‘Like preparing for a test:’ O’Day, Riders ready to tackle 2024 draft

Jeremy O’Day is hoping all the studying and film work pays off when the CFL draft gets underway.

The Saskatchewan Roughriders general manager and his staff have been hard at work over the past few months to prepare for the third overall pick during Tuesday’s draft, which gets underway at 6 p.m.

“It’s kind of like preparing for a test. You have been studying for a long time and you get to that time before the test and you start to say ‘Did I forget about this? Did I miss this?’ I don’t want to say you’re cramming, but you’re throwing on video of 15 guys in the draft and you’re watching them again to make sure that where you have them is the right spot,” O’Day told reporters on Monday at Mosaic Stadium.

The Riders will pick third after the team’s disappointing 6-12 season in 2023. The Riders also held the third pick last year, and used it to draft defensive end Lake Korte-Moore.

“You have to have three guys, just in case your top guy goes one or two,” O’Day said.

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O’Day wouldn’t go into specifics about which positions he feels good about, but did say that he and his staff feel like there’s a strong class in this year’s draft.

“I just think there’s probably another round of good players than we have had in the last couple of years,” O’Day said. “That’s changing a lot, with a lot of the guys getting NFL opportunities.”

O’Day said around 15 players who are eligible for the CFL draft were drafted by an NFL team or have received camp invites.

It will also be the first draft as a head coach for Corey Mace, who joined the Riders during the offseason after the team parted ways with Craig Dickenson.

“He is really involved and probably doing more evaluations than he is used to,” O’Day said of Mace.

“It’s nice for him to look at the draft from a whole perspective instead of just from the defensive side. He is really focused on the defensive side, but this year he’s able to evaluate the other side of the ball.”

The Riders also pick 12th, 23rd, 32nd, 41st, 50th and 59th.

O’Day said he’ll look to add some more players to the roster to come in and compete at training camp, where a number of battles could take place. He noted that the Riders aren’t sure yet if they’ll start four Canadians along the offensive line.

“We’re going to look at some different opportunities and different ways to set up the ratio,” O’Day said. “I don’t know if we’re going to go with four Canadians, but we will see. We’re going to have a competition at left tackle, and we have to see how some of our new recruits do there.”

O’Day also wasn’t sure if the team will be starting three Canadian receivers this season.

“One of the receiver positions is going to be open for grabs, if not two of them,” O’Day said. “We certainly feel like we have the flexibility to go (with) three Canadians, and it’s also a strong draft in that area as well.”

With the draft nearing, O’Day said it’s a exciting time to be a general manager.

“It’s a lot of fun. You want to make sure you are taking everyone’s thoughts, and I don’t want to say you need 50 people telling you different things, but different perspectives is sometimes a good thing,” O’Day said. “We’re trying to pick players who will give us the best opportunity to win and give us the most flexibility on our ratio.”

O’Day also provided an update on safety Jaxon Ford, who was taken in the second round of last year’s draft. The Regina product underwent wrist surgery in the offseason, and is expected to miss some time.