2025 CFL Global Draft: Defensive Backs & Specialists Scouting Criteria
The CFL Global Draft will take place on April 29, 2025. Today we wrap up our preview with how Defensive Backs and Specialists are viewed in CFL evaluations.
Defensive Back Traits Emphasis
Speed: Burst, acceleration, catch-up speed, and close.
Explosion: Force generated when delivering a blow, pop and strength, minimizing time lapse between initial movement and contact, quick movement out of transition to break on ball, and suddenness in body.
Quickness: Lateral movement to handle Waggle motion, ability to change direction quickly and reactionary ability to mirror and match.
Man-to-Man Coverage: Catch and ride vs Waggle motion, eye discipline, no panic in trail or off and crafty use of contact in-phase.
Ball Reactions: Quick trigger, close to finish, finding the ball and ability to catch the ball outside their frame.
Key and Diagnose: Reactive eyes to process and adjust, disciplined eyes to process through ambiguity and recognition on route distribution.
Toughness: Physical at catch point, aggressive as a tackler, short memory and competitive spirit.
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Specialist Traits Emphasis
Soccer or Conventional: Placekickers approach at an angle and strike the ball with the instep, while soccer players typically approach straight-on and may use the instep or the ball of the foot.
Shoe or Barefoot: Some kickers choose to kick barefoot, believing it gives them better feel and control. However, this practice was largely abandoned in the 1980s and 90s, and is now rare.
Right or Left-footed: Ball spin for returners and how it affects the holder.
CFL Kicking Game Rule Differences: Starting point differences, Rouge, field dimensions.
Leg Strength/Distance: Range/distance for kickers and distance and hangtime for punters
Accuracy/Production: Placing the punt in specific spots away from returners, how many inside the 20, touchbacks, field goal/extra point made percentage.
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Special teams remains the ultimate deciding factor
Due to the CFL’s small rosters and ratio rules, players who cannot play special teams have limited value. This particularly affects offensive skill positions.
You can never have enough punters
It may seem like a joke, but the economics of supply and demand mean that CFL teams are getting elite-level punter play for next to no cost, after years of paying a premium for average Canadian specialists. Even if a team has an excellent incumbent, they are liable to draft a replacement option to compete.
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