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Walters said Desjarlais could come in and compete for a starting job right away in training camp this year.

He’ll be in the mix for an interior spot on the line along with 2017 first-round pick Geoff Gray.

“That’s the beauty of training camp,” Walters said. “On the depth chart we’ve got (guard) Paddy Neufeld as a returning starter, we’ve pencilled in Geoff Gray at the other guard. Now Desjarlais will go into that mix. We’ve got Michael Couture and Cody Speller at centre and now (fourth-round draft pick) Tui Eli at centre. We’ve got a bunch of guys inside for competition. It’s different this year. Whereas we would show up the last couple of years and say here’s the five starters and there wasn’t a ton of competition, this will be a real interesting training camp for two interior spots. Jobs are there to be won.”

As for Kongbo, a potential ratio-breaking defensive end, the Bombers scouting staff saw him as the best pure football player available in the draft and they weren’t sure he’d still be around at No. 5.

“Yeah, you didn’t know … it’s hard to predict,” Walters said. “We thought maybe Edmonton, at No. 3, could target him. Hamilton was a mystery with all those picks.

We went through all our picks and we knew we were going to go for O-line at No. 4 and if Kongbo wasn’t there at No. 5 we might have explored trading down if that was an option. Once that third pick was announced, we took an exhale and said ‘Let’s stick with it.’ We called the name we targeted and moved on.”

MORE LOCAL FLAVOUR

The Bombers have stocked up on local players in recent years, signing free agents like Andrew Harris, Nic Demski, Thomas Miles and D.J. Lalama and they added to that list Thursday night when they drafted Winnipegger Brady Oliveira.

Oliveira is a product of Oak Park high school and played four years at the University of North Dakota before the Bombers grabbed him in the second round (14th overall) of the draft.

He was the first running back taken in the 2019 draft, even though he wasn’t as highly rated as Maleek Irons of Ohio, so did Oliveira’s home address play a role in the Bombers’ decision?