EDMONTON – The 2025 CFL Combine in Regina has officially concluded, and it’s given the Elks a chance to put a face to the tape.
A inside look at the process shows just how rigorous the work done by Edmonton’s scouting and operations staff truly is.
Over the course of the weekend, a cadre of Edmonton’s top brass have been set up in suites at New Mosaic Stadium in Regina to speak the draft’s top prospects. Sitting in the room for the interviews, the questions are direct and purposeful. Each prospect is allotted about 13 minutes in the biggest job interview of their young adult life — its not a time to ask what animal do the believe they could take on in a fight, or silly questions of the like. This is a chance to get to know what motivated these men to play football, hear what drives them, test their football knowledge, and importantly, get some context behind the injuries from their college days.
“There are certain things that you have to press individuals on, and you want to see how they answer it,” Head Coach Mark Kilam said. “You want to gauge professionalism. You want to gauge is that athlete ready to take the next step. You can find out about the way that they prepared for this. You can find out about their football knowledge in those interviews.”
“It’s a huge part and one of the better parts (of the draft process). Sitting down, looking at someone in the eyes, and kind of feeling if he’s a fit for your football team.”
The interview is just another step in the process. There has been months of scouting the best Canadians in U-Sports and NCAA, reviewing hours and hours of tape, along with dozens of interviews done with the agents, coaches, and players – the brief meeting with a nervous or over-prepared player is not enough to make or break the evaluation.
The interviews are also recorded and rewatched by Edmonton’s scouts to confirm that they drew the correct conclusion from the meeting. As the time ticks downs towards the April 29 CFL Draft, the Elks will get the opportunity to zoom with these players for more in depth conversations. However, last weekend can be one of the first and only opportunities to speak with them face-to-face.
There is also a chance to see how the prospects stack up physically against one another over the course of the weekend. From the fitness testing to the on-field sessions, this is the first apples-to-apples comparison for many of the potential draft picks. Edmonton’s Defensive Quality Control Coach Danny Nesbitt helped run the prosects through the on-field drills on Saturday and Sunday, and he got an up close view of both the physical ability of the prospects, and how they come across in the interview process.
“You really get to see who they are as a person. It was a really cool experience,” Nesbitt said. “That was my first time in those interviews. You see them on film, you see them on tape, you see them out on the field, you know who they are as a football player, and then you get in the meeting room and get to see who they are as a person and what they’re all about.”
Combine weekend is all about first impressions, for the players, the organizations, and the even the league. These players have to make the decision to commit to a life of pro sports, or decide whether to follow their degrees and enter the workforce. For those who experienced the event this weekend, it was an excellent representation of the talent of the CFL and the the professionalism of the league.
“First of all, the league does a tremendous job putting it on,” Kilam said. “It’s a big-time event. It feels like a big-time event for the players involved. It’s a professionally run event. They take care of these players, they take care of the coaches. It’s really well organized, and I think that that’s important because it’s reflective of the league that these guys are coming into, and we want to present it a certain way.”