After falling short in last year’s Eastern Final, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ league-longest Grey Cup drought extended yet another year. The latest loss marked the team’s fourth straight playoff squander, as the team is also 0-4 in the big dance since their championship win all the way back in 1999.

Things are looking up, however, as with back-to-back Most Outstanding Player runner-up Bo Levi Mitchell back under contract for two more seasons, the window for this team to break that drought is now. This free agency period will be crucial for president of football operations, Orlondo Steinauer, and the Tiger-Cats in taking that next step up.

The Free Agency Communication Window, in which teams can openly speak with any clubs pending free agents, opens Feb.1 at 12 p.m. ET and closes Feb.8 at 12 p.m. ET. The official CFL free agency period opens Feb.10 at 12 p.m. ET

Pending Free Agents

* = Canadian

QB Taylor Powell

RB Greg Bell

WR Shemar Bridges

SB Brendan O’Leary-Orange*

SB Keaton Bruggeling*

OT Brendan Bordner

OT Jordan Murray

OG/C Coulter Woodmansey*

LB Trevor Hoyte*

LB Brian Cole II

NKL/S Patrick Burke Jr.*

CB Siriman Bagayogo*

HB DaShaun Amos

CB Jonathan Moxey

CB Lawrence Woods II

While Steinauer has done a pretty good job of bringing a majority of Hamilton’s impact players back, others like running back Greg Bell, receiver Shemar Bridges, offensive linemen Brendan Bordner and Coulter Woodmansey, as well as defensive backs DaShaun Amos and Jonathan Moxey, remain unsigned. The team also had seven players receive NFL workouts, with kick returner Isaiah Wooden, edge Jose Ramirez, punter Nik Constantinou, and Canadian linebacker Devin Veresuk heading south.

Offence

Tiger-Cats

After calling the offence for the past two and a half seasons, head coach Scott Milanovich has passed off play-calling responsibilities to first-year offensive coordinator Jarryd Baines, who’s been with the organization since 2016 and the quarterbacks coach the past two seasons.

“Highly intelligent. We see the game similarly,” Milanovich said of Baines to the media in 2024. “He’s got a lot to give, a lot to offer, loves the game, high energy, works his ass off every single day. He’s a rising star.”

The 36-year-old has helped Mitchell to those two-straight MOP finalist nods, and it will be interesting to see this partnership grow in 2026 with the promotion. How Baines calls the offence will also be something to watch, as the team was very pass-heavy in 2025.

CFL teams’ pass play percentage vs run play percentage in 2025:

Toronto – 77.3% / 22.8%
Hamilton – 68.9% / 31.1%
Ottawa – 68.7% / 31.3%
Montreal – 67.2% / 32.8%
BC – 66.8% / 33.2%
Edmonton – 65.3% / 34.7%
Saskatchewan – 62.1% / 37.9%
Winnipeg – 60.6% / 39.4%
Calgary – 59.7% /…

— Coty Wiles (@CotyWilesSports) January 2, 2026

Overall, the Tiger-Cats finished top three in net offence per game (376.4), offensive points per game (26.9), and passing yards per game (297.4), as Mitchell and Hamilton dissected teams through the air with numerous weapons that the team possessed.

As of now, Baines and Mitchell will have a very different group of tools at their disposal, as the team released receivers Tim White, Drew Wolitarsky and Isaiah Wooden (NFL), while Shemar Bridges, Brendan O’Leary-Orange, and back Greg Bell remain unsigned.

The two most important receivers to the team’s success last season, however, American Kenny Lawler and Canadian Kiondre Smith, remain under contract.

The pair were fantastic, as Lawler finished the year with 86 grabs (third) for 1,443 yards (second) and 14 touchdowns (first), while Smith wasn’t far behind with 86 catches of his own for 1,126 yards, both top two marks among Canadians.

Those are probably the only two spots locked down, and given how heavily this team has traditionally relied on the pass, adding to this receiving core should be one of the biggest priorities for the Tiger-Cats in free agency.

As for running back, Bell is a perfect fit in this high powered passing attack as a checkdown option who caught extremely well out of the backfield. With only a couple of teams needing backs, and with Bell’s fit and nearly 1,500 combined yards of production last season, a return would make sense.

If he doesn’t, seeking an upgrade could be possible, as the team currently only has Canadian Johnny Augustine and three rookie Americans under contract. How Baines tries to improve on the team’s bottom half efficiency in the run game from last season (bottom five in yards per game and yards per attempt) in 2026 will be fascinating.

Up front, the team has done a great job of retaining talent, bringing back five-time All-CFL Canadian guard Brandon Revenberg and breakout American tackle Quinton Barrow, who at 6-foot-6 and 331-pounds, has become one of the best run blockers in the league.

The team has also already done some shopping, picking up former Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ centre Chris Kolankowski earlier in the offseason. The line also features former All-CFL guard Liam Dobson and 2024 first-round pick Nathaniel Dumoulin Duguay.

That’s a lot of talent, and it’s almost hard to see where pending free agent Coulter Woodmansey would fit in. The 28-year-old is the best Canadian offensive linemen available by a good measure, as he is in a prime position to command a sizable offer. His 3.2 pressure rate allowed was the sixth best among all interior linemen in 2025, and if a team comes along to pay for his services, Hamilton has enough under contract already to deal with the loss.

Overall, it’s an offence that has a quarterback, two stud receivers, and an offensive line basically locked and ready to go. Some additions around the fringes will have to be made, but the unit is in a good place after being one of the top offences a year ago.

Defence

Tiger-Cats

Onto the defence, where Brent Monson will look to try to improve the unit in his second year as defensive coordinator in the Hammer.

In 2025, the Tiger-Cats allowed the second-most net offence (374.1) and offensive points (26.5) per game, while also giving up the most rushing yards per contest (111.0). The unit also allowed the most big plays (48).

Monson’s unit was gamble-heavy, and even though they allowed a bunch of yards and big plays because of it, they also turned the ball over at a high clip. The team led the league in turnovers forced (44) – most of those coming from their league-leading 27 interceptions – while also leading in points off turnovers by a wide margin (134).

It’s a scheme that works well with ballhawking personnel on the back end, and between corner Jamal Peters, half Destin Talbert, and safety Stavros Katsantonis, there’s plenty of that to go around.

Hamilton brought all three back on multi-year deals earlier this off-season and will all be key in helping this defence continue to build. On the strong side, however, 31-year-old duo DaShaun Amos and Jonathan Moxey remain unsigned as the pair seemingly will test the market. With not much else out there – though Winnipeg’s Demerio Houston is an intriguing fit with his playmaking ability – one or even both of these guys could come back. The team has also brought in a few fascinating Americans who potentially could fit exceptionally well and compete for spots.

What could really make this defence go would be being able to cause even more of that chaos that the back end brings up front through a pass rush, which the defence figured out late in 2025. The unit finished with only the sixth most sacks (39), fourth most tackles for loss (32), and the third fewest forced fumbles (11), with most of that being done by edge Julian Howsare, who the team brought back on a one-year deal, per a source.

The Most Outstanding Defensive Player runner-up had his best year as a pro in 2025, leading the CFL in pressures (75), finishing second in sacks (13), third in pressure rate (13.8), and first in tackles amongst defensive lineman (43). The 33-year-old accumulated for a league-best 33.3 per cent of his team sacks, though Philip Ossai stepped up on the other side once given the opportunity.

After starter TyJuan Garbutt suffered a season ending knee injury in Week 7, Ossai stepped into the lineup and never stepped back out, as the 24-year-old put up eight sacks (fifth) and 39 tackles (fourth among defensive linemen) in only 12 games.

On the interior, the team parted ways with former All-CFL tackle Casey Sayles, who signed with the BC Lions, as seemingly they feel comfortable moving forward with the younger duo of Mario Kendricks Jr. and Miles Fox.

The 25-year-old Kendrick’s five sacks in 2025 were the fifth most among interior guys, while Fox’s 43 pressures were the second-most among defensive tackles and eighth among all defensive linemen. It’s a group that will have to do better against the run, but the team has the pieces to generate more pressure and lean into the chaos-causing in Monson’s second year.

Linebacker should be the position that Hamilton hits the hardest during this period, especially after losing Canadian Devin Veresuk to the NFL. With that loss, Hamilton probably needs to find another Canadian starter somewhere in the lineup, fortunately, there’s a Canadian starter at the position available in free agency who also happens to be from Burlington – a 20 minute drive from Hamilton – in A.J. Allen.

The 27-year-old would be a fantastic addition after breaking out defensively in 2025 with the Saskatchewan Roughriders, and on the surface the fit almost makes too much sense. He would slot in on the weak-side, as for MAC, there is also a lot of veteran talent available, including the recently released and former Tiger-Cat Jovan Santos-Knox. Getting an impact addition or two alongside the young duo of Kyler Fisher and Braxton Hill should be a very high priority.

Overall, adding that impact player in the linebacking core and some complementary pieces in the WR and DB rooms is what Hamilton could do to not only get back to the Grey Cup, but win it for the first time since the 90’s.