CFL.ca
“Covers ground like no one I’ve ever seen at this level.”
“Struggles to sustain his blocks due to his lack of length.”
“Electric athlete.”
These are some of the words used by CFL talent evaluators as they’ve sized up some of the top National players to have entered the league over the last few years. With talent evaluators from across the league present at the CFL Invitational Combine and the CFL Combine presented by New Era over the last few weeks, CFL.ca approached numerous teams about taking a glimpse at their scouting reports for players that have risen to stardom over the last few years. In the end, three different clubs were granted anonymity to share notes from their scouting reports.
CFL.ca received scouting reports on Marc-Antoine Dequoy, Brady Oliveira, Kurleigh Gittens Jr., Tre Ford and Sam Emilus.
It’s important to keep in mind just how challenging talent evaluation is. Teams have to make decisions based on the resumes of still-evolving players and try to project what they may turn into. Sometimes, like in the case of Oliveira, the player exceeds that projection. Others, like Ford, remain fascinating works in progress.
You’re going to have your misses or failures as an evaluator, one CFL GM told me earlier this year. It’s part of the job. Your hits and successes just have to outweigh them.
The pre-Draft thoughts of various talent evaluators are below.
