been forgotten about a little bit but there’s still a lot of intrigue there for me.”
