Quote Originally Posted by Shipyard View Post
don't see Herdman drawing high 1st round interest. maybe draw interest in 2nd round/late 1st for teams that still use a cdn LB.


LB (like Tackle) is going American around the league

Key reasons are:
- injury replacement (easy to replace with a "comparable" US Player)
- teams are going 10-12 americans on defence now.
- cap related: why spend $200-$250k on a starting cdn LB, when you can have a starting/rotational DT for 140k, 4th & 5th WR for 100k. BC is even looking at going with cdn field corners for 75-100k.


These are the same reasons for the death of the cdn tackle position.

Just FYI - Ottawa won the GC last year, starting a rookie Canadian at OT; and they also played 4, 5 or 6 Canadians on defence - (4 in the mix in D-line rotation, and Pruneau at safety).

The CFL is a very copy-cat league with a lot of shared "thinking" - especially a dim or limited view of Canadian talent at times (the 7 only need apply schtick), but it doesn't have to be that way, and individual teams are allowed to do their own roster thinking. Most trendy CFL thinkers might like OT jobs to be just for imports now, but the Als had one of the best O-lines in the league for years awhile back with 2 Canadian OTs (Bourke & Perrett) as league best calibre fixtures for quite some time. BTW - who are the easy to find, easily replaceable superstar import OTs the Argos will have this year ?

And Herdman and Mulumba-T are examples of IMO blue-chip MLB prospects available this draft - potential starters for teams in need there, and right away - like Singleton was for the Stamps last season. Henoc Muamba will likely start at MLB for the Riders; i'll bet Greenwood if he's healthy has a big impact on the Esks D, I'll bet we see Plesius play some LB on the Als D and the Bombers might give Miles a real shot to win the vacant MLB job there. Teams like the Bombers Argos or Ottawa have a big opening / need for upgrade at MLB, and they could draft one of those guys to compete and maybe start. Both those draftable MLBs are IMO first round CFL draft material.