CFL.ca Staff
TORONTO – Drafting, in its purest sense, is ultimately a risk with no guarantees.
Players drafted in the first round may never play a down of football while those taken later could end up being the star you were expecting earlier.
The CFL Draft adds another element of uncertainty to the equation – for some draftees, signing a contract with an NFL team becomes more than temporary and the clubs who drafted them north of the border are left with nothing to show for it.
It becomes a delicate balance of risking losing the talent of Canadian players should they decide to play in the NFL or picking more of a guaranteed selection who you know has higher odds of being a CFL player.
This year was no different, as both the Lions and Stampeders used draft picks on Canadian players currently under contract with NFL teams.
Christian Covington was the top-ranked prospect by CFL.ca’s Scouting Bureau after recording three sacks and 20 tackles at Rice last year. He was drafted in the sixth round of this year’s NFL Draft by the Houston Texans. Should the defensive end wind up in the CFL, the Lions would be his team after he was selected by BC in the fifth round.
The Lions also picked up the rights to offensive lineman Brett Boyko with the 14th overall pick despite him signing a contract with the Philadelphia Eagles. The next round, Calgary selected Tyler Varga, a running back out of Yale who has a deal with the Indianapolis Colts.
While both Lions general manager Wally Buono and Stamps general manager John Hufnagel understand the risks in their choices, both are still hopeful that one day they can reap the benefits of their selections. Despite wishing their picks well in their NFL pursuits, both want their players to know that if their NFL dreams don’t work out, they have homes in Calgary and Vancouver.
After starring both on and off the field at Yale, Hufnagel knew that Varga was a player he wanted to select. And he was able to get him right where he wanted – in the third round.
“We got a little nervous,” said Hufnagel. “We wanted to select him in the middle of the third round but we decided ‘here’s a guy that if he does not find a home in Indianapolis, he can help us continue on with our ratio with a National being the running back’.”
For Buono, he ended up using two of his eight draft picks on players who might never put on a Lions uniform. The players he did take, however, were the top two prospects on the CFL’s Scouting Bureau in Convington and Boyko, respectively.
“Players of Christian’s caliber are rare and I believe he’s worth the risk given that we had an extra pick in the fifth round,” said Buono.
The Lions’ Director of Player Personnel, Neil McEvoy, agrees with the notion that a team needs to draft the best player available when picking.
“Christian Covington, at the end of the day, is probably the number one draft eligible player in the 2015 CFL Draft,” said McEvoy. “Getting him where we got him, he’s a local Vancouver kid, grew up in the Vancouver area and he knows what the BC Lions are all about. If his NFL opportunities end in two, three, maybe four, five years, maybe never, there’s a chance he will come back and play for us.”
McEvoy continued his praise of BC’s draft picks and believes that Boyko could come in and be a starting tackle should things not work out with the Eagles.
Some draft day risks pay off right away and some don't pay off at all. Others, meanwhile, pay off a long way down the road. Look no further than Argonauts linebacker Cory Greenwood.
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Players of Christian's caliber are rare and I believe he's worth the risk.
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- Lions GM Wally Buono
After being ranked the third-best prospect in the 2010 draft by the CFL Scouting Bureau, the Argos took the linebacker third overall. Less than a month later, Greenwood signed a contract with the Kansas City Chiefs. He played five seasons in the NFL before joining the Argos at the end of last season. With Toronto’s off-season trade of Shea Emery, Greenwood looks primed to slot in as the team’s new starting linebacker.
Another Argos first-round pick, offensive lineman Nick Kaczur, had a similar NFL experience. Chosen ninth overall by Toronto in 2005, Kaczur was drafted in the third round of the NFL Draft by the New England Patriots that same year. He spent six seasons with the Patriots and played 68 games before retiring in 2010 having never played a CFL down.
The Lions drafted Danny Watkins fourth overall in the 2010 draft, but the offensive lineman elected to return to Baylor to play out his final year. After being selected in the first round of the 2011 NFL Draft by the Eagles, Watkins became the first Canadian to be drafted in the first round of both the CFL and NFL drafts since 1986. Like Kaczur, Watkins would spend his entire football career without playing in the CFL.
It remains to be seen what will happen to Covington, Boyko and Varga. While their CFL status remains in limbo for now, all three know that they have a home in the league should their options below the 49th parallel disappear.
http://cfl.ca/article/futures-picks-hig ... -in-drafts