Hoping to satisfy some future needs
By Stephanie Myles,
Montreal Gazette
By last night, Alouettes head coach and general manager Jim Popp and his staff had whittled a list of 910 draft-eligible players down to about 80.
By this morning, that list will be down to about 50. And when the annual CFL Canadian college draft ends this afternoon (it begins at 1 p.m., and for the first time, fans can get live video- streaming coverage on cfl.ca), the Als will have chosen seven players.
“There are only six rounds, and the odds of all six making your team are slim. You’re doing extremely well if three of six stay with you,” Popp said last night from North Carolina, where he will make the Alouettes’ picks by phone. “If you get one guy out of each draft that makes your ball club, it’s a good draft, but I certainly strive higher than that. We average three, sometimes four.”
The Alouettes have the seventh pick in the first, second, fourth and sixth rounds. They have three picks in the third round (No. 2, No. 3 and No. 7). Their fifth-round selection went to Saskatchewan in a trade.
The consensus is that this year’s draft isn’t a deep one. But offensive coordinator Marcel Bellefeuille said that wouldn’t be an issue. “Coach Popp always has a good knack of finding talent,” he said.
One reason might be that there are relatively few players coming out of the U.S. college programs this year. A year ago, nearly half the players selected came out of U.S. colleges, bucking the typical 2-to-1 ratio.
The ultimate analysis of a draft class comes only years later. Popp said he’ll select in anticipation of what he might need several years down the line.
His 2006 class is an example of that.
Top pick Eric Deslauriers, a receiver out of Eastern Michigan, recently signed with the Pittsburgh Steelers. “He’s going on 26, and he felt this was his only chance (at the NFL), and he wanted to try that,” Popp said.
Second pick Etienne Boulay got playing time ahead of schedule because of injury, and the defensive back ended up the East’s rookie of the year. Third-rounder Jeff Perrett – a risk pick, Popp said, because of his NHL aspirations – recently signed a two-year deal with the team. Defensive-back Joel Wright, mostly a practice roster player, did start two games last season. And receiver Danny Desriveaux, who returned to the University of Richmond for another season last year, was added to the roster and is expected at training camp.
Among the local players to garner interest are two Montrealers attending the University of Akron: 6-foot-4, 224-pound wide- receiver Jabari Arthur and defensive-back Jason Nedd.
And then there’s another player, whose last name definitely creates a little more buzz here: a Queen’s University receiver named Brad Smith.
Smith, the younger of Alouettes president and CEO Larry Smith’s two sons, could be a third- or fourth-round pick – and not only because of his name.
“He’s a good football player. I’m sure all the teams have an eye on him,” Bellefeuille said. Smith, 24, a 6-foot-1, 188-pound receiver out of Queen’s, had 56 catches for 809 yards last season with the Golden Gaels.
