The 2022 CFL draft is just hours away and the back-to-back Grey Cup Champions are as cool as a cucumber. This is very hard considering the amount of homegrown talent that has left this off-season.
The Blue Bombers had departures from Andrew Harris (Toronto Argonauts), Drew Desjarlais (New England Patriots), Jonathan Kongbo (Denver Broncos), and last year’s first-round pick offensive lineman Liam Dobson.
“We are a little thin compared to where we have been with our Canadians with the offensive line in particular,” said Walters in a media conference call. “Certainly, we’re not at the stage where we have to draft a Sukh (Chungh, 2ndoverall in 2015) or Matthias (Goossen, 2nd overall in 2014) and basically say ‘Boy, we need someone to step in and start.”
“We’ve got a little more flexibility with the ratio and a big part of it is our defensive staff is so creative with the way they handle their personnel and all their substitutions, that as long as we give Richie (Hall, defensive coordinator) and JY (Jordan Younger, defensive backs coach) the rest of the tools, they’ll figure out the ratio to figure out the best guys on the field regardless of nationality.
Cureently the Bombers have 20 Canadian players on the team and need add a few more to complete their roster. At a crucial time like this, you can’t help but think if the Blue Bombers would still be in this same predicament if the Natraulized Cadian Rule was approved for the 2022 CFL season.
The rule would allow team to count American player who is in at least his third season with the same team or fourth season in the CFL overall to go towards the team Candian players requirement.
The Bombers Bombers are already making moves as they have traded their 9th and 18th pick with the Montreal Alouettes for Canadian defensive tackle Cameron Lawson and the 13th overall selection in the 2022 CFL Draft.
Lawson is a Queens University product who was selected by Montreal in the 2020 CFL Draft.
At Queens, Lawson totaled 74 tackles, 19.5 tackles for loss, and 11 sacks. In 2019 he was lauded as a U Sports All-Canadian and OUA lineman of the year. Lawson would go on to appear in four games for the Alouettes before joining the blue and gold.
“It’s a good draft, there’s some good, young Canadian talent in the draft and we are confident we’re going to get some players and add depth. We’re confident we’re going to add players that become starters in this league,” said Bombers GM Kyle Walters less than a week before the CFL draft.
Walters was true to his word when he said he wanted to add depth to the team. Earlier Today in the 2022 CFL Global draft the Bombers selected two punters out of Australia Michael sleep-Dalton and Tom Hackett, as well as DB Souleymane Karamoko. This will be bringing some competition in training camp for Marc Leigghio who punted 92 times for 4,024 yards.
The Bombers are not done yet, as they still have five picks in the CFL draft to add depth to the roster.
THE BOMBERS’ CFL DRAFT PICKS:
ROUND 1: 9th overall- traded to Montreal
ROUND 1: 13th overall- received from Montreal
ROUND 2: 18th overall- traded to Montreal
ROUND 3: No selection – traded to B.C. Lions last October for K Sergio Castillo
ROUND 4: 38th overall
ROUND 5: 47th overall
ROUND 6: 56th overall
ROUND 7: 65th overall
ROUND 8: 74th overall
