With Huskies’ Heenan, McCall highly-ranked, will Roughriders go local in draft?

The CFL has released its latest edition of the Top 15 prospects for the 2012 Canadian draft (compiled by averaging teams' submitted rankings), and there's a familiar name at the top, 6'4'', 310-pound University of Saskatchewan Huskies offensive lineman Ben Heenan (who topped the list in September). Heenan isn't the only Husky on the list, either, as defensive back Bryce McCall (the only DB listed) comes in at 8th, making Saskatchewan one of three schools to put two players in this edition of the rankings (the others are Laval and Sherbrooke). That's particularly notable, as the Saskatchewan Roughriders hold the top pick in May's draft. Despite the advantages of taking a player from your own province, though (both from a familiarity standpoint and a public-relations standpoint), the Roughriders should only opt to select Heenan or McCall if they think the Huskies' standouts are the best players out there and/or the best fit for their needs.

Drafting local players certainly has its advantages, and the largest one may be from a familiarity standpoint. It's obviously a lot easier for Roughriders' personnel executives to check in frequently on games of the local Regina Rams or the in-province Huskies in person than it is for them to do the same with more far-flung players, and they likely also have existing relationships with the coaches of both teams. That's important, as the majority of CFL players plucked from the CIS ranks aren't finished products; most have strengths they need to build on and weaknesses they need to reduce before becoming top CFL players. Having a strong idea of players' on-field abilities and off-field makeup certainly helps with the drafting process, and it's easier to pull that together if you see those players frequently and have relationships with their coaches. Still, this should be a fairly minor point in the overall scheme of evaluating players.

The public-relations element of drafting a local player should ideally be absolutely immaterial from a football standpoint, but it isn't necessarily. At its core, the CFL is a business built on drawing fans (both to the stadium and on TV) and selling merchandise, and local heroes can definitely help with that. This probably isn't a key concern for Saskatchewan, given their financial strength and their previously-demonstrated ability to have players from other parts of Canada (like Ontario's Rob Bagg and Andy Fantuz) become local celebrities, but it's something that can weigh into drafting logic. It really shouldn't, though; overall, the most important element in drawing fans is putting together a winning on-field product over the long term, and every football decision should be made towards that end.

However, that doesn't mean that Saskatchewan shouldn't seriously consider at least Heenan and perhaps McCall as well. If you completely ignore their local connections, there are still plenty of reasons to like these guys. Heenan's been at the top of these rankings the last two times for several reasons; he's massive, agile and versatile (he's been named an all-Canadian at both guard and tackle). He could be a very good fit with the Roughriders, who could certainly stand to develop younger Canadian offensive linemen. He does carry some of the same risks as their 15th overall pick last year, though, Matt O'Donnell, a similarly massive and almost-as-hyped CIS lineman who played in the U.S. East-West Shrine Game (which Heenan is doing this week), raised his NFL stock and wound up catching on with the Cincinnati Bengals (after a convoluted saga).

If the Roughriders decide Hennan may carry substantial NFL risk, there are plenty of other talented options out there, and McCall would certainly be an interesting one; he was a first-team all-Canadian in 2010 and recorded 35.5 tackles, one sacks, three interceptions, four breakups and two fumble recoveries last season. At 6'0 and 200 pounds, he's a reasonably-sized defensive back, which could be useful in a league that seems to be somewhat trending towards bigger receivers. He's also the only DB on the list, which speaks well for his potential, and the Riders could use Canadian talent in the secondary. Yet another intriguing option with local connections is Regina Rams' DE Akiem Hicks, who isn't on that list but is at the Shrine Game and was called "the best Canadian prospect I've seen at #shrinegame in 3 yrs" by National Football Post draft guru Wes Bunting. (Update: Hicks is an intriguing prospect, but not for the CFL draft. He's an American who wound up playing CIS football after a recruitment scandal at LSU. He may well play in the CFL someday, bu that would be through the import negotiation list process, not the non-import draft). Any of those players would well be worth a look by the Roughriders, but if they do opt to select them, that decision should be based on ability, not their local connections.