CFL officials say combine results are just a part of their annual draft preparation

By Canadian Press on March 5, 2026.

It’s a most unconventional job interview.

On Friday, the CFL will hold its invitational combine in Waterloo, Ont., with over 80 players vying for spots at the league’s national combine in Edmonton on March 27-29. Representatives from all nine teams will attend both, jotting down results and observations in preparation for the 2026 draft on April 28.

“We’re looking for good football players, obviously,” said Dwayne Cameron, the Calgary Stampeders’ Canadian scouting director and U.S. scout. “But you’re looking for guys you can project athletically that the success you’ve seen them have on film will translate against the bigger, faster, stronger players they’ll have to compete against at the professional level.”

On Friday, participants will undergo traditional physical testing: 225-pound bench press; vertical jump; broad jump; 40-yard dash; three-cone and short shuttle. They’ll also don pads for positional work and one-on-one drills.

The day will begin at 7 a.m. ET with player registrations, followed by height, weight, hand, arm and wingspan measurements.

CFL representatives will not only see how players deal with on-field adversity in testing and drills at both combines but also speak to them. Like many league officials, that’s an important part of draft prep for Jim Barker, the Toronto Argonauts player-personnel director.

“You want to see if the young guy is accountable,” he said. “You look at what do they want to do after they’re done playing.

“For example, if a guy is put on the practice roster, would he rather stay or go back to school, stuff like that. To me, it’s about trying to see how much a guy actually loves football.”

Teams usually assign draft-eligible players grades during their pre-draft evaluation. Those classifications can fluctuate based on how individuals do at the combine.

“If a guy wins his rep, how is he going to react,” Barker said. “If he loses badly, how’s he going to come back from it?

“I think you can get a taste just watching players. There are certain parameters you must have to play in this league.”

But much of draft preparation is spent watching hundreds of hours of game film. Danny Maciocia, the Montreal Alouettes GM, says that’s crucial in his player evaluation.

“At the end of the day, the film matters,” he said. “We’re trying to play football so you have to determine if this guy can play football.

“If I’d made some of our picks over the last few years based on just the combine, chances are I wouldn’t have made those picks.”

Case in point was 2022 when Montreal drafted Calgary receiver Tyson Philpot in the first round, ninth overall. Philpot enjoyed a stellar career with the Dinos, helping them win the ’19 Vanier Cup.

But he didn’t perform well at the CFL combine, posting a 40-yard dash time of 4.59 seconds and 30.5-inch vertical jump. Yet since joining the Alouettes, Philpot has 205 catches for 2,574 yards and 17 TDs in 52 regular-season games and was the top Canadian in their ’23 Grey Cup victory.

“All of those games, all of that production over three or four years (in university) supersede what you’re going to give me (at combine),” Maciocia said. “That’s where you have to be careful … you’ve got to circle back to the film.”

Barker agrees.

“Game tape is the biggest thing,” he said. “There’s a certain kind of football player you want and that’s what we’re trying to find.

“Those guys who do the things we look as (being) necessary.”

Should a player post surprising combine results, Maciocia said that either means re-evaluating his game film or finding tape if the individual flew completely under the radar.

“There’s definitely merit with the combine and how you perform and go about it,” he said. “But again, we’re not going to pick a guy based just on that.

“We’re going to pick him based on his body of work.”

Many players spend their off-season doing combine training to achieve positive results. And when some post terrific results, it can create a social-media firestorm with suggestions the player is worthy of first-round consideration.

But Cameron said CFL officials are good at eliminating that noise.

“If I don’t see that kind of speed and athleticism on film, it’s actually more of a red flag,” he said. “That’s because I have to ask, ‘If he was going against lesser competition in college and I didn’t see him dominate with those traits, what makes me think he’s going to be really good at the next level when the athletic gap between him and his opponents has shrunk significantly?’

“But I think most of us understand testing doesn’t necessarily equate to what you see on the film. If you get to this level, you’ve got to be able to do a pretty good job of deciphering.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2026.

Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press