LB Veresuk Highlights Defence-Heavy Draft

Eight draft choices. Seven of them spent on defensive players.

That’s a statement so clear that it should be accompanied by neon lights.

On a wild draft Tuesday, which began with a trade involving the morning Global Draft, the Tiger-Cats loaded up where they needed to load up. It’s where they’ve been loading up since December when they hired former Calgary defensive coordinator Brent Monson to emphasize aggression and speed, then recalibrated the personnel so that there are likely to be at least six new starters on defence.

And they doubled down on Tuesday. Only one offensive player was taken among the eight selected in the evening’s CFL National (read: Canadian) Draft and that was one they hadn’t planned on being available – offensive lineman Arvin Hosseini of UBC in the third round – so they changed oars midstream, flipped their plans, and grabbed him.

Otherwise, the defence did not rest. Didn’t even yawn. Overall: one linebacker, three defensive backs, three defensive linemen.

The heavy concentration on one side of the ball made another statement: the Ticats’ muscular offence doesn’t have many—as in probably none—open starting and backup spots.

With the second overall pick, the Ticats selected University of Windsor linebacker Devin Veresuk. At No. 9 overall, essentially another first-rounder, they went with defensive end Isaiah Bagnah, who played at Brigham Young after first playing at Boise State as a linebacker.

“We entered the draft wanting flexibility in deciding who our seventh and eighth Canadian starter will be,” General Manager Ted Goveia said of his first draft with the Tiger-Cats. “That was how we entered the whole draft. We like our offensive line group, we like our Canadian receiving corps, they’re a great group, and we had some question marks on defence.

“Veresuk will not only increase team speed on our cover teams and special teams, he’s smart enough to grow in the role and challenge Ryan (Baker) at some point should we decide we’re going to start a Canadian at linebacker. That’s for training camp to decide.

“We just loved him. He’s a smart kid, he’s tough, his head coach played for me. He’s an engineer, he’s 6-1-and-a-half, and he’s tough as nails. Being a Windsor kid he’ll fit right in our community. We couldn’t be more thrilled.”

Veresuk was pretty thrilled himself.

“I’m over the moon right now,” he told Ticats.ca “I’m fired up, I’m exactly where I wanted to be. Can’t be happier.”

Before he reports to Ticats’ training camp, Veresuk will honour an invitation to a rookie mini-camp next Thursday with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts but Goveia says he expects both top picks to be at McMaster when camp formally opens the second weekend of May.

Veresuk caught the NFL’s attention when he tore off a 4.47-second 40-yard dash at the University of Buffalo’s pro day and combined that speed with a stunning 27 bench press reps of 225 pounds.

“I was hoping to hit 30,” he said.

While Windsor is primarily an NFL-oriented town, Veresuk did follow the Tiger-Cats as a kid because another Windsor native, Brian Bulcke, played here for three years and was the team’s nominee for defensive player of the year in 2013. Veresuk’s father took him to Tim Hortons Field for a couple of games to watch Bulcke play.

His father also started him in weight training as soon as he turned 12, accounting for his outsized strength. The first weight room he ever visited was the student’s gym at University of Windsor and, proving that what goes around comes around, years later that’s where he toned himself for four years into a pro-ready player.

“I’m athletic,” he says of his playing style. “I can be anywhere on the field at a given moment. I’m a raw linebacker who has plenty of potential and I’m excited to tap into it. I’m ready to get going.”

Monson, the former St. Thomas More Knight who began his coaching career as a volunteer at Bishop Tonnos, was pleased with the top two picks on his side of the ball.

“I think their potential is that both can eventually be starters,” he said. “They just have to learn. There’s definitely a physicality those two players bring. Physicality and speed. We have to get after the quarterback, that’s the name of the game. Those two bring those two pieces.

“I got the opportunity to work with both at the CFL Combine and their interviews were both great. They’re high-character players, hard workers and would fit into the locker room right away.”

Taken ninth overall—technically first in the second round but realistically a first-rounder—Bagnah is from Alberta and played at Boise State. But his position coach left Boise and went to BYU and brought Bagnah with him.

“That to me says a lot about what your coach thought of you,” Goveia said. “And BYU turned their program around. He was a part of that, playing quality reps. For us we wanted the flexibility. We traded for Kyle Samson, a Hamilton kid we’re high on and is capable of playing in the CFL. We plan on playing him next year. We wanted to make sure we supplemented that with (free agent and former McMaster Marauder) Owen Hubert and we needed an end in there for flexibility. He was a good fit based on need and he’s played some big-time football.”

Earlier in the day the Ticats had obtained Samson in yet another deal with Winnipeg.

The former Cardinal Newman star is another of the growing contingent of UBC players on the team. He was the Bombers’ second round pick last year and spent the season on the practice roster but played in the Grey Cup.

The Ticats sent last year’s 36^th overall pick, running back Matthew Peterson who had returned to the University of Alberta last season, to Winnipeg with their second-overall pick in the morning Global Draft and a fourth-rounder in the National Draft which they used to pick nose tackle Ty Anderson out of Alberta. The Bombers also got the Ticats’ fifth round pick last night.

The trade for Samson clearly influenced Hamilton’s draft, as the Cats also selected Anderson who plays in the interior as does Samson, and in the eighth and final round the Cats took Nate Martey, an Ottawa native who played the interior line at Arkansas State after transferring from Princeton. He might be more of a long-term project but in one day the Ticats added a lot of Canadian defensive linemen—three of them inside—to go with the Canadian ends they already had. Generally, the Ticats are likely to go with four American starters up front but they’ll need rotational help and defensive line coach Casey Creehan can now choose Canadians for that, either at end or in the middle. It’s a significant depth improvement.

Martey had been rated 14^th overall on some draft charts so it could prove to be a profitable get with a last-round pick. In the sixth and seventh rounds (Hamilton didn’t have a fifth-rounder) the Ticats went with defensive backs, Ronan Horrall of UBC at 48^th overall and Manitoba’s Jackson Nitychoruk of Manitoba at No. 57 to go along with third-rounder (28^th) Mack Bannatyne from Alberta, who also played at York and has excellent speed. He’ll slot into the depth chart at the free safety spot owned by Stavros Katsantonis and should be a valuable asset on special teams.