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CFL draft all about staying true for Edmonton Eskimos' Kwaku Boateng

The real question is how many fifth-round choices do the Eskimos get in Thursday’s CFL draft, given last year's harvest of Canadian talent?

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Forget about the first round.

The real question is, how many fifth-round choices do the Edmonton Eskimos get in Thursday’s CFL draft, given last year’s harvest of Canadian talent?

Time will tell, but for now at least, it would be difficult to argue against Justin Senior and Kwaku Boateng being in the running as the best two players to come out of the 2017 draft.

While Senior, a six-foot-five, 331-pound Mississippi State product out of Montreal, was the undisputed top prospect of the draft class, the offensive tackle had already been drafted a week earlier by the National Football League’s Seattle Seahawks.

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As such, obtaining his rights in the fifth round (40th overall) was seen as a steal by the Eskimos, even if the chances of him ever showing up in the three-down loop were slim.

Boateng, on the other hand, was a different story.

Considering the six-foot, 250-pound defensive end out of Wilfrid Laurier was taken on the very next pick by an Eskimos club that had shed every veteran Canadian from its defensive line earlier in the off-season in efforts to go with an all-American front four, Boateng wasn’t expected to make much of an on-field impact outside of special-teams duties.

“How the draft went for me, I was projected to go a lot higher,” he said. “And I just ended up snowballing to where I fell in the fifth round. So I came into camp with a chip on my shoulder.

“I didn’t really care that you had an all-American D-line or an all-Canadian one, I was determined to be on the squad.”

He wasn’t just on it, he ended up making the most of every opportunity along the way to show he belonged on the field, working his way into a rotation alongside starting defensive ends Odell Willis, Marcus Howard and Phillip Hunt. Boateng even earned his first official start in Week 9 against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in between a season-ending Achilles injury to Howard and John Chick being brought in as a replacement.

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“So I think with that determination and (former D-line) coach (Casey) Creehan seeing some potential in me in the beginning and helping me out,” said Boateng, who finished his rookie season with 21 tackles and four sacks. “Whether it was extra meeting time or just taking me to the side and helping me work on my pass-rush after practice, that’s all helped shape the person I am today.”

So what was it that all the pundits missed as Boateng fell from the second-overall ranked prospect in September, to sixth in December, to 12th spot in the final ranking, not to mention all the scouts and general managers on draft day?

“I’m not sure, to be honest,” Boateng said. “I think a big part of it was I had no special (teams) film, and being a Canadian rookie in the CFL game and playing defensive end, which is traditionally an American position, it’s hard for a team to find a spot for me.

“I was undersized coming into the combine, which didn’t help either. That all hurt me. I just had to come in and show that it doesn’t matter whether you have an American out there or whatnot, I feel comfortable and I feel confident to perform.”

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Regardless of what everyone else saw, Boateng saw something in himself and wasn’t about to try to make himself fit a different mold.

“During interviews during the combine, every team asked me if I can play linebacker,” he said. “And the answer was, really, I’m a pass-rusher, that’s who I am and if that’s one-dimensional, I’m one-dimensional, but I’m a pass-rusher.”

One that was looking for the right team to give him a chance to prove it every bit as much as his potential employers were interviewing him for a job.

“Me and Connor McGough, we’re actually buddies,” Boateng said of the fourth-overall pick of the Hamilton Tiger-Cats last year. “When he went that high, I actually shot him a message after the draft that said, ‘By the end of the season, we’re going to see who the best defensive end is’ coming out of that rookie draft.”

McGough earned three tackles on defence and 18 on special teams.

“I guess it really just comes down to the hard work and dedication that comes with playing football here,” Boateng said. “It’s definitely a great position for me to be in but … I still have a lot of learning to go through.”

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Getting drafty: The Eskimos will pick in every round but the first after trading the sixth-overall pick and a fifth-rounder (37th overall) to Hamilton in exchange for the 10th and 20th overall selections Wednesday. Edmonton had previously traded its second-round pick (15th overall) to Hamilton for DE John Chick (now retired) and a fifth-round pick in this year’s draft. The Eskimos had also traded their top third-round choice (20th overall) and QB James Franklin to the Toronto Argonauts for OL Mason Woods.


Edmonton Eskimos’ selections in 2018 CFL draft

Round 2: 10th overall

Round 3: 24th overall

Round 4: 32nd overall

Round 5: 37th overall (from Hamilton in John Chick trade) and 40th overall

Round 6: 48th overall

Round 7: 53rd overall (from Hamilton in Shamawd Chambers deal) and 57th overall

Round 8: 65th overall (from Saskatchewan in Cedrick McKinley deal)

Email: gmoddejonge@postmedia.com

On Twitter: @GerryModdejonge

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