Head coaches and general managers from all nine Canadian Football League teams are in Regina for the combine.
Over three days, athletes will undergo physical testing, four practice sessions and individual interviews as teams continue to gather information to build their draft rankings.
For Saskatchewan Roughriders vice president of football operations and general manager Jeremy O’Day, 2025 will be his seventh time preparing the team for the CFL Draft as a GM. He is excited about the opportunity the combine presents to his football operations group.
“It's always nice to get them all in one place and have your whole staff here where your staff can converse with them and evaluate them. So it's pretty exciting when you come out and watch football players and talk ball.”
The Roughriders currently hold the fifth overall selection and the information gained this weekend will go a long way toward firming up O'Day's draft board.
“Players can move up or down a couple of rounds through the combine. If they don't test well or if they test out really well, they can move up.”
O’Day acknowledges that interviewing players will go a long way towards their final evaluation.
“There's some players that we've interviewed in the past and we're not so sure that this is a guy for the Roughriders. And that's what we try to figure out through the process: will he fit in with our team? Will he make us better from a personality standpoint?" O'Day explained.
“The testing takes care of itself. Some players will test out better, but there's not many times where we look back five years into a player's career and say: 'Well, what did he run in the 40?”
When analyzing the 2025 CFL Draft prospects, O’Day is excited about the roster impact that the players can have.
“This draft class, in particular, I don't think we're going to have as many Canadian players getting drafted in the NFL. So it should lead to a good group of players for us to pick from.”
O’Day believes the 2025 class will allow them to be very flexible when assembling the team's draft order.
“I always say that there's good players in the draft in every position. I think sometimes there's a little more depth in certain positions in every draft class," O'Day explained.
The Roughriders, who were a win away from the Grey Cup in 2024, have used roster continuity as their game plan this offseason. O’Day agrees that the team has a game plan for the combine, but aren’t afraid to call an audible.
“If someone comes in, they test really well and you don't know if he's on our interview list, we can change it. We can also get on the phone with them after the combine.”
O’Day added that the give and take will also continue after the combine.
“You might be going into the draft with your draft board set up or your grades on a particular player and he pops during the combine. You say: 'Maybe we need to go back and take another look at them and see if we evaluated them correctly.'"
The most significant steps in that evaluation process will be taken during the CFL Combine this weekend in Regina.