CFL must revisit the 'T.J. Jones Rule'

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Just hours before the selections began on Tuesday night, the Edmonton Elks traded the first-overall pick of the CFL Draft to the Montreal Alouettes in exchange for the fourth-overall pick and the rights to offensive linemen Carter O’Donnell.

O’Donnell, who has spent the past two seasons on the practice roster of the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts, is a prize. A huge, athletic offensive lineman who was raised in Red Deer and trained at the University of Alberta, he’s the kind of player who could become a mainstay in Green and Gold for years to come.

That is, if he ever comes to the CFL, which depends on a couple of things.

One, obviously, is whether his playing opportunities south of the border dry up. It might also depend on whether the CFL’s new collective bargaining agreement makes provisions for Canadians returning from the NFL to earn more than the league’s minimum salary of $65,000 per season.

Under the about-to-expire agreement, all Canadian rookies are capped at $65,000 for the first two years of a minimum three-year contract (plus signing bonuses and housing worth up to $7,500 for higher picks), with a 10 per cent raise available in the final year.

The measure was put in place to ensure teams wouldn’t waste money on players coming out of college who had yet to prove themselves, and to simplify the process of signing draft picks. That makes sense when you’re talking about 22-year-old players with only collegiate experience.

It doesn’t make sense, however, as an enticement to a player returning from the NFL in his mid-to-late 20s.

In CFL circles, this is known as the “T.J. Jones Rule” after it managed to keep the Canadian-born receiver out of the league in 2020.

Jones, a star