Draft Ready: 4 things to know about Eteva Mauga-Clements

Chris O'Leary

Senior Writer

@olearychris

NOTE: This article was published before Eteva Mauga-Clements was selected first overall in the 2024 Global Draft.

It was a year later in a different city, but a sense of deja vu was there for Eteva Mauga-Clements just the same.

The linebacker had just checked into a hotel in Winnipeg for the CFL Combine presented by New Era and was doing some media before his testing began, the same way that Blessman Ta’ala had in Edmonton a year earlier.

Ta’ala showed out at the combine in Edmonton and impressed the Ottawa REDBLACKS enough to make him the first overall pick in the 2023 CFL Global Draft. The American-Samoan defensive lineman had six tackles, a pair of sacks and a forced fumble in 12 games last year for the REDBLACKS.

At what he hopes is the start of his CFL journey, Mauga-Clements — also from American Samoa — is hoping for something similar. A strong showing at the combine last month has him on that path.

“Blessman and (Hamilton Tiger-Cats linebacker) Penei Pavihi, those were my all-star teammates,” Mauga-Clements said, when told Ta’ala had essentially sat where he was sitting in that moment.

“We’re from the island. We went to different schools, but I got to meet back up with those guys and my senior year we played an all-star game in Hawaii. That was the last time I’d seen them, January 2017.”

If all goes well, Mauga-Clements will hear his name called on April 30 at the CFL Global Draft. It wouldn’t be long before he got to re-connect with those former all-stars. Get to know Mauga-Clements ahead of the Global Draft, which gets underway at 11 a.m. ET. Fans can follow their teams’ moves on CFL.ca.

The numbers

Height: six-feet
Weight: 218 pounds
Bench: 13 reps
40-yard dash: 4.73 seconds
Vertical: 35 inches
Broad jump: nine-feet, 11 inches
3 cone: 6.90 seconds
Shuttle: 4.14 seconds

Fuelled by a passion for the game

Mauga-Clements was determined to have a football career. The journey started for him when he moved from American Samoa to College Park High School in Pleasant Hill, California. Mauga-Clements stayed with family that he hadn’t yet met at that point. He walked on at Diablo Valley Community College. Without a scholarship, he worked part-time and played well enough — he had 82 tackles, 29.5 tackles for loss and 8.5 sacks in 18 games over two seasons — to earn a spot at Nebraska for the 2020 season.

He suited up in every game of his senior year in 2022, starting two games at linebacker. He had 39 tackles with 2.5 tackles for loss, had a sack and a forced fumble. An academic All-Big 10 in 2021 and 2022, he graduated with a degree in criminology and criminal justice.

“I’m grateful to them for taking me in,” he said of his Californian family. “They helped me with school, I still had to go work and (to) football. In order to do that, I think your (reason) why has got to be big.

“I knew what my angle was. At that time my angle was to play in the NFL like every other kid. That was my why. I wanted to be able to give back to my family and I wanted instead of having childhood dreams, I wanted those dreams to come true.”

Mauga-Clements made himself known to scouts and GMs across the league at the CFL Combine last month (Andrew Mahon/CFL.ca)

Eager to get the pads back on

Mauga-Clements hadn’t played in a game since November of 2022. Going into the CFL Combine, he was looking forward to the three days of practice that came after the testing and measurements. Any semblance of football had him excited and he was hungry to get out on the field and show what he could do.

“It’s been more than a year since I put on the pads and a helmet on, so it’s nice to get that in, get the rust off knock some of those (drills) out,” he said. “Let the coaches see you know, ‘This guy has been off but he doesn’t seem like he missed a step.'”

Three days of practice didn’t expose a lot of rust for Mauga-Clements. He was named a coach’s pick in the final day of the combine, letting him leave Winnipeg on a high note.

“I thought I was going to be a little bit nervous, but once we put the pads on it was fun,” he said. “Fun to say the least.”

What’s next?

He interviewed with multiple teams while he was in Winnipeg, but Mauga-Clements didn’t get a strong sense one way or another if a specific team could have him in mind with the Global Draft.

After posting the best 40-yard dash, 3-cone and shuttle times and the second-best vertical leap and broad jump among the 12 Global prospects at the combine, he certainly caught teams’ attention.

“They asked me about my background. It was comfortable,” he said of the interview process. “It wasn’t nerve wracking, which I was assuming (it would be).”

Marshall Ferguson, who saw Mauga-Clements up close in Winnipeg for the duration of the combine, liked what he saw.

“He was very smooth (on the final day) with great movement skills. He really fit in and he had that right mentality all week,” he said, giving an assessment of the player after he’d been named a coach’s pick to close out the combine.

“Seeing him learn and adapt to the CFL environment so quickly and so seamlessly bodes well for him; that’s something that teams will really focus on.”

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