Jake Ceresna traded for draft pick / negotiation list player

OTTAWA - The Ottawa REDBLACKS were involved in pair of trades on Friday. In their first transaction, they dealt defensive lineman Jake Ceresna to Edmonton in exchange for defensive lineman Odell Willis. 

Ottawa followed that up by dealing Willis to the BC Lions in exchange for a fourth round pick in 2018 and a player off the Lions' negotiation list.

Much is being made of this but I find it a little overblown.

Defensive tackle is a tough position to evaluate because it's not easily defined by its statistics. It's difficult to ascertain whether Ceresna had an impact in eating up blockers and freeing up other players, for example. There's just no statistic for that.

It's hard to believe he did, however because Ottawa tried several players at the defensive end position and no one was particularly successful. His own stats were nothing out of the ordinary; 18 tackles and two sacks in 14 games.

Derek Taylor is an excellent stats analyst and he provided the following assessment.

Those are the numbers that aren't widely reported. it's hard to get a solid stat for pass knockdowns and pressures. In Ceresna's case, they're good, but I'm not sure they're irreplaceable.

Perspective reminder: Jake Ceresna was picked up in May of 2017. At the time, we were wondering who would replace Cleyon Laing after a strong playoff performance through to Grey Cup 104. Ceresna was a complete nobody at opening kickoff of the 2017 season.

So while on the surface losing a young player for a fourth round-pick may not seem to make sense, I think the front office believes he is a commodity that can be replaced relatively easily whereas quality Canadian players (acquired through the draft, mostly) are more valuable players. They may also believe his replacement is already on the roster, like Ceresna was last year.

I want to revisit this after the draft to get a better picture of what trading Ceresna led to. Putting a face to the draft choice will help up evaluate this trade far better.