I think its about time we compared our preferences for the upcoming draft. From my perspective, I believe the Als have stability and, the team has few, if any, areas of concern. The offence does have one issue- the lack of serious Canadian receivers. Last year no Canadian player was able to get in the starting lineup and they have not demonstrated the quality required to fill in should one or more of the import receivers get injured. As a former student of Concordia [ when the school went by the name of Sir George Williams University ] I would have a preference for Cory Greenwood who has great CIS stats and appears to have the size and strength to fill the Canadian receiving role for the Als. He might be available in order that the team assigns him as its first pick. There are two other Bishop receivers that might fit in the Als offense and would likely be available as a secong round pick.
However, for a team that has no other areas of concern, the team might pick the best available player at number 7 in the draft. In addition, I doubt that Rob Maver [ kicking, FGs ] will be available at number 7, but if so, I would look for the Als to pick him up. Duval showed in the Grey Cup game that the quality of his play has diminished. The 7 yard kick and, the missed field goal could have cost the Als the Grey Cup. In addition a Canadian kicker would compliment the import ratio leaving room for an additional American in the receiver and kick return slots. I am looking forward to more opinions.
You pick the best talent available period. That is the luxury when you have depth. The rceiver from bishop are interesting, great athletes, it could go there. Popp usualy goes NCAA in the first rounds.
I agree, plus the CFL scout board is useless, teams purposely supply wrong information to the league to keep their draft intentions as close to the vest as possible.
Jim does not mind drafting NCAA juniors because he does not expect NI college players to make a contribution. In some ways these guys don’t take a roster which is nice when your loaded with talent. I expect Barker to go after Juniors as well. There is simply no room on a CFL Roster for 11 NI rookies.
hfxtc: I don't understanding your statement re CIS drafts. The Als have CIS grads on their team now- including B-Jourdain. Shea Emery and Proulx who are on the first string team. I like your concept of drafting NCAA juniors for a team that has few vacancies!!
I seriously doubt that Jim Popp will select,on 1st round of upcoming CFL draft, a Junior player from NCAA; while there are good players, the ones good enough for round 1 -John Bender-OL- and Dany Watkins-OL- will definitely be drafted/signed by an NFL team in 2011; we will not risk losing a player for ever or years,since we have some depth problems in the areas of WR/SB and LB.
There are 3 very good LB's in this year draft; they are,in alphabetical order, Joash Gesse,Cory Greenwood and Shomari Williams. I doubt that one of them will be available,once our turn comes; if yes, we will select this player.
Amongst the WR/SB, Shawn Gore and Steven Turner are the highest ranked; at this time, I think that we will select Shawn Gore with our first choice. If Jim Popp does not select him,then I say Taurean Allen-CB-; I opt for Gore, since I think that Allen will stilll be "available" with our picks in round 2.-14 and 15-
In the secound round, our selected players should be amongst these players:Taurean Allen-CB,Wilfrid Laurier-,J'Michael Deane- Junior OL,Michigan State,Christian Houle LB/LS.Montreal and Anthony Woodson-RB/SB.Calgary.
I was not saying Jim will pick a junior with the first pick but he would not be affraid to and ususally mixes it up.
Jim does not draft by area of need. He has stated numerous times that he will draft the best available player regardless of position. He even drafted Richard Yalowsky with a first round pick knowing there was a good chance the kid might quit football. So drafting someone who might get NFL interest is not going to frighten him.
I do agree that there are some great prospects at the LB and receiver position. I'd love for the Als to pickup any of William,Greenwood,Gore,turner,Dublanko,Gesse. but there are some pretty wicked juniors too and with 3 picks in the top 15. We are going to get at least 3 great prospects.
In regards to NI receivers, I think we should look at who the Als already have. I thought that when Danny Desriveaux got a chance to play, he performed well. While there might be consensus that Eric Deslauriers is essentially a waste of space on the roster, I noted that Dave Stala had the same status, but rebounded to have a strong 2009 season in Hamilton. Deslauriers reminds me of him and I think he may be a surprise. I realize that neither are real deep-threat WRs, but it seems those guys are almost always imports, any way.
We are going to have to look at a replacement for Ben Cahoon one of these days, sooner rather than later. If the brain trust don’t think Desriveaux or Deslauriers are going to develop into capable replacements for him, then we should look at drafting a NI receiver or two. . .
Hard to say at this point. Both Desriveaux and Deslauriers saw more playing time in 2008 than they did last season. . .
Stala had a 1000-yard season with us and was a guy willing to make tough catches in traffic. We cut him loose because of injury problems. I don’t see the comparison to Deslauriers, to be honest. Deslauriers has proven nothing.
And the truth of the matter is...a Ben Cahoon comes along once a generation. I'm afraid we should prepare for lowered expectations from any replacement. Then again, Popp never ceases to amaze when it comes to finding talent.
With Hamilton forfeiting Drafting late in the first round and one of the teams ahead of the Als likely to take a kicker, we will either get one of the top guys from the combine or one of the top juniors. Either way it works out. in the second round pick 14 and 15 there should still be some really good prospects.