With the CFL Combine Presented By Anytime Fitness drawing near, young football hopefuls across the land are fine-tuning their skills, eager to put up impressive numbers in each of the six testing disciplines that will be measured.
Here are eight current CFLers who honed their own skills well, posting some attention-getting numbers at past combines.
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TEVAUGHN CAMPBELL | DEFENSIVE BACK | 2015
The Saskatchewan Roughriders defender was named an All-CFL corner in 2025 and 10 years before that, he turned heads in a big way at the combine.
Campbell scorched through the 40 with a time of 4.36 (second-best all-time) and landed a broad jump of 10 feet, nine and three-quarters inches, placing him 11th all-time on that list.
DREW DESJARLAIS | OFFENSIVE LINEMAN | 2019
The Ottawa REDBLACKS offensive lineman came up with a tremendous showing at the 2019 combine.
Among offensive linemen, Drew Desjarlais was tops in the vertical, the shuttle and the three-cone drills, while finishing second in the 40 and third in the broad jump.
His 25 reps in the bench press placed him fourth and on the strength of the University of Windsor grad’s superb testing scores, he went from outside the top 20 to Winnipeg’s first round pick (fourth overall).
BEN HLADIK | LINEBACKER | 2021
In 2021, combine testing numbers were done independently as the world wrestled with the Covid pandemic.
The verified numbers that BC Lions linebacker Ben Hladik turned in were impressive indeed.
Hladik did 29 reps in the bench press and he turned in a leap of 10 feet, seven inches in the broad jump as well as a more than respectable 4.66 in the 40.
The University of British Columbia graduate also showed off explosive agility in clocking a 6.66 in the 3-cone, just seventeen-one hundredths of a second off the all-time combine record.
GAVIN COBB | RECEIVER | 2022
Receiver Gavin Cobb jumped a 40.5-inch vertical at the 2022 CFL Combine (Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca)
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers receiver — still attempting to burst through as an impact player in the CFL — posted terrific testing numbers at the 2022 combine, finishing top-five in five different disciplines.
The University of Manitoba grad was tops in the broad jump, with a mark of 10 feet, nine and seven-eighths inches, and he was second in the vertical with a height of 40.5 inches.
Cobb clocked a 4.53 in the 40 — placing him third – and tied for fourth in the shuttle. Cobb finished in a third-place tie in the 3-cone drill.
JOEL DUBLANKO | LINEBACKER | 2024
The Edmonton Elks linebacker was a late add to the draft in 2024 and the thought was that he didn’t even need to appear at the combine in order to be a top pick.
But show up he did, with good numbers across the testing spectrum, putting up a respectable 16 reps in the bench press, landing just outside the top 5 in the shuttle drill with a time of 4.27, and in a tie for fourth in the 3-cone, with an impressive 6.84 on Dublanko’s stat sheet. With a broad jump of 10 feet, nine and a quarter inches, Dublanko showed off his explosive abilities as well.
MICHAEL CHRIS-IKE | FULLBACK | 2024
Michael Chris-Ike tied for first in the 40-yard dash in the 2024 CFL Combine with a 4.51 second time (Cameron Bartlett/CFL.ca)
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers fullback wound up being taken by the Bombers in the second round (14th overall) in the 2024 draft, and you have to believe his impressive performances in three testing areas played their parts in the Hamilton native being selected that high.
Michael Chris-Ike finished tied for first in the 40 competition with a sprint timed in 4.51 seconds while his agility was spotlighted with a 4.19 in the shuttle drill (placing him second) and in the 3-cone where he posted a time of 6.71 seconds, tops at the 2024 combine and fifth-best all-time.
BEN LABROSSE | DEFENSIVE BACK | 2024
The Calgary Stampeders defensive back stood out in almost every test at the 2024 combine, finishing in the top-five in every category except one — the bench press (and that is a category in which DBs are not generally expected to land on the leaderboard).
Ben Labrosse was number one in the broad jump with a leap of 11 feet, one and three-quarters inches (less than four inches shy of the all-time combine record) and he tied Chris-Ike for the fastest time in the 40.
The graduate of McGill University was second in the vertical, tied for second in the 3-cone, and fourth in the shuttle.
Little wonder he was selected fourth overall in that year’s draft.
ERIC CUMBERBATCH | DEFENSIVE BACK | 2025
The second-year Ottawa REDBLACKS defensive back won the broad jump competition, last year, with a spectacular leap of 11 feet, two and three-eighths inches (just over two inches shy of the all-time record) and then backed up that show of explosive power by finishing second in the vertical, topping out at 39 inches.
The University of Ottawa grad also clocked a top-three finish in the 40, with a time 4.51 seconds.
