CFL draft wrap … The CFL draft wrapped up late last evening when Calgary made University of Calgary QB Andrew Buckley the equivalent of the NFL draft’s ‘Mr. Irrelevant’ by selecting him with the 62nd and final pick in the league’s annual draft of Canadian-born players. And in the sometimes wacky world of the the CFL, its ‘Mr Irrelevant’ was actually the winner of last year’s Hec Crichton Award, Canadian college football’s equivalent to the Heisman Trophy! But that’s Canadian college sports which are played on a whole different level that their counterparts in the U.S. What makes the CFL draft somewhat unusual is that because many of the best Canadian prospects end up in the NFL in one or another, BPA tends to get trumped by availability. This year’s top overall prospect for the CFL draft according the league’s own central scouting team, former Rice DT Chris Covington, wasn’t selected until the 5th round by British Columbia after he was a 6th round pick at the 2015 NFL draft by Houston. There is a similar story for former UNLV OT Brett Boyko, the CFL’s second rated prospect who is an undrafted rookie free agent with Philadelphia, wasn’t selected until the CFL draft’s second round (again by B.C.). At the same time, South Alabama QB Brandon Bridge, arguably the best Canadian QB prospect in a long while who had a free agent tryout with Dallas, was only taken in the 4th round by Montreal, while Harvard RB Tyler Varga, an undrafted free agent rookie with Indianapolis, was the first player selected in the 3rd round by Calgary. The first player taken in this year’s CFL draft was former UConn C Alex Mateas, who will play with his hometown Ottawa Redblacks. A pair of Calgary offensive linemen – OT Sukh Chung and OG Sean McEwan – were selected 2nd and 3rd overall by Winnipeg and Toronto respectively, while Montreal chose Wilfred Laurier S Chris Ackie with the 4th pick. Ironically, each of the latter three players had tryouts at the Giants’ rookie minicamp last weekend. Here are all the picks from the CFL draft.
