CFL set for historic draft of Mexican talent
The Canadian Football League will follow the historic scouting combine set for Mexico City this weekend with a lottery draft on Monday.
A weighted lottery was used to decide which CFL team selects the first Mexican player in the draft.
That team is the Toronto Argonauts.
And, in following the waiver priority list, the Montreal Alouettes will have eight balls in the bin, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats seven, Edmonton Eskimos six, B.C. Lions five, Winnipeg Blue Bombers four, Saskatchewan Roughriders three, Ottawa Redblacks two and the Grey Cup champion Calgary Stampeders just one.
The duration of Monday’s draft will depend on the level of talent on display at Sunday’s player combine at Estadio Azul.
Fifty-one Mexican players from the country’s lone professional league and university ranks will work out for CFL scouts and staff. They will perform a 225-pound bench press, vertical jump, broad jump, 40-yard dash, three-cone, short shuttle and positional drills. They will also be interviewed by CFL team personnel.
Although the original plan had been for the nine CFL teams to draft up to two players each, it looks likely that each team will now draft four players each, for a total of 36.
A total of 51 players have been invited to attend the combine and positionally are broken down as follows: 12 receivers, 10 defensive linemen, seven DBs, six LBs, five offensive linemen, four kickers, three RBs, three QBs and one fullback.
The smallest player in the combine is receiver Aldo Narvaez who is listed at five-foot-six, 154 pounds. Offensive lineman Dario Martinez is the biggest, at six-foot-two, 330.
There is speculation that wide receiver Humberto Noriega, could be the prize of the combine. He’s a big, physical specimen who led the nation in receiving yards playing for one of the top college teams in Mexico, the UDLAP Aztecas. However, that was two seasons ago and Noriega is now a lawyer who hasn’t played anywhere lately so nobody knows how good he’ll look on Sunday
With excerpts from Dan Barnes from Post Media.
