Mario Annicchiarico
Edmonton Journal
Just a day after stating he didn’t expect to change positions in Sunday’s CFL Canadian college draft, Edmonton Eskimos general manager Danny Maciocia pulled off two deals to move up the selection order.
Maciocia first traded his ninth and 22nd overall selections to Winnipeg to select Stanford University defensive end Brian Bulcke at No. 6, then flipped his 19th and 27th selections to Hamilton to grab St. Mary’s University safety Saleem Borhot at No. 12.
Bulcke is a six-foot-four, 272-pound native of Windsor, Ont., who will return to Stanford in the fall. Borhot is a six-foot-three 195-pounder who will be given an opportunity to replace Scott Gordon, who let the Esks know he would be retiring.
“We’ve tried for the last three months to move up into the first round for the simple reason that we wanted Bulcke and we wanted him real bad,” said Maciocia.
“He’ll come in here next year (2011) and he has the ability to start right away.
“He’s one individual we felt we needed to have here. We haven’t been able to change the ratio along the defensive line. This guy will give us the ability to do so; we just have to wait for about a year, but when he comes here he will be an impact player.”
Maciocia and his scouting staff have been following Bulcke’s progression at Stanford, speaking to family members and previous coaches.
“He comes highly recommended. When I asked his dad if Edmonton would be a destination he would like to play CFL football, there was a sense of excitement in his (dad’s) voice,” said Maciocia, who cannot talk to NCAA players directly.
“Everyone is fired up. They’re looking forward to him finishing strong at Stanford and then becoming an Edmonton Eskimo.
“We know we have to wait a year, but he’s worth the wait because he can give you eight to 10 good years. That’s why we wanted to move up, we wanted to land Brian and we’re excited to know that he’ll be an Eskimo here in 2011 and we’ll be able to watch him play in the Pac 10.”
Bulcke was a medical redshirt last year due to a wrist injury and has only played in 31 career games, making nine starts over the last three seasons. He has 46 tackles and five sacks and is Stanford’s only Canadian player.
Bulcke was rated No. 1 overall at one point entering his draft year.
As for Borhot, the Esks expect him to compete right away for Gordon’s vacant job.
“Saleem is the top-rated free safety coming out of the CIS and there is a very strong possibility he can come to camp and start for us,” said Maciocia. “We’ve known for the last little while that Scott Gordon would be retiring, so we needed to make sure we kept the ratio intact at the safety position.
“He was one projected to go in the top three rounds. We felt like if we didn’t do so, he would be gone by the time we picked in the third round, so we chose to move up and secure the free safety position by selecting a player we think will play there for many, many years.”
Borhot is a Calgary native who, in 2005, was the team MVP with the Okanagan Sun of the Canadian Junior Football League, recording seven interceptions in 10 games. The Esks had flown him into town for a workout recently.
In the fifth round the Esks selected six-foot-six, 330-pound offensive lineman Scott Ferguson from St. Cloud State and with their last selection, 43rd overall, the Green and Gold took Leduc product Corbin Sharun, a safety with the Edmonton Wildcats.
In a highly non-suspenseful first round, the Toronto Argonauts dealt the first overall selection to the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who then took linebacker Shomari Williams of the Queen’s Gaels. The Riders gave up their second and fourth overall picks and punter Jamie Boreham to move up. They also nabbed Toronto’s eighth overall selection.
Williams was ranked as the draft’s top prospect by the CFL’s amateur scouting bureau after helping Queen’s win the Vanier Cup. The six-foot-two, 236-pounder was in Regina for the selection and has already signed a contract with the CFL club, inking what is reportedly the largest contract, including incentives, for a first-overall pick in two decades.
“We believe this trade puts us in a great position to get not only one, but two of our top-rated draft picks plus a proven non-import punter and kicker in Jamie Boreham,” said Argos head coach Jim Barker.
“This trade enables us to improve our team immediately and in the future.”
News of the trades broke on Saturday afternoon.
Toronto then took Washington State offensive lineman Joe Eppele second overall before selecting Concordia University linebacker Cory Greenwood at No. 3 as the Argonauts swept the third and fourth spots with the B.C. Lions, who promptly chose OL Danny Watkins of Baylor, who most say was the best athlete available.
courtesy of www.edmontonjournal.com
