The clock is ticking in advance of the picking.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders are applying the finishing touches to their preparations for the 2024 CFL Draft, which is slated for Tuesday evening.
“It’s kind of like preparing for a test,” Roughriders Vice-President of Football Operations and General Manager Jeremy O’Day said during Monday’s pre-Draft session with reporters.
“You’ve 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’re cramming, but you’re throwing on video of 15 guys in the draft and watching them again to make sure where you had them is the right spot.
“The exercise we do through the mock drafts is good to hopefully make you understand that there might be a situation where you have to choose between three players, so you want to take another peek at them all and make sure those are the guys you want to pick.
“For me, personally, that’s how I look at it. I just watch a little more tape over the next 24 hours.
“Some other people might be more relaxed and feel like ‘we’re in a good spot.’ Some people don’t want to cram for tests because they feel like they could make it worse.”
There is that danger of reaching a point of diminishing returns, with information overload being counterproductive.
“You don’t want to over-evaluate and nitpick,” O’Day cautioned. “A lot of times through this whole process, to be honest, you’re trying to find things that are wrong with (players) and, a lot of times, you’ve got to look at the things they do well and the value they would bring.
“You look at it from both sides — glass half-full and glass half-empty. That’s what we do when we’re in the room (for Draft preparations).
“When somebody says something, you want to challenge them and break them down and say, ‘What about the character? Do you think he’ll fit in the room?’
“If a player has bounced around to different schools, maybe he has done it for a good reason or the reason wasn’t that good.
“A lot goes into it. At the end of the day, you want to get it to where you have your board in front of you. There should be a couple of questions you ask, but that should be taken care of in how you have them ranked on your board.”
O’Day ranks this year’s pool of prospects very high in terms of overall depth.
“I think it’s a strong Draft class,” he said. “There’s probably another round of good players than we’ve had in the last couple of years.”
The Edmonton Elks own the first overall selection. The Ottawa REDBLACKS pick second.
The Roughriders pick third in each of the eight rounds. In terms of overall selections, Saskatchewan chooses at Nos. 3, 12, 23, 32, 41, 50, 59 and 68.
“I enjoy the Draft,” said O’Day, a former CFL offensive lineman who played for the Roughriders from 1999 to 2010.
“I still think it’s a little more stressful when you’re the guy who’s making the final decision.
“It’s probably as close to playing the game of football without actually playing it.”
EXTRA POINTS: Offensive tackle Brandon Council isn’t expected to return after playing in 12 games for the Roughriders last season. O’Day said that Council has “an opportunity at Auburn,” where he played from 2020 to 2022 … The Roughriders have signed University of Saskatchewan Huskies product Katley Joseph, who was a Canada West All-Star defensive back in 2022 and 2023. He was also a first-team All-Canadian in 2023 … Tuesday’s CFL Global Draft is to begin at 9 a.m. Saskatchewan has the third and 12th overall picks.
