REDBLACKS fell in love with first overall pick Vaccaro

It wasn’t as if the Ottawa REDBLACKS just decided they liked Giordano Vaccaro in the days and weeks leading into the CFL Draft.

They fell in love with the 6-foot-3, 315-pound offensive lineman. Among the words that are heard in the discussion about the big guy: Hard worker. And humble.

That certainly took a lot of weight off the REDBLACKS while sorting through the top prospects and making the No. 1 selection in Tuesday’s draft. Vaccaro was a slam-dunk, consensus pick from the REDBLACKS’ decision makers.

“(We’ve known we were going to select him first) for quite a while,” said REDBLACKS head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie. “I thought he was the best offensive lineman on the board.

“He’s a helluva player. You know he’s going to come in, put his hard hat on and go to work. We’re trying to change our image. (When you are thinking) is he a REDBLACKS’ guy? He crossed that off our list as far as what we were looking for.”

Vaccaro sealed the deal at last month’s CFL Combine; the REDBLACKS liked what they saw and heard.

“You look for true personality and character,” said Dinwiddie. “I always look at if they’re mentally tough. Normally, if they’re mentally tough, they’re physically tough. I felt like he had all of that. So, we felt like it was a no-brainer. When you pick No. 1 overall, you don’t want to mess up that pick.”

The REDBLACKS like the fire he has in his belly, the way he plays. But they also like the person he is.

“(What you see in him off the field is probably the opposite of his on-field demeanour,” said REDBLACKS vice-president of football operations Shawn Burke. “I got on him, I said, ‘It’s like your first-date voice to us and it’s worrying me a bit.’ Then you turn on the tape and it’s like two different people. I heard his father in an interview on the weekend saying, ‘I don’t realize it’s my son sometimes on the field with the way he plays.’ ”

Vaccaro, who is from Winnipeg, played last season at Purdue University, following three stellar seasons at the University of Manitoba. In 2024, during his U SPORTS time, he was named the JP Metras award winner as Lineman of the Year and he was a U SPORTS first-team all-Canadian.

At Purdue, he played in all 12 of his team’s games, totalling 89 plays on special teams.

The REDBLACKS see Vaccaro as a guard, but he could transition to centre.

“We don’t have to throw him to the wolves right away,” said Dinwiddie. “It’s going to be a journey for him. But if he comes in right away and proves he’s a starting guard or centre, we’ll give him that opportunity. I’ve had guys I’ve coached where their first year wasn’t a big jump and I kind of envision that for him.”

Vaccaro, who put up 28 reps of 225 pounds in the bench press at Purdue’s Pro Day last month, was the 11th player in the CFL’s latest Scouting Bureau’s rankings. The top eight players in the CFL rankings will be in NFL camps in the coming weeks, including Ottawa’s Akheem Mesidor, a defensive end who was taken in the first round of last week’s NFL Draft by the Los Angeles Chargers.