Justin Senior, the lone Canadian selected in the 2017 NFL Draft, is headed to Seattle.

Late Saturday afternoon the Seahawks selected the Mississippi State University offensive tackle and Montreal native with the 26th pick of the sixth round, 210th overall.

At least three other Canadians signed free-agent contracts with NFL teams at the conclusion of the draft, including Laval University tight end Tony Auclair of Notre-Dame-des-Pins, Que., with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, University of Manitoba offensive lineman Geoff Gray of Winnipeg with the Green Bay Packers, and UCLA defensive lineman Eli Ankou of Ottawa with the Houston Texans.

Senior watched the draft on TV from his campus apartment in Mississippi. With no entourage and no family. Just a good friend.

Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll was the one who called with the life-changing news.

“We were just sitting here, waiting. I didn’t know who was calling,” Senior told Postmedia on Saturday night. “He said, ‘How are ya doin’? It’s Pete Carroll. I’d like to welcome you to the Seattle Seahawks.’ I was so excited, man, I jumped out of my seat. I was like, ‘Thank you, God! Thank you!’

“It was relief. But I’m so excited. I can’t wait to get out there. I fly out there in a week, for rookie mini-camp. I’m just going to keep training, and get ready to get to work.”

Senior, 22, was born in Montreal, raised for a few years in Jamaica -- where his parents are from -- then moved back to Montreal when he was age five.

As a teenager in the Notre-Dame-de-Grace neighbourhood in Canada’s second largest city, Senior excelled at football, but on the defensive side. After spending a year at a famous prep school for NCAA football hopefuls, Hargrave Military Academy in Chatham, Va., Senior switched to offensive tackle. Then he landed a scholarship at Mississippi State.

His first roommate as a freshman in 2012, he told Postmedia in a phone interview Friday, was none other than Dak Prescott -- before he bloomed into a star quarterback for the Bulldogs. Prescott last season shocked the NFL by excelling as a rookie starter with the Dallas Cowboys.

“My first year on campus, Dak and I were dorm mates,” Senior said. “I got to know him first-hand. He’s a great person, great football player.

“He told me in January the key in the NFL is to continue to improve every week. That’s what teams look for. Repetitive mistakes are what they hate the most.”

The Seahawks’ fortunes have slipped in the past two seasons largely due to the lousy play of their offensive line.

Senior is one of only two offensive linemen the Seahawks selected in this year’s OL-thin draft, even though they had 11 picks. So, Senior will have every chance to not only make the team, but start if he’s up to it.

Surprisingly, although Senior played at right tackle in all but two games over three seasons of starting at Mississippi State, the 6-foot-5, 331-pounder said the Seahawks told him they want him to start on the left side at rookie mini-camp in May.

“They said they want me to be prepared to play left tackle,” Senior told Seahawks beat reporters on a conference call. “I think I will start over there, and we’ll see from there.”

Gray, 22, hopes to become the second UM Bisons player in as many years to make an NFL roster, after the New Orleans Saints drafted defensive lineman David Onyemata last year.

Green Bay was Gray’s only pre-draft visit, and it went so well he chose the Packers over other priority-free-agent suitors.

“We were talking to a number of teams while the draft was winding up,” Gray said from his parents' home in Winnipeg.

“We knew we wanted to pick a team on which I’d have a good chance to make the roster. San Francisco was pushing hard at the end there. They had fewer guards on their roster, too. But I had a good feeling at Green Bay, including with all the coaches I met.”

Gray, who can play tackle as well as guard, reports to Green Bay this week.

Was he going to celebrate on Saturday night?

“I’m not really much for leaving my house and doing things,” he said. “I’ll just have some tasty food -- a variety of dips and snacky stuff -- then get to bed early. I’m kinda tired.”

Would the snacky stuff include cheese? After all, Green Bay is the Cheesehead capital of the world.

“I did bring back cheese curds from my visit there,” the 6-foot-6, 315-pound Gray said, chuckling.

Ankou watched the draft in his Westwood, Calif., apartment with a slew of family members and friends.

At 6-foot-6, 330 pounds he probably fits best as a nose tackle on the Texans’ star-studded defensive line, which features J.J. Watt, 2014 No. 1 overall draft pick Jadeveon Clowney and interior D-lineman Christian Covington, a Vancouver native.

“I’m absolutely fired up to be working with them, for sure,” Ankou said in a phone interview. “You never can expect where you’re going to end up. This is definitely a blessing to wind up with that organization.”

After getting off the phone with the good news on Saturday, Ankou said he took a moment to reflect.

“Absolutely. Right after I got off the phone with them, I hung up and thought to myself: ‘I just did that. I’m with an NFL team,’” he said. “As a kid you always imagine yourself with an NFL team. Now the opportunity’s there. It’s just so good to be able to do this. It’s just a really good feeling.”

Auclair, 23, played his college football in-province, at Laval.

In choosing to agree to terms on his free-agent deal with the Buccaneers, the 6-foot-5, 257-pounder said he hit it off well with new Bucs tight ends coach Ben Steele.

“I didn’t know anybody there before I went for a (pre-draft) visit,” Auclair said on a teleconference call. “I really liked the guys there. The tight ends coach is awesome. I really like him. He’s fired up. I’m very excited.

“My agent did a pretty good job of reading the team rosters, so we had a good idea of the Bucs roster. When I did a visit they told me that the roster was filled with good tight ends, but (not) the Y tight end, which is a guy who’s going to block first.”

Auclair prides himself on being as reliable a blocker as pass receiver.

DEFENCE DOMINATES DRAFT

For three days, defence dominated in the NFL.

Upper-tier talent in the NFL Draft, which concluded Saturday, was so defence-heavy that nine teams selected nothing but defenders through Round 3.

And San Francisco chose defenders with its first three picks, before turning to offence. So that’s 10 teams -- nearly a third of the league -- that went all-in on defence early on in the seven-round draft.

As an apropos positional comparison, after 107 overall picks through three rounds 29 defensive backs were selected, compared to 10 offensive linemen. And 63 defenders in all, compared to 44 on offence.

By the time the draft ended Saturday at 6:44 p.m. EDT, 131 defenders were taken, compared to 118 on offence and four special-teamers. Fifty-Six draftees were defensive backs -- 22%

STAY IN SCHOOL!: Once again, a large chunk of underclassmen -- those who left college with a year of eligibility remaining -- did not get drafted. Ninety-five juniors turned pro. Only 67 were drafted, meaning 28 had to fight it out after the draft in priority free agency, against hundreds of seniors who also didn’t get drafted.

MICHIGAN NO. 1: The University of Michigan led all colleges with 11 draftees, followed by Alabama (10), Miami-Florida (nine) and Florida, Utah and LSU with eight apiece. Once again the Southeastern Conference (SEC) led all leagues with 53 draftees, followed by the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) with 43, the Pac-12 with 36 and the Big Ten with 35.

MR. IRRELEVANT: The draft always ends with the last player -- dubbed “Mr. Irrelevant.”

That player, ironically, is the nephew of Hall of Fame Buffalo Bills quarterback Jim Kelly -- Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly, possessor of an oversized ego.

The Denver Broncos selected him with the 253rd pick.

JoKryk@postmedia.com

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