Marshall Ferguson looks at the problems created by Covid for the 2021 CFL draft below.

All of that made covering the 2020 CFL draft tough, but in comparison to this year, 2020 feels like information overload. Game tape for U SPORTS players and NCAA seasons that weren’t completely affected in scheduling, practice consistency, team chemistry development and week-to-week player availability? Easy. The combine conundrum of 2021 is — like most everything these days — the strangest, most challenging situation we’ll ever cross in attempting to understand how to value players in the draft.

I already knew evaluation would be less consistent and more difficult to apply usual context to going into this month, a thought confirmed further by one CFL executive this week. “This one is going be real tough on the media, they generally know way less than we do, even harder now with all these futures and no U SPORTS season,” he said. “Projecting kids with third-year tape is so difficult, made tougher with no combine to see how they’ve been developing physically. Guys usually take a massive jump from year three to four.” ...

Watch Tunde Adeleke or Kwaku Boateng, Vincent Desjardins or Ryan Sceviour from year three to year four and there is a typically a noticeable difference in approach and physical maturity brought on by young men realizing what needs to be accomplished to be known as a ‘pro football player.’

This year we don’t get the drool inducing one-on-one matchups in pads in front of every CFL evaluator, standardized testing metrics or universally verified measurements. The tools and tricks used to gather information are entirely different, right down to player interviews, which will be conducted virtually. That’s a far less intimidating enterprise — unless your wifi is questionable — than entering a room full of football judges who can decide your near future on the assessment of every answer. We’re close, the light at the end of the tunnel appears more clear each day but the final hurdle of nonexistent normality could shape the CFL’s Canadian talent for years to come and will happen with less information than ever.

Best to dig into the 2020 game tape, if any exists.
https://www.cfl.ca/2021/03/12/fergus...es-challenges/