Written by Graeme on Thursday, May 15th, 2014Follow @BetCFLWell – the 2014 CFL Draft is now over. It took place on May 13th, and what a draft it was.
There was a lot of interesting moves. The biggest was 30 minutes before the draft, the Stampeders managed to pick up the #1 spot. Offensive lineman were the biggest prospects, but Calgary sent their OL Jon Gott to the Redblacks, in exchange for that #1 spot. They then used that to pick up Piere Lavertu, a centre at Laval.
It was a move that raised eyebrows, considering Calgary have Brett Jones already. However the Stampeders were probably looking for players that could hit the ground running, and Lavertu l ooks to be the top of the line there. This guy is a beast, and he’s very smart too which will help in that spot.
The Argos made a pickup that I like – Anthony Coombs. Coombs is great, and I think he will add a lot to the Toronto offense. The RB is pretty awesome at returning kicks as well.
The Redblacks were all over the place. They sent Glenn to the Lions to get #5, then swapped with the Alouettes. They picked up DB Antoine Pruneau, and Montreal got David Foucalt. Foucault was one of the top 3 prospects, and this dude is huge. 6″7 and 320lbs, man I hope he sticks with the CFL but I can see him going to the NFL. He’s at a camp with the Panthers as I write this.
A lot of interesting moves. How did that affect the odds? Let’s look at the odds from back in January 2014, and now in May 2014 for the odds of winning the CFL Grey Cup 2014 – the first one listed is the odds back then:
BC Lions: 4.51 -> 4.22
Saskatchewan Roughriders: 4.95 -> 4.98
Calgary Stampeders: 5.02 -> 5.04
Toronto Argonauts: 7.97 -> 6.95
Hamilton Tiger-Cats: 8.02 -> 7.02
Montreal Alouettes: 9.00 -> 7.09
Edmonton Eskimos: 10.00 ->12.00
Winnipeg Blue Bombers: 13.00 -> 19.00
Ottawa RedBlacks: 26.00 -> 25.00
So the biggest movers in the odds in the last couple of months are around the middle of the pack. The Argonaughts have dropped a full point – but from talking to our CFL Linesmaker that’s less about the draft, and more just as the Grey Cup gets closer, the Toronto fans start blindly betting on the Argonauts.
An interesting one is the Blue Bombers, who jumped from 13.00 to 19.00 to win the Grey Cup. That one is not a surprise. They have no depth. And honestly Mike O’Shea doesn’t sound like he has any ambition. His goal seems to be “Let’s just win 4 games first”. Yeah sure I appreciate going in with a cautious approach but that seems too much.
Blue Bombers of course lost Muamba, which was a massive loss. They also lost Green and Miles to the Redblacks in the expansion draft, as well as Chris Matthews.
To me – right now, the team I’d go for is the Calgary Stampeders. They’re the team that looked the best prepared during the draft. They wanted that center bad and they got him. They seemed to have the best strategy.
The CFL pre-season starts June 9th. Week 1 is June 26th with the Argonauts vs the Blue Bombers, June 28th has the Alouettes vs the Stampeders and Eskimos versus Lions. Then we have the Tiger-Cats vs the Roughriders on June 29th.
I can’t wait.
