Just a few doors down the hallway from our little content creation bunker here at Princess Auto Stadium is the office of Winnipeg Blue Bombers GM Kyle Walters and earlier this week the long-serving boss of the club could be heard in a deep draft-related conversation.

One more door over is where Director of Football Operations Matt Gulakow resides and he, too, was doing his thing to help the club prepare for the Canadian Football League Draft and Global Draft, which go later this month on Tuesday, April 28th and Wednesday, April 29th, respectively.

So, while CFL news might be at a trickle in this period between the draft and the opening of rookie camp on May 6th and main camp on May 10th, right now all across the league teams are scrambling to put together their draft rankings lists — including the Blue Bombers, who will be especially busy with nine selections in total, including the fourth overall pick and four in the top 24.

We’ll have a much more comprehensive CFL Draft primer in the weeks ahead, but in the meantime your humble agent tumbled deep down a rabbit hole over the last few days in an examination of this team’s history of the fourth overall selection and what that might yield the organization as it looks to augment its Canadian talent — if it hangs on to that spot and doesn’t trade out of it.

So, it’s with that serving as the backdrop — The Power of 4, if you will — we present the latest edition of 1st & 10…

WITH THE FOURTH PICK…

Since 1956 the Blue Bombers have had the fourth overall selection four times. The yield:

1994 — Ryan Carey, DB, Acadia — Appeared in 29 games for the club in his first two seasons — 1994 and 1995 — before spending the next three seasons with the Saskatchewan Roughriders. He played in 64 games in his career with two starts, both with the Riders.

After retirement Carey joined the Canadian Armed Forces and served in Afghanistan from 2006-07 and took part in Operation Medusa, the country’s largest combat operation in more than 50 years. This story outlines Carey’s military service, including his unit being attacked in the offensive and the death of four soldiers under his command. Carey is now a retired former captain and has worked with Guitars for Vets, Soldier on and has participated in the Invictus Games, including serving as Canada’s flag bearer when the event was held in Toronto in 2017.

1996 — Andrew Henry, DB, C.W. Post — Henry suited up for 13 games as a rookie for the Blue Bombers in 1996 and six more in 1997 before moving on to Saskatchewan (1997, 2000), Toronto (1999-2000) and Edmonton (2001). He started six games in his career, all with the Roughriders in 2000 and is now a pastor at Wisdom & Life Apostolic Church in Pointe Claire, Que.

2011 — Jade Etienne, WR, Saskatchewan — The Blue Bombers had two of the top four picks in 2011, selecting St. Francis Xavier Henoc Muamba first overall and then Etienne, a receiver, at fourth overall. Etienne played in 45 games for the club from 2011-13, including 11 starts in his final year. He is now a professional photographer in the Okanagan region of B.C.

2019 — Drew Desjarlais, OL, Windsor — Winnipeg loved the work of the big mauler up front and he started 10 games as a rookie and 24 of his 32 games in Blue Bombers colours — including a pair of Grey Cup wins — before signing a big free agent deal in Ottawa. He’s spent the last three years with the Redblacks and has started 72 of his career 81 games while being considered one of the best guards in the league.

FOUR OF THE TOP 24…

Winnipeg selects fourth, 13th, 20th and 24th in this month’s draft, securing the 24th overall as the result of once again being one of the two CFL teams to register the most snaps amongst Canadians, with B.C. being the other. Of note, the bonus pick reward at the end of the second round has been in existence for three years now, with Winnipeg earning the extra selection in each of the three CFL Drafts, with the Lions twice getting another choice and Toronto once, ironically via a trade with B.C.

Winnipeg has had four selections in the top 24 in 10 drafts dating back to 1959 (not including the drafts that previously included territorial exemptions — 1972-84 — which has since been disbanded):

1969: Doug Strong, DB, (1st); Rob McLaren, LB (2nd); Gary Robinson, DB (10th) and Jim Jardine, LB (19th)

1970: Bob Larose, DB, (7th); John Senst, WR (10th); Rick Sugden, DB (14th), Wayne Powell, DE, (19th)

1971: Peter Ribbins, DB (5th); Bob Kraemer, QB (7th); John Gauthier, OL (9th); Clay McEvoy, RB (19th)

1987: Andrew McConnell, DL (6th); Sean Orr, OL (15th); Jeffrey Johnson, FB (19th); Steve Rodehutskors, OL (22nd)

1988: Dan Wicklum, LB (3rd); Ryan Hanson, RB (5th); Brian Wise, DE (17th); Rob Crifo, WR (21st)

1996: Andrew Henry, DB (4th); Harry Van Hofwegen, DL (11th); Sean Reade, RB (13th); Shane Speena, LB (22nd)

2011: Henoc Muamba, LB (1st); Jade Etienne, WR (4th); Brendan Dunn, DL (17th); Paul Swiston, OL (24th)

2012: Tyson Pencer, OL (3rd); Johnny Aprile, WR (16th); Christo Bilukidi, DE (21st); Rene Stephan, LB (23rd)

2017: Faith Ekakitie, DL (1st); Geoff Gray, OL (8th); Qadr Spooner, OL (15th); Abubakar Conteh, DB, (23rd)

2024: Kevens Clercius, WR (13th); Michael Chris-Ike, FB (14th); Gabe Wallace, OL (17th); Kyle Samson, DL (20th)

The 2024 draft haul with the four picks in the Top 20 is an illustration of how valuable the CFL Draft can be for an organization. Clercius and Wallace will be slotted in to starting positions when camp opens next month, while Chris-Ike appeared in all 18 regular season games last year and nine as a rookie.

Matthew Peterson

As well, the club flipped Samson to Hamilton in a trade last year — along with the 36th overall pick in the CFL Draft — for Canadian running back Matthew Peterson, the 39th selection last year (used to select Joey Corcoran, who started in the Eastern Semifinal) and the second overall choice in the CFL Global Draft last year, which was used to grab defensive end Kemari Munier-Bailey, who stood out on special teams in last year’s final regular season game.

Standing pat holding on to the fourth, 13th, 20th and 24th overall selections should help boost the club’s Canadian content but, as last year revealed, they are also assets which can be moved around, too.

FYI, the entire 2026 CFL Draft order is here.

And the two-round CFL Global Draft order — the Blue Bombers pick fourth and 13th — is here.

Some other notes, now that I’ve safely climbed out of that Number 4 rabbit hole…

The CFL announced its nine participants in this year’s Diversity in Football program, which will see them join teams’ football operations departments for a month during training camp.

Diversity in Football program presented by Securian Canada welcomes 9 new participants

The Blue Bombers participant is long-time CFL veteran receiver Bralon Addison, who just retired this offseason. He spent seven years in the league with Ottawa and Hamilton and was a league all-star in 2019.

As well, the league recently unveiled its 2026 Women in Football program participants. Joining the Blue Bombers for four weeks in camp will be Alyssa Regie, an assistant strength and conditioning coach with the women’s basketball team at the University of Regina.

9 participants join 2026 Women in Football Program presented by KPMG

And finally, expect some more signings like this in the weeks ahead as the Blue Bombers firm up their training camp roster.

The club announced Thursday the signing of Idaho State receiver Christian Fredericksen (6-3, 208; born: February 8, 2002, in Rigby, ID.), who had 148 receptions for 2,071 yards and 16 touchdowns for the Bengals. In 2024, he had 66 catches for 915 yards and nine TDs while being named First Team All Big-Sky Conference.