It wasn’t his best performance, but it was good enough to earn Nicholas Gendron a spot in the CFL’s national combine.
The Ottawa Gee-Gees receiver was among eight players from the league’s invitational combine Friday to secure spots at the national event. Gendron punched his ticket by posting the second-best times in both 40-yard dash (4.59 seconds) and shuttle (4.13 seconds).
“Honestly, I think I could’ve done better in all of the tests, I’ve done better in training,” Gendron said. “I’m happy I got another chance at the national combine and there’s a small [feeling of accomplishment].
“But the job isn’t even close to being done. I’ve still got time before the national combine and so I’m going to make sure I put in the work.”
The national combine will be held March 19-24 in Winnipeg. Also earning berths were: Guelph receiver Kaine Stevenson; offensive linemen Ethan Kalra of Waterloo and Owen Mueller of Windsor; defensive backs Dawson Marchant (Southwestern Oklahoma State), Jackson Sombach (Regina) and Yani Gouadfel (Bishop’s) along with York defensive lineman Jason Janvier-Messier.
The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Gendron, of Gatineau, Que., also had 14 reps in the 225-pound bench press, a 29-inch vertical leap and a nine-foot, 10-inch broad jump He completed the three-cone drill in 7.14 seconds.
Gendron had 31 catches for 535 yards (17.3-yard average) with two touchdowns in 2023 with the Gee-Gees. Over three seasons at Ottawa, Gendron recorded 69 receptions for 1,120 yards (16.3-yard average) with five TDs.
In Winnipeg, Gendron will compete against some of the CFL draft’s top receiving prospects. Dhel Duncan-Busby (Bemidji State), Ajou Ajou (Garden City Community College) and Laval’s Kevin Mital — who were all on the league scouting bureau’s winter list of the top-20 draft prospects — will all be in Manitoba.
But Gendron isn’t concerning himself about that.
“That’s how I’ve been playing my whole life, just worry about what I do and not look around me,” he said. “It’s an honour to be playing with these other great receivers but it’s another opportunity to have some fun.”
Sombach had combine-best results in the 40-yard dash (4.58 seconds), vertical (36 inches) and three-cone drill (6.97 seconds). McMaster defensive lineman Mitchell Price led the bench press with 30 reps while Marchant registered the top broad jump (10 feet three 5/8 inches) and Waterloo receiver Justin Succar led the shuttle (4.07 seconds).
Seventy-three players auditioned at the University of Waterloo’s Feridun Hamdullahpur Field House. But a notable absentee was DK Bonhomme, a 6-foot-2, 237-pound Ottawa native who played linebacker at the University of South Alabama.
CFL officials said they weren’t given a reason why Bonhomme didn’t participate.
Bonhomme began his college career at Indiana, appearing in 24 games over three seasons before transferring to South Alabama. Gifted athletically, Bonhomme has battled injuries throughout his collegiate tenure.
After being limited to just three games with the Jaguars in 2022, Bonhomme was hurt before last season didn’t play in 2023. Ottawa Redblacks general manager Shawn Burke would’ve liked to see Bonhomme perform but said combine results are but one part of his overall player evaluation process.
“Definitely, you want to see the best of the best, you want to see as many draft-eligible players as possible,” he said. “But I think you’ve got to do your research there’s different resources to do that.
“At the end of the day, you must have a support system to be successful and you want to find out the why behind certain reasons.”
Burke said attending regional combines is worthwhile because they provide insight into a player’s mettle in reaching the national combine and showcase how they compete against highly touted prospects.
“It’s a harder route but there are high draft picks that come this route,” Burke said. “I, personally, like seeing the guys with a chip on their shoulder who say, ‘I should’ve been there and I’ll show you.”
Chris Jones, the Edmonton Elks head coach/GM, was intent on evaluating those players who were present Friday.
“I love coming to these, it’s like Christmas to me,” he said. “I get to see some of these kids I’ve watched on film and watch them move around and you can start to maybe pencil them in to where you’d try to utilize them.”
Jones intended to see “a couple of lineman and a [defensive back],” go through their paces. Predictably, though, he wouldn’t divulge who those players were or if they advanced to the national event.