Along with the rest of the Stampeders coaching and scouting staff, Brendan Mahoney – Director of Canadian Scouting – is prepping for tomorrow’s CFL Draft. We caught up with Brendan to find out some more about the draft process, what he’s looking for, and more!

Q: Can you walk me through the entire draft process and everything that leads into your picks on Draft Day?

A: The process, it’s really almost an exact year-long process. The week right after we have the draft, we attend the East-West All-Star game at the University of Laval and that has all the next year’s draft prospects. It starts there where we can identify some players early that we might be interested in. We get a chance to speak to their coaches and speak to the players. They go through some preliminary athletic testing so we get a base knowledge of where they’re at athletically and from there we wait until the season starts. We go through the game film and start the process that way. From watching the game film, we start our database and then we move into going to the different combines, talking to the coaches, making our calls to coaches, speaking with various agents. It’s a year-long information gathering process, to put it in one sentence.

Q: Is the CFL Draft an exciting time for you?

A: It is. It’s very exciting. It’s a chance to bring some new players in to compete with the players on our roster. It’s exciting in the sense that once you’ve identified these players as college players, you get to see them turn into pros. It’s a different game and a different lifestyle, so it is something that we enjoy doing. The draft day process, in terms of watching the picks go by and waiting for your pick, we get very excited. But when you’re prepared like we are, it’s a process that when you finally see it through to the end, it is rewarding. We’re excited for the players coming in and we’re excited to get the draft over with and get into the season to play some real football.

Q: What traits do you look for in a prospect?

A: Probably one of the number-one things is, ‘does this player love to play football?’ Is this the most important thing to him after family and things like that? Is this something he wants to do? Secondly, we do look at the character of the player because we want good individuals on our team that want to be part of a winning organization. We also look at the players overall athleticism. Also, is this kid a good, instinctual football player? Is this something that comes naturally to him? Those are four points that we look at right away and then there are various other things we consider and we do the research to find out about.

Q: With nine selections in this year’s draft, is it nice to know that you have all the ammunition you would need to move around the draft board for a desired player?

A: It could. If you look at the way Huf has worked his drafts in the past, he’s not afraid to make a move if we feel that there is a player that we’ve identified. We could just be comfortable where we’re at and the right player will come along and we’ll pick the player available who we think will help us win games. Is there different moves that could be made? Yes. But there’s also the scenario were we stay put and take the player you have slotted in that position.

Q: How important are the regional and national combines?

A: It’s very important because there’s an athletic baseline where you want to see where the players are. The time that they’ve put in the weight room, the time they’ve spent training, you need to see that and get the quantitative numbers. But what I find most important is the qualitative aspects, where you get to talk to the players directly, watch him move around, watch them interact with the other players and teams. We get a chance to interview these players. You get a good stance on who the guy is as a person in addition to where he is athletically. It is important and the CFL does a nice job of gathering all these players. It’s just like anything else, the more you can see and the more information you can gather, the more you can make a better judgment and evaluation on a player.

Q: What factors do you attribute to the Stamps ability to find quality talent in the draft in recent years?

A: I would say preparation and communication amongst our staff. How can we put a player in a position to be successful? We can identify in the player personnel department who we think would be successful in our system, but then we work in a collaborative approach with our coaches for them to offer their thoughts and determine where they think these guys will fit. The most important thing is preparation, putting the work in, but working together. We’re finding players to fit into what we do schematically in partnership with our coaching staff in order to put the player in the best position to be successful.

Q: Has it made your job harder over the past number of years consistently having a pick near the end of the round?

A: I wouldn’t say it’s harder. Obviously the good players go early. We know where we are slotted and we do a number of mock drafts. We do some work on the other teams and where we believe they’ll pick their players based on their different needs. Honestly, there hasn’t been a big problem for us over the years picking where we do. Sometimes you get lucky that a player falls to you. With anything, there’s a bit of luck involved. We usually have the players slotted pretty good, so when our pick does come up, we’re well prepared to make a move on the player that falls to our position.

Q: What are your thoughts on the overall talent of this year’s draft class?

A: It’s good. It’s a very talented group, spread out among a bunch of positions. I think it’s no secret that the offensive line group is good. I think there are some receivers that showed that they can come in and contribute in the CFL right away. I would rank this draft class as one of the higher ones in the last five or six years in terms of players that have told us they want to come in and compete for a job. We feel there are a number of players with the athletic ability and the football ability, as well as good character guys to come in this year. I think if we do our job correctly, we’re going to get a good player in the first, second, and third round because this is a high-end draft in my opinion.

Q: What is your favourite CFL Draft memory?

A: Maybe being able to draft Lemar Durant. I’m an SFU grad and Lemar went to SFU. He kind of fell down the draft boards a bit and for us to be able to pick up a player of his caliber was great. I followed very good player at the CFL level and then for us to have the opportunity to draft him and watch him develop into the player that he is today would probably be one of my best memories.