1957 NAAF Draft

2nd Round
Louisville would kick off the second round by taking S Johnny Berger. Berger certainly is one of the best overall athletes in the draft that some even had going a lot earlier than 11th overall. The next few teams ended up taking players in positions of need with Indiana going for DB Kelly Kirkland, Montreal grabbing OL Scott Harper, and Long Island taking DL Timmy Kerr. Boston would stand out among the 4 picks with taking QB Terry Bourbon with the 13th pick. Bourbon has some potential to be a starter but certainly will need lots of development before he reaches that level. Following Long Island’s pick, the Tigers had 3 in a row and they got some solid players. They would take S Neil Graham who was ranked as the 6th best prospect but had fallen to 16th overall and becomes a big steal for the Tigers. They would then add WR Max Sutton and Kitchener native DB Jackson Miles. Worcester would then take the younger brother of Jesse and Carson Scott, DB Wesley Scott.   

Just before the Royals pick, the team made a trade with Louisville. DL Stuart Howell who was taken in the expansion draft was on his way to Ottawa in exchange for the 20th overall pick. Louisville would take a RB in Stavros Black.  

2nd Round Summary
11 - LOU - S Johnny Berger - Elgin, IL - DireBear
12 - IND - DB Kelly Kirkland - New Haven, CT - Captain Mort 3D
13 - BOS - QB Terry Bourbon - Kennebunkport, ME - ThisIsFine
14 - MTL - OL Scott Harper - Quebec City, QC - ZO82
15 - LI - DL Timmy Kerr - Wilkes-Barre, PA - GoRedSox96
16 - ON (via BUF) - S Neil Graham - Huntington, WV - Captain Mort 3D
17 - ON - WR Max Sutton - Quincy, MA - Captain Mort 3D
18 - ON (via PRO) - DB Jackson Miles - Kitchener, ON - Wallflower
19 - WOR - DB Wesley Scott - Markham, ON - ZO82
20 - LOU (via OTT) - RB Stavros Black - Gary, IN - Dan O'Mac

3rd Round
Once the draft got into the 3rd round, most of the picks became positional picks. Louisville would take the first TE of the draft with Christopher Gist at 21, which was followed by LB Felix Bender headed to Indiana. Boston, Providence and Montreal all added to either their O-line or D-Line. Buffalo would take RB Eric Sydney which looks to be one of the stronger picks out of the round. Ontario would take OL Simeon Clarke who is a relative to former Rouge GM/HC Guy Clarke. Worcester made a bit of a questionable pick in WR Tom Van Horne who looks to be the weakest pick out of the bunch.  

3rd Round Summary
21 - LOU - TE Christopher Gist - Rochester, NY - Darknes
22 - IND - LB Felix Bender - Toms River, NJ - Captain Mort 3D
23 - BOS - DL Remington Hart - Boston, MA - ZO82
24 - PRO (via MTL) - OL Don York - Warwick, RI - Captain Mort 3D
25 - MTL (via LI) - DL Blaine Caswell - Caribou, ME - Darknes
26 - BUF - RB Eric Sydney - Florence, KY - DireBear
27 - ON - OL Simeon Clarke - Montreal, QC - ZO82
28 - PRO - K Ira Foster - Ottawa, ON - GoRedSox96
29 - WOR - WR Tom Van Horne - Brooklyn, NY - GoRedSox96
30 - OTT - LB Killian Reed - Boston, MA - Dan O'Mac

4th Round
​The final round was even more all over the place. Indiana had a strong pick in S Malik Davenport who fell out of the 3rd round. Boston would add to the WR core with Angus Stevenson.   

There was one more trade made in the 4th round with the Tigers sending longtime starting S Mason Parker to the Gold Stars for QB Andrew Sexton and OL Billy Simon. With the Tigers drafting S Neil Graham and S Drew Porter in the last two seasons they could move on from Parker and they get a backup QB for Christian Stewart and a prospect in Simon (the final draft pick from last season). Providence has been trying to figure out the safety position over the past few seasons and Parker could be the answer.   

The rest of the 4th round had nothing much to note.

4th Round Summary
31 - LOU - OL Mart Oosterbroek - South Bend, IN - ZO82
32 - IND - S Malik Davenport - Fort Thomas, KY - Darknes
33 - BOS - WR Angus Stevenson - Markham, ON - GoRedSox96
34 - MTL - LB Patrick Terry - Providence, RI - Wallflower
35 - LI - OL Sun Guanyu - Queens, NY - ZO82
36 - BUF - WR Dale Halliburton - Owosso, MI - TigersFan93
37 - ON - OL Marcus Nygaard - Boston, MA - ZO82
38 - PRO - RB Tommy Kerr - Wilkes-Barre, PA - GoRedSox96
39 - WOR - K Elvis Franklin - Buffalo, NY - ThisIsFine
40 - OTT - DB Vince Jungen - Marion, OH - TigersFan93

Undrafted Players
OL Varo Giovanni - Bronx, NY - ZO92
QB Dick Ray - Dartmouth, NS - GoRedSox96
S David Jones - Goshen, IN - GoRedSox96
TE Willis Harrigton - Columbus, OH - Captain Mort 3D
RB Hans Jaeger - Toledo, OH - Darknes
DB Herb Covington - Terre Haute, IN - Dan O'Mac
RB Boomer Couch - Springfield, MA - LukeToussaint
TE Billy Rock - New Haven, CT - GoRedSox96
OL Joe Richardson - Toronto, ON - ZO82

Quite the draft! Only gets bigger from here, the rest of the offseason may take some time to get through so just bare with me as I work my way to fill up the rosters!

Last edited by Wallflower (8/30/2020 6:35 pm)

Captain Mort 3D wrote:

Big steal at 16 for Ontario going with Neil Graham. Really surprised he fell that far down considering he was ranked 6th going into the draft.

He was in consideration for almost every team from mid 1st round, but ultimately many of them had other needs or felt like they couldn't pass on the guys they wanted as they were not expecting him to drop so far. Boston was probably the closest but felt like Bourbon couldn't be let slip through their hands.

I feel really good about this draft. I've warmed up to the idea of us diggin our feet in for the long haul that'll hopefully build us a championship contender in the future. Dumont and Black will hopefully pan out and be a pretty scary tandem up front. Berger droppin to us at 11 was really nice too, I'm glad we could scoop him up.

New Stadium Approved! Tigers headed to London
It was announced shortly after the draft that the City of London has accepted and will break ground on a brand new stadium which the Tigers will eventually call home. The announcement comes after Garry Duran, with the help from other NAAF owners, was able to get involved in a project to bring football back to the city of London. With the city’s rapid growth recently, they were hoping to attract the OFU, but ultimately the NAAF was the league to show interest in the city. Garry Duran will also be letting London Businessman Darren Lindell take part-ownership of the team who was vying for the OFU team in the first place. The new stadium will hold 34,500 seats with an ability to expand in the future and will be ready to go for the start of the 1958 season.  

 With the move to London, will the Tigers keep the Ontario moniker? Or will they be the London Tigers?