With the CFL draft just hours away, the Saskatchewan Roughriders are getting ready to bring the next generation to the football field.
The Roughriders will have the third-overall pick Tuesday night, behind the Edmonton Elks and Ottawa Redblacks.
In the second round, the Roughriders have the 12th overall pick.
Saskatchewan Roughriders vice-president of football operations and general manager, Jeremy O’Day, shared his thoughts on the draft Monday.
“Definitely as a whole I would say it’s a strong draft class. I just think that there’s another round of good players that we’ve had in the last couple of years. I don’t know the reason for that but that’s changing a lot of NFL opportunities,” O’Day said.
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O’Day isn’t giving anything away, however, as to who they hope to land.
“You have to have three guys just in case your top guys go one and two,” O’Day said of his draft night plans. “After that you really have to kind of focus in on your top (priorities).”
When asked if the team was ready for the big night, well O’Day said it feels like he is back in school all over again.
“It’s kind of like preparing for a test,” he explained. “You have been studying for a long time and you get to that time before the test and you start to say, ‘ did I forget about this, did I miss this.’”
“I don’t want to say you are cramming but yeah you are throwing on video of 15 guys in the draft and you are just watching them again to make sure where you had them was the right spot.”
This year’s draft also marks the first for Corey Mace in the head coaching position.
“He’s really involved and probably doing more evaluations than he’s used to,” O’Day said. “It’s nice for him to look at a draft from a whole perspective instead of just the defensive side.”
“We’ve asked our head coach to evaluate a lot of players and to give his draft scores to us because we want him to be part of the evaluation.”
The CFL Draft will kick off at 6 p.m. Tuesday.