Eberhardt produced 863 yards in 2025. Allen fills a linebacker need. The REDBLACKS have defined their remaining gaps and will look to Edmonton and the draft to fill them.
The Ottawa REDBLACKS added two free agent pieces in the weeks following the February 10 opening of the CFL market, signing moves that reflect an organization building toward the April 28 draft and the Edmonton Combine on March 27-29 with defined positional needs and preserved flexibility. Wide receiver Ayden Eberhardt signed a two-year deal with Ottawa after recording 863 receiving yards in the 2025 season. Eberhardt generates the majority of his production on intermediate routes — possessions catches, third-down conversions, slot routes that require reliable hands in traffic rather than separation against press coverage. His profile addresses a specific gap in the Ottawa passing game: a second receiving option who produces consistently in the moments the offense most needs conversion rate rather than explosive-play production.
Ottawa and Calgary send the largest delegations. Veilleux attends. All nine franchises confirmed. The evaluation clock starts in Edmonton.
Preparations are underway for the 2026 CFL Combine presented by Anytime Fitness Canada, set for March 27-29 in Edmonton, with registration closed and the full list of invited prospects confirmed by the league. The University of Ottawa and University of Calgary head program representation, each sending delegations of six or more prospects for evaluation. The Combine will test prospects across seven metrics: 40-yard dash, broad jump, vertical jump, three-cone drill, bench press, position-specific drills, and formal team interviews — producing the first professional-context evaluation data for players who have competed exclusively in the U Sports system.
Ottawa and Calgary send the largest delegations. Toronto has been the most active team in free agency. The organizational picture for all nine clubs will shift significantly before May's training camp.
The 2026 CFL Combine presented by Anytime Fitness is set for Edmonton from March 27-29, with the University of Ottawa and University of Calgary sending the largest delegations of any programs in the country. The Combine serves as the primary evaluation event for Canadian prospects entering the CFL Draft, running alongside the league's free agency period and providing teams with the athletic testing data and interview time that inform their draft boards. This year's class includes a notable presence of prospects from programs that have historically supplied CFL rosters — schools where the pipeline from university football to professional league is well-established and the transition is understood by coaching staffs on both ends.
Two Grey Cup appearances came from throwing at an elite rate. The new coordinator is building something different. Whether it's better depends on how the personnel fits the philosophy.
Montreal's offseason has been defined by the most significant head coaching transition the organization has made in nearly a decade, and the early indicators from the franchise suggest the new staff is approaching the roster with a specific offensive philosophy that differs materially from what the Als ran in their two Grey Cup appearances. The previous offensive structure was built around the passing game's volume — Montreal threw at a rate that led the CFL for two consecutive seasons. The new offensive coordinator has signaled, through his free-agent priorities and through conversations reported by multiple league sources, that the 2026 offensive identity will place more emphasis on the run game and on shorter, higher-percentage passing concepts that reduce turnover risk. Whether that philosophy adjustment reflects the personnel available, the coordinator's preference, or a deliberate attempt to add balance to what was a predictable attack is not yet clear.
Two National offensive linemen added before any skill-position spending. Hamilton's 2025 failures were upstream of the quarterback. They're fixing the actual problem.
Hamilton's offseason has been one of the more substantive roster reconstruction projects in the CFL this cycle, and the moves the Ticats have made since free agency opened are consistent with an organizational philosophy that has been explicit about wanting to improve its offensive line before upgrading the skill positions around it. The decision reflects a lesson that is obvious in retrospect and consistently undervalued in practice: you cannot run an effective offense in professional football, at any level, without an interior that can protect the structure of plays long enough for them to develop. Hamilton's passing game in 2025 was compromised not by receiver limitations or quarterback decision-making but by a line that could not consistently give the time required for the concepts the offensive coordinator was calling.
The first days of CFL free agency produced a bidding war, a pipeline test for Edmonton, and Winnipeg doing what Winnipeg does — moving early and paying for quality.
The CFL free agent market opened Friday and has continued through the weekend with the volume of movement that typically characterizes the first several days of the signing period — high activity at the receiver and defensive back positions, more deliberate movement on the offensive line, and at least one team that has been significantly more aggressive than its offseason record suggested it would be. Winnipeg, which has been the most consistently successful CFL organization over the past decade, is rebuilding its defensive secondary after losing two starters to retirement. The Blue Bombers have moved quickly and paid at the top of the defensive back market, which is consistent with the organization's approach of not allowing roster depth to erode during transition periods. Winnipeg's track record of developing players within a system gives them a margin for error that smaller-market clubs don't have.
The league called the change specific to Rouyer's case. Teams are skeptical. The import-to-national ratio shapes roster construction at every club in the league.
The CFL's American ratio rules — commonly called the import-to-national ratio — continue to be one of the more distinctive roster construction challenges in professional football, and the 2026 offseason has produced several situations that illustrate how teams are managing the constraints creatively. The basic structure requires that each team dress a minimum number of Canadian (National) players at each position group, which limits how freely teams can sign American (import) players regardless of talent evaluation. The practical effect is that organizations with deep National player pipelines have a structural advantage over teams that haven't invested in that development pipeline.
McManis from Toronto to Hamilton is a double move — it helps the Tiger-Cats and hurts the Argonauts simultaneously. Winnipeg stayed quiet. Saskatchewan added depth.
The CFL's roster deadline for finalizing free agency commitments passed Sunday, and the league's nine teams now have a clearer picture of what they're building toward when training camp opens in May. Hamilton's addition of Wynton McManis gives the Tiger-Cats a legitimate defensive anchor for the first time since they parted with Simoni Lawrence three years ago. McManis arriving from Toronto also removes a player who had been consistently problematic for Hamilton in late-season games — the kind of rival-to-roster move that helps twice. Hamilton's defense was functional in 2025; with McManis, the ceiling rises.
The league set its camp schedule Friday. Four weeks of preseason before the June 12 opener. What each contender needs to figure out before the games count.
The CFL announced its 2026 training camp schedule Friday, with all nine teams opening camp the week of May 18. The regular season begins June 12, which gives organizations approximately four weeks of camp and preseason activity to finalize their rosters before the games that count. Edmonton, which was the most active team in free agency, will enter camp with a reconfigured offensive unit built around the additions of Austin Mack and the returning offensive line that protected Trevor Harris last season. The Elks were a playoff team in 2025, and the front office moved this offseason with the energy of a team that believes it's close. Camp will confirm whether the pieces fit together.
The Elks were the most active team in free agency and came away with the best haul. Montreal lost more than it gained. Hamilton added a linebacker who changes their defense.
CFL free agency opened February 10 and ran hot for the first 72 hours before settling into the slower rhythm that typically follows the initial burst. The dust has largely cleared now, and the picture of which organizations navigated the window well — and which ones created problems they'll spend the summer trying to solve — is becoming clear. Edmonton was the most active team in the window and came away with the best overall haul. The addition of Austin Mack, who had recorded 136 catches for 1,973 yards and six touchdowns across 32 games with Montreal, gives Edmonton a proven possession receiver who has demonstrated durability at the CFL level. Montreal cut Mack earlier in the offseason; Edmonton moved immediately. That's the kind of reactive decision-making that free agency rewards. Mack signed a two-year deal. Edmonton also added Malik Carney, Coulter Woodmansey, and Joe Robustelli, making the offseason a genuine upgrade across multiple roster layers.