Justin Dunk
CFL.ca
With the 2012 Evaluation camp in the books, we caught up with one of TSN’s Canadian Football League analysts, Duane Forde – a self-proclaimed draft nerd – to play a game of stock up or stock down, based on what took place at the league’s annual scouting combine.
First up is a look at the athletes on the defensive side of the football and which players jumped up draft boards or took a tumble, in the eyes of pro scouts around the country.
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| Relatively unknown before entering the weekend, Simon Fraser DL Justin Capicciotti turned heads all throughout the weekend. |
Justin Capicciotti
Defensive Line
6’ 3” 245 pounds
Simon Fraser
Forde: “Maybe the number one overall guy, out of all the positions, in terms of his stock rising would be Justin Capicciotti. A guy playing at Simon Fraser, a Division II [NCAA] school, people knew that he had put up pretty good numbers there and been a productive player.
“But until they got to see him close up, didn’t realize how good an athlete this guy was and realize what his role and versatility might be as a CFL player.
“To see that not only could he be a defensive line depth guy, but I think a legitimate rotation guy, and a guy in terms of body type and athletic ability who can also contribute on special teams.”
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Arnaud Gascon-Nadon
Defensive Line
6’ 3” 250 pounds
Laval
Forde: “I would say that the thing that may hurt his stock out of all of this [him leaving the combine early with an injury] is the perception of the possible involvement of his agent in terms of how all of this went down.
“His agent Jonathan Hardaway is a guy who has had a relationship that is more adversarial than friendly with a lot of CFL management over the course of last couple of years.
“For what went on with Gascon-Nadon to go on, and for that to be associated with his agent, all of a sudden the radar goes up. I heard at least one CFL front office person suggest, ‘that who these kids hire as agents is going to start affecting their draft position,’ because it’s not worth dealing with it.”
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Jabar Westerman
Defensive Line
6’ 2” 285 pounds
Eastern Michigan
Forde: “I would say that Jabar Westerman probably surprised people a little bit once he got on the field, in terms of his quickness and athleticism. I think people look at Jabar as a wide-body that you don’t necessarily expect the kind of lateral movement that he showed, both in the agility drill and also when he got to one-on-ones.”
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| Ranked sixth in the Scouting Bureau’s January rankings, Laval linebacker Frederic Plesius disappointed during one-on-one drills. |
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Frederic Plesius
Linebacker
6’ 1” 240 pounds
Laval
Forde: “The big question that comes with him, in a lot of ways people wonder, is he a linebacker or is he a defensive end? I would probably label him within the linebacker group because his stock was so high, as a little bit of a stock down guy.
“When you look at him at 240-plus pounds, that’s not your typical CFL linebacker and you think you might be able to create some sort of mismatches with him in terms of that athletic ability if you move him up onto the defensive line.
“I think it helps him as a linebacker that he is as athletic as he is. You look at things like the 40-yard dash and things like the agility test and so on, to see that at that size he can move very well.
“But, I think there were times in the one-on-ones where his quickness didn’t necessarily show as much as you would have liked it to. And those are the things that make you wonder if maybe defensive line is a better position for him.”
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Jonathan Beaulieu-Richard
Linebacker
6’ 1” 215 pounds
Montreal
Forde: “He was terrific. I thought he had a great weekend. His testing was as expected, he’s a good athletic player.
“That’s the sort of thing that tends to hold back a lot of CIS linebackers from being CFL linebackers. Sometimes they’re just not athletic enough. They can get by on being good athletes and being smart in CIS football, but the game is just that much faster at the pro level that they can’t play that position in the CFL.
“You know at the very least this guy is going to be a very good special teams player and I think a guy who can contribute at linebacker.”
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Rene Stephan
Linebacker
6’ 1” 220 pounds
Harding
Forde: “He came in probably as a little bit of an unknown to a lot of the scouts here. I think a lot of these guys didn’t even realize that he was actually at a free agent combine at the CIS East West Bowl last May.
“At the time he was working on trying to get his non-import status, people didn’t realize that this was a Canadian guy or that this was a guy who was going to be eligible for the 2012 draft.
“He’s a guy who’s been out of football for a couple of years, but you never would’ve guessed it. He came in very well prepared physically. You talk about that athleticism being important at the linebacker position, he’s a guy that delivered that in spades and made it impossible for people to overlook him.”
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Defensive Back
5’ 10” 183 pounds
St. Francis Xavier
Forde: “Absolutely at the defensive back position you need the guys who are eye-popping athletes and who demonstrate that quickness. In the case of a guy like Dylan Hollohan I think it was important that he jumped as well as he did, particularly in the vertical.
“In the CFL you’ve got a trend towards bigger receivers and Hollohan is a five-foot-ten defensive back – he had to show that he could get up and fight for balls with those [big receivers]. I think he demonstrated that.
“It’s that athletic ability that is a step up in the CFL, especially at the defensive back position, where you need real athletes.”
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| Duane Forde believes that Bryce McCall’s stock has dropped due to the DB’s comfort level throughout the weekend’s testing. |
Bryce McCall
Defensive Back
6’ 0” 200 pounds
Saskatchewan
Forde: “Tremendous player: very smart and hard working. In terms of what he was asked to do at the University of Saskatchewan, essentially an old-school cover three free safety – great football sense, great physical player, a guy who has a great feel for the game and nose for the football.
“But not a guy who because of what he’s been asked to do in the past, you would expect to excel at E-Camp where it’s about physical testing and then one-on-one cover skills. I think it was a little bit outside his comfort zone.
“I think you could argue, in terms of the rankings that his stock went down. At the same time, I think his stock might have been artificially high as well.
“In the case of McCall, it’s not even a case of a guy not meeting expectations, but just a combine setting like E-Camp not playing to his strengths. If the expectations were based on the rankings, I think the expectations might have been too high.
“It always depends what you’re looking for in a player, and sometimes you might be looking for something different than what a combine shows.”
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