THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — An untimely hip injury shouldn’t come back to haunt Ben Heenan at the CFL Canadian college draft.
Heenan completed the 40-yard dash and agility events Sunday at the CFL evaluation camp but was forced to miss the one-on-one drills after tweaking his left hip flexor that he injured Saturday while performing the various jumps on the agenda.
And that was a big disappointment to the many league coaches and general managers in attendance who wanted to see the top-ranked prospect for this year’s draft in action.
But no one was more disappointed than Heenan, a six-foot-four, 310-pound University of Saskatchewan offensive lineman who took part in this year’s East-West Shrine game.
“I came here wanting to show teams I’m a complete athlete and can do everything and to miss something like that, especially the last event of the weekend,” he said.
“That’s the last thing I’m going home with in my mind and that’s probably the last thing scouts are going home with in their mind.
“At the same time I can’t dwell on anything too long. (Monday) starts training for football season for training camp wherever that may be so I’ll take it and move on. If teams have any problems with it, they’ll contact me and if they need to see me workout beforehand maybe that will work out.”
Edmonton Eskimos GM Eric Tillman doesn’t believe that will be necessary.
“Time teaches you the body of work over a three- or four-year period, four or five years in some instances, supersedes what you’re looking for here although this is a very important part of the process,” Tillman said. “But, no, he is an excellent player and he interviewed extremely well.”
Saskatchewan holds the first selection in the May 3 draft while Edmonton has two first-round picks – second and sixth overall. The prevailing sentiment is the Riders will use the top pick on the 22-year-old Heenan, a native of Grand Coulee, Sask., who grew up a fan of the CFL team.
But Tillman said if Heenan doesn’t go first overall, he won’t have to wait long to hear his name called.
“If he’s still there at No. 2, it will be one of the quickest selections in the draft, but I don’t think he will be,” Tillman said. “He’s a very good football player, comes from an outstanding program and is a farm kid who knows how to work.
“He’s very mature, handles himself extremely well in interviews. Anyone who gets him is going to get a very good player and an equally good young man.”
Predictably, Riders GM Brendan Taman remained coy about who he’ll take first overall, saying the decision hasn’t been made. One decision Taman has made is he has no plans to trade the No. 1 pick.
Like Tillman, Taman said Heenan’s injury won’t negatively impact his draft stock.
“Not in our eyes because we value everything they do on the field,” he said. “This is a tool but we’ve watched him play several games and that’s what we’re going to go on plus the interviews.”
A few top prospects missed the event. Defensive end Tyrone Crawford of Boise State (No. 2), Virginia offensive lineman Austin Pasztor (No. 3), Wofford defensive end Ameet Pall (No. 7) and Georgia State defensive end Christo Bilukidi (No. 15) are all NFL hopefuls who were absent.
Still, several players took centre stage Sunday.
Wilfrid Laurier receiver Shamawd Chambers was the camp’s fastest player, posting a 40-yard dash time of 4.42 seconds. The six-foot-three, 219-pound native of Markham, Ont., came in ranked fourth by the CFL scouting bureau.
Justin Capiccoiotti, a six-foot-three, 245-pound defensive lineman at Simon Fraser, posted a solid 40-yard dash time of 4.89 seconds. The Toronto native, who had 10 sacks and 66 tackles last season, was especially impressive in the one-on-one drills against offensive linemen.
Jake Thomas, a six-foot-two, 275-pound defensive lineman from Acadia, also excelled in the one-on-one drills. The native of Douglas, N.B., also showed good explosiveness with a 40-yard dash time of 4.99 seconds.
Another defensive player who stood out this weekend was St. Francis defensive back Dylan Hollohan.
The Moncton native – one of the smallest players in the camp at five foot 10 and 183 pounds – missed all of last season with a groin injury but was first in the vertical jump (42.5 inches) and shuttle run 3.92 seconds), second in the three-cone drill (6.51 seconds) and tied for third in the 40-yard dash (4.53 seconds).
He also showed quickness in the one-on-one cover drills but did get beat deep.
Quarterbacks Billy Greene of UBC – the 2011 Hec Crighton Trophy winner as Canadian university’s top player – Kyle Graves of Acadia and Kyle Quinlan of McMaster all threw Sunday.
Tillman said all three performed well in the one-on-one passing drills even if that format is something they won’t see much of at a CFL training camp.
“They won’t see a lot of press (one-on-one) coverage at our level and they were doing that today,” Tillman said. “That made it harder for the evaluation process… but they (quarterbacks) certainly threw the ball well enough for us to make evaluations.”
