Two Carleton football players had a strong showing at the 2016 CFL Montreal Regional Combine on March 9.
Ravens quarterback Jesse Mills has benched nine reps, beating the University of Ottawa’s Derek Wendel, who put up four.
But the Gee-Gees quarterback recorded a 31-inch vertical jump to Mills’ 28, and the two tied on the broad jump at 8.8 feet.
Mills completed the three-cone drill in 8.04 seconds and the shuttle drill in 4.83 seconds.
Meanwhile, lineman Montreal native Bobby Thomson has also demonstrated strength. He benched for 22 reps of 225 pounds, the fourth-best among players at the combine so far and best among linemen.
He didn’t do so well in the broad jump compared to his colleagues on the line with 7.4 feet.
Thomson also recorded 8.54 seconds in his three-cone time and 5.25 seconds in his shuttle drill.
The two are joining more than 40 athletes for the chance to earn a spot at the national combine in Toronto on March 11.
“I wasn’t really expecting it—it was kind of out of the blue, and there wasn’t really much notice,” Mills said of the invitation to Montreal. “I was pretty happy. It’s a dream come true, really, what I’ve been working towards for a while.”
Thomson had a similar sentiment.
“I felt great, I was like on a real-life high, you know?” he said. “It was inexplicable.”
The six-foot-four, 290-pound lineman played 10 games last season for Carleton, most of them shielding Mills’ blind side at left tackle.
This helped Mills to throw for more than 1,900 yards and 16 touchdowns—career bests for him.
He led them to a 5-3 regular season and one playoff win before being nixed by the Guelph Gryphons.
The two are also both eligible for the CFL draft, which takes place on May 10.
On top of that, they both have had experience on similar big stages.
Mills was brought in as a volunteer thrower for the 2013 CFL combine, and was named to the CIS East-West Bowl roster the next year. He was the only quarterback to throw a touchdown pass in the game.
Thomson was invited to last year’s East-West Bowl.
Mills is one of just two quarterbacks invited to the Montreal combine, alongside Wendel.
They hope to enter the national combine and get noticed by CFL teams, a hard task for Canadians in their position.
“The biggest thing with Canadian quarterbacks is you need as much exposure as possible, because they just keep bringing in these Americans,” Mills said. “Definitely being there in 2013, just being in front of the coaches and scouts and stuff definitely did help. That’s when I started receiving the most attention, I would say.”
Thomson, on the other hand, is attending the regional combine alongside six other offensive linemen from around the CIS.
“I know that for my position, and as a Canadian O-lineman there are always CFL teams seeking us,” he said. “Also the CFL is a passing game, and I know that’s one of my strengths.”
He considers himself an athletic player with speed that helps him in his pass protection. It may come in handy when he competes for the 40-yard dash later in the day.
Only four competitors at the Montreal combine managed to receive an invite to compete in the Toronto Combine on March 12-13. Neither Thomson or Mills were among the invites but both Ravens will have a chance to show what they learned from the combine on the gridiron, Aug. 28 against the McMaster Marauders.
