Saskatchewan Roughriders prepare for Tuesday’s CFL draft

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The Saskatchewan Roughriders are getting set to add some more talent to the roster.

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On Tuesday, the Canadian Football League draft gets underway at 4 p.m. with the Roughriders slated to pick fourth overall after the Calgary Stampeders, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Ottawa Redblacks, who own the top three picks in that respective order.

For general manager Jeremy O’Day and the rest of Saskatchewan’s football operations staff, they’ll obviously be watching closely the teams ahead of them before making their first-round choice.

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“What we’ll do is we’ll come down to three or four names that we’ll have, and we’ll have those guys’ priority, and we’ll say, ‘If these guys are available, these are the guys that will pick,’ ” said O’Day. “It is important for us to be able to try to predict, at least the teams in front of us, who they’re going to pick, or at least have an idea of the position that they’ll probably take.

“I don’t know if we get it right every year, but we’re pretty close.”

Along with the fourth overall pick and barring any trades, Saskatchewan will select 13th overall (second round), 25th overall (third round), 34th overall (fourth round), 43rd overall (fifth round), 52nd overall (sixth round) and 69th overall (eighth round). The Riders previously traded away their seventh-round pick to Calgary in exchange for quarterback Jake Maier this off-season.

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While O’Day wasn’t about to share any draft secrets or predictions on Monday when he met with media at Mosaic Stadium ahead of the draft, he did say the 2025 draft class has some really good potential.

“I think it’s a solid draft,” said the GM. “The first three rounds are going to be really good.

“And then after those first three rounds, teams will have just varying opinion on different players and but overall, I think it’s a good draft.”

After four Canadians were selected in the 2024 NFL draft and a few more signed as free agents, two Canadians were selected in the 2025 NFL draft with a couple more signing as free agents.

Those moves, along with consideration of Canadians earning rookie mini-camp invites, forced O’Day and company to tinker with their draft board and where they have players ranked.

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“It definitely changes it; I don’t know if it blows the whole board up or anything like that,” said O’Day. “I wouldn’t say that you’re like coming out of there and it’s mind blowing, and you’re super surprised by it.

“It’s just more of just waiting to see if everything fell where you thought it would. And then you make some adjustments. We usually do some mock drafts before and then mock drafts after the NFL draft.”

Last year, the Riders spent their first-round pick, third overall, on offensive lineman Kyle Hergel, who had already signed with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints as a free agent following the 2024 NFL draft.

O’Day and company then selected seven other players who made it to camp last year, including four who played at least one game with the club last year including linebacker Nick Wiebe (second round), receiver Dhel Duncan Busby (third round), linebacker Melique Straker (fourth round) and receiver Ajou Ajou (seventh round).

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Considering Saskatchewan’s already strong roster that has no glaring holes, O’Day said he would be comfortable making a “futures” pick on a player who may be getting a look in the NFL first, like Hergel.

“It’s something we talk about all the time when you have guys on the board that were signed in the NFL,” said O’Day. “It really comes down to if you’re willing to take a risk for an ultimate reward.

“I wouldn’t say that you want to do that, you know, three, four, five drafts in a row, and you’re not getting guys back, but if you do get guys back, then it can be highly rewarded.

“We’ve just come off a year where we drafted a player that we didn’t know, or we don’t know if we’ll ever get him, so are you willing to do that again?” O’Day continued. “Do we feel like we have good enough Canadian players where we can do that? There can be an argument either way.

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“I think you could say that with the one-year contracts in free agency, how quickly you can add Canadian talent in the off-seasons. It’s not necessarily impossible that you can take futures and them not come for a little while and still be pretty good in your Canadian talent.

“Would I be absolutely scared away from taking a futures pick? No, I wouldn’t.”

What adds to the intrigue this year is that the 2025 draft class features two quarterbacks among the top 20 prospects according to the CFL’s scouting bureau.

Kurtis Rourke, the No. 2 ranked prospect in the recent spring rankings, was recently drafted in the seventh round by the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers while Taylor Elgersma, the 14th ranked prospect, has earned a pair of NFL mini-camp invites. Those opportunities could could affect how high each of them gets taken in the draft according to draft analysts.

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“Obviously with Kurtis going to San Francisco, that’s going to probably drop him down the rank a little bit because he’s going to get a legitimate opportunity with the 49ers,” said Marshall Ferguson, CFL.ca columnist. “Taylor Elgersma from Laurier is obviously the other one that everybody has their eyes on.

“They’re going to get their opportunities, and they’ve earned it, but they’re pretty valuable up here.”

For O’Day, while he wasn’t about to say he would draft a quarterback or not, he alluded to treating the position just like any other — by looking at the current needs on the roster.

“I think the approach is the same,” said O’Day. “We’re still grading everyone based off of are they going to come in and make your team better? Where do we feel like they could compete? Do we feel like they could become starters for us, which is a whole other ball game when they’re starting, and they’re Canadian.

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“And so, I don’t think the process is any different. I think just the pool of players in that position is a little bit more unique than other years. So, we put those guys on our draft board, we slot them into where we think we would consider picking them, whether it’s higher, in the middle or later.

“That’s kind of determined through the process, and we really rely on our offensive coaches in that particular position, but we evaluate them just like anyone else.

“And then we also, you know, we look at our roster as well, you know, and those factors that I just talked about, where players are at in their contract, where they are in their age, those are all factors that are determined in where we’ll pick a guy.

“I’ve heard people say all the time, ‘You take the best player no matter what.’ Well, if the best player is in an area of strength and there’s a really good player in an area of need, I think there’s a conversation to be had there, right?”

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Global draft

Along with the Canadian draft on Tuesday, the CFL will hold a Global draft beginning at 9 a.m.

The Roughriders will pick sixth overall and 15th overall in the two-round draft without a glaring need to add a Global player to the active roster considering Saskatchewan already dresses two (punter Adam Korsak and defensive lineman Habakkuk Baldonado) while the league mandates teams dress at least one.

“Once you have a good Global, you’re drafting on top of that,” said O’Day. “You’re looking at if there’s anyone in the Global draft that’s going to come in and be better than the guys you have or compete with them.

“And then another question for us is, if that player doesn’t beat out the player that he’s competing with, would he stay on our practice roster?”

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Riders release Armstead

The Roughriders also parted ways with a player last week as the team released running back Ryquell Armstead, who was brought in midway last season while A.J. Ouellette was injured.

With Ouellette healthy and set to handle starting duties in 2025, O’Day said the decision was made to cut Armstead, who rushed for 207 yards in his debut with the Green and White last season.

“We’ve got tough decisions to make all the time,” said O’Day. “When we look at the running back room, you know what we’ve done in free agency, and then A.J. coming back, hopefully healthy, and comparing running styles and what we want, if we want the same type of running backs, do we want different kind of backs and then also how are we going to fit them on the roster? Are we going to have two American running backs like we did at the end of the year?

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“You saw situations where it was great where we had a one-two punch. And then there was other situations where if the game wasn’t, you’re going your way, then you’re really just using up a roster spot because you’re not running the ball as much. So tough decisions are made, obviously two good players, but ultimately, we felt like we’re going to go with A.J. and some of the younger guys and take a look at those guys.”

Reid update

On Monday, O’Day was also asked about the possibility of the team bringing back left tackle Trevor Reid, who was released earlier this off-season to pursue an NFL opportunity.

Reid signed with the Minnesota Vikings but then was released with a “non-injury football designation.” And while he’s now a free agent, it doesn’t appear he will be returning to Saskatchewan for training camp, which begins May 11.

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“We have had contact with him, but right now, he’s injured, I don’t anticipate him coming back for training camp or anything like that,” said O’Day.

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