Ed Hervey praises versatility of first-round pick Dumoulin Dugay and 2024 Draft Class
June 23, 2023; Hamilton, Ontario, CAN; Montreal Alouettes defeat the Hamilton Tiger-Cats 38-12 at Tim Hortons Field. Mandatory Credit: John E. Sokolowski
In today’s audio and video podcasts of Ticats Today, Tiger-Cats’ general manager Ed Hervey dropped by to discuss this week’s CFL National and Global drafts.
The Tiger-Cats had eight picks in the Canadian draft: offensive lineman Nathaniel Dumoulin Duguay (1st round, 7th overall, from Laval); defensive lineman Luke Brubacher (2nd, 16th, Wilfrid Laurier); defensive back Daniel Bell (4th, 34th, Mount Allison); running back Matthew Peterson (4th, 36th, Alberta); linebacker Ryan Baker (5th, 43rd, UBC); defensive back Jonathan Giustini (6th, 52nd , Alberta), offensive lineman John Kourtis (7th, 61st, Saskatchewan), linebacker Mitchell Townsend (8th, 70th, UBC).
Earlier in the day they chose two Australians in the Global draft, taking Texas A&M punter Nik Constantinou in the first round and tight end Thomas Yassmin from Utah with their second-round choice.
As is becoming our custom, we have edited – and sometimes conflated –our questions and Ed’s answers for clarity and length. The questions are in bold-face type.
You came out of a gruelling double-draft Tuesday with two offensive linemen, two defensive backs, two linebackers, a running back, a defensive lineman, a punter and a tight end. You had pretty well everything covered there, Ed. How would you characterize your class of 2024 overall?
“We look at it as versatility within the group. We were kind of spread right throughout the roster. Different areas require different approaches. We’ll start with offensive linemen. That’s the bread and butter, and the core of the CFL is to ensure that you have offensive linemen, National offensive linemen, who can project as guys who can play. One of them should have the ability to snap as a center in game and, when you have an experienced offensive line, for those times when you want to give guys like Rev (Brandon Revenberg) or David Beard a day off. The practices still must go on, right? And you’re always trying to preserve the health of our older players; we have to always keep that in mind.”
Your top choice was Nathaniel Dumoulin Duguay, a 6-foot-2 293-pounder from Laval who played left tackle in university ball. Two offensive linemen went before him, including Kyle Hergel who has been signed in the NFL. What did the front office see in Dumoulin Duguay?
“Quite honestly, we were quite surprised that he would be available to us at that pick because he was very highly-rated on our board. First off, it’s about Canadian linemen obviously, but he was the second-rated player on our board as far as who might be available to us and most ready to play.
“He’s going to be ready to play. We believe as a department and a staff that he wants to play and was the most-ready to play if called upon. Every week we’re going to have three (Canadian) offensive linemen starting for us. And as we all know those kinds of guys are not walking around the malls waiting for jobs in the CFL. Those guys are on rosters or in some capacity with a team.
“We feel that definitely could play both guard positions and in a pinch the tackle position. Obviously it takes a little adjusting but we felt like again he’s a guy that shows the versatility to be able to do those things. Obviously, there is learning the game. adjusting to the speed of the game, but you want the guys who is most ready to play.
‘When you’re able to say that about a player, it gives you a little bit of confidence knowing that given the opportunity or in a situation if you’re forced to start him — be it injury or sickness or something — that you have a guy that can do it. And we feel confident that if we’re in a pinch in his first year, we feel that he could do that.
“The tackles are a little different animal. But again, when we’re evaluating players and talking about the versatility and the skill sets that they bring to the roster, it is important to kind of go line by line where they can help us if needed. And Nathaniel just checks all the boxes with that for us, with that first pick.”
And it doesn’t hurt that he played for Laval, always known for its superior coaching, especially in the trenches.
“Absolutely. Glen (Constantin, head coach) does an excellent job with his roster. Their offensive line as a whole is just well-coached and they come into this league with an understanding of the professional game, the understanding of things that they’re going to face. The game isn’t too overly-fast for them as they adjust to the game. It’s just the difference of the level of the players that are in front of them.
“That’s one thing, but they also seem to be more inclined to get up to speed over the years. So they have the reputation of their organization, their university and their player development.”
You had a very interesting choice in the second round, 16th overall. Wilfrid Laurier defensive lineman Luke Brubacher., One of the coaches at Laurier is former Ticat Mike Daly, who was a main panelist last night on Ticat audio network’s two -hour draft show. And he was, as you can understand, ecstatic about the choice. He reminded us that Brubacher never played football until he came to Waterloo–he was a walk-on—because he was a serious boxer. You already have some pretty decent, fairly young , Canadian depth at defensive line So what about that choice? Is that a future? Is that a development choice?
“It’s a little bit all of the above, right? We believe that Luke possesses some physical traits that you just can’t get elsewhere. And if you pass him up, there wasn’t another guy in the draft like him, athletically, physically. Again, we’re a league that has to take responsibility in developing our national players. Anyone who has the physical abilities that Luke has, we think we can get the most out of him as far as getting him ready to play. Yes, he’s raw in the sense of playing defence, but we feel that as a contributor on special teams that he will be able to help us there.
“Not only that, it was very important for me when we were discussing our rosters that we need more size. We need to have more physical matchups to our advantage. He’s 6-foot-5, 245 pounds then runs 4.7. You know, those are the type of body types that you need to have around the building. Not only for special teams matchups, but to develop for future opportunities that could come with ratio opportunities down the line.
“We went into this wanting opportunities to have some ratio flexibility. And with Mason Bennett, Mo Dialo and Anthony Federico on our roster if push came to shove where we had to go national at that position for a start or two or finish a game, having those defensive linemen around is always a benefit. Just as it is with the offensive line, just on a different scale because the special teams component plays a little bit more of a factor in it with guys that size.”
On special teams and especially for linemen on either side of the ball, footwork is an incredible part of everything and learning. I would think a boxer understands the concept of footwork as well as, or maybe better than, anybody.
“I would absolutely agree with you there and I would take it a step further and also mention the use of hands and their athletic understanding. So those are some of the things that Luke will bring to the table. Being able to move and maneuver on the field. I think that those things will give him the advantages that will help him exceed as he’s developing with us, where he may lack in experience. That is what our coaching is for. That’s our environment. That’s what we’re here to do is to help develop young players who have the potential and who have.
“As I mentioned earlier, measurables that you don’t find every day, right? And if you pass on that guy and you (draft) someone who’s smaller or another position, you may not see anyone like that again. And quite honestly, in our opinion, he was the unique one, whereas in the later rounds we felt like we can address some of the concerns that we had. There was more depth at other positions, not quite anything like what Luke could bring to our roster.”
Globally, you chose punter Nik Constantinou out of Texas A &M, Johnny Manziel’s school in the first round and Thomas Yasmin. And they’re both Australians. In fact, all the kickers and punters chosen yesterday were Australian. Can you discuss those two a little bit? Yasmin in effect was the only receiver that you picked up in the 10 choices yesterday and both of them have signed, for now, as undrafted free agents with Denver of the NFL.
“With respect to the tight end, we just saw something in him that is unique and would like to explore if the opportunity arose where he came to Canada. We’re all about developing players and again, we see guys athletically and you see these guys on film and you see the things that they can do and we feel that when you start rating the players and want to take the best players available, he fell into that category. And if he ends up in camp with us, I can assure you that we will find a way to explore all the talents that he has and to see if it can fit what we’re doing. And if it adds up to something that we’re that we’re trying to do, then it would be a success on that end.
“But we also want to make sure that we’re fully supportive of the Global program and we took that draft very seriously. We’re not drafting guys just to fill the time and move on. We really see every bit of any opportunity to bring players into our organization as guys that we want and believe that can help us.
“The same with Nick, the punters. It’s really looking at some point when they’re looking to extend their professional careers, if they’re not playing at the NFL level, that they know they have a place as home. And if they’re available to us, we see those players as guys that we want to utilize their skills, not draft because we have to.”
No receivers except in the Global draft. That leads me to believe you’re pretty satisfied with your homebrew receivers after acquiring Luther Hakunavanhu and Brendan O’Leary-Orange, both fast and very big, to add to Kiondré Smith and Tyler Ternowski and maybe some others. So is it fair to say that you were already happy there?
“Yeah. I think with the receiving corps, we tried to address many of those concerns during free agency. Then in the draft, we were looking at the roster from a special team standpoint, and the offensive line in some cases. Just the best players that we could get based on how we’re looking to develop our roster moving forward.
“We feel that there’s always going to be an opportunity for us to get (a receiver) if the time comes. There’s more of them to be had when needed. Whereas when we’re talking about special teams and getting more physical and getting more size and more athleticism in areas that are going to take up a third of the game, we want to be able to have match -up advantages.”
There are a lot of moving parts in the draft and coming into Thursday a lot of observers—including, I admit, me—thought that given the acquisition in the off-season of important Canadian linebacker Jordan Williams, a ratio-breaking linebacker, you might be looking at a linebacker in the first couple of rounds. Of course the clearly top-ranked linebacker available to play this year, University of Cincinnati’s Joel Dublanko, went first overall to Edmonton. Did you consider a linebacker at No. seven?
“No, and I’m glad you asked the question. I want to be as fully transparent as I possibly can be with the audience here. When we went through our mocks (draft scenarios) there was only one player in, we’ll say, in that first round that we felt that we would not pass on. We felt that with respect to the linebacker, we felt Dublanko was going first. Okay, outside of Dublanko, the way we had our board rated, there was a clump of guys that we felt if they’re available, we’re staying at seven. “
