Photo: Leah Hennel/CFL.ca
Folarin Orimolade was unable to finish the 2025 CFL season after he suffered a torn Achilles in late September. He recently provided an update on his recovery, saying he’s unsure if he’ll be ready for the start of training camp on May 10.
“I don’t know (if I’ll be ready for training camp),” Orimolade told Stamps TV from his offseason home in Arizona. “I’m at 20 weeks (since the injury), so I think I am where I’m supposed to be. Hopefully (I’ll be back) by camp, but not trying to rush it too much.”
“(The rehab process is) not complicated. You need to be able to be strong and you need to be able to move quickly. I can’t move quickly yet, so I need to be sure I do both.”
The 30-year-old made 19 defensive tackles and four sacks over 12 regular-season starts with the Stampeders in 2025, his first year back in the city where he started his CFL career. Orimolade left for the Toronto Argonauts as a free agent in 2023, though Calgary reacquired him last offseason in a trade that sent Cameron Judge to the Double Blue.
The difference in Calgary’s defence after Orimolade suffered his injury was palpable. The unit allowed only 19.1 offensive points and 365.1 net yards per game with him at defensive end, then 28.5 points and 387.2 net yards per game after he was hurt.
The defence’s negative trend continued into the playoffs as the Stampeders suffered a 33-30 loss to the B.C. Lions in the West Semi-Final.
“(Not being able to play in the playoffs) was the toughest part about (the injury). To be honest, I wasn’t really worried about the rehab. I did a quad tear (in 2019) and a quad tear is much worse, unfortunately. I feel like I came back pretty well from it, so I wasn’t worried so much about the injury itself,” said Orimolade.
“I just felt like we were so close (to winning a Grey Cup in 2025). I feel like if I was there (in the playoffs) we would have been closer, so that was the hard part — knowing that you can’t do anything really about it.”
The native of Washington, D.C. didn’t see the year as a complete write-off, pleased to see the Stampeders shake-off negative predictions and get back to the playoffs after a 6-12 season in 2023 and 5-12-1 season in 2024.
“I think the biggest positive was that we were a team that was told by various people slash media outlets that were going to be no good and we saw — at least, especially in the beginning — a team that was hungry, come together, and say, ‘We don’t really care about the outside noise,’” said Orimolade.
“(We were just focusing on) how we get better every day and be the best in our minds, essentially, so I really appreciated having younger guys, veteran guys all coming together and saying, ‘That’s what we’re going to do,’ and doing it.”
Calgary lost Jaylon Hutchings, Jacob Roberts, and Damien Alford to the NFL earlier this offseason, though they haven’t lost any big names to CFL free agency. Canadian receiver Dejon Brissett agreed to terms on a two-year contract after a breakout season with the Argonauts, while Devodric Bynum and Deonta McMahon will also join the team.
“Free agency, I actually pay attention to it quite a bit. I think it’s pretty fun. That’s been on my mind, like, ‘OK, these are the people I’m going to be going against on different (teams).’ It’s going to be weird, a bit different, but it’s going to be really cool to go against (those guys), so I look at it all around the league,” said Orimolade.
“Then I look for us, like the people that we get, if they make us a much better team. We were a good team last year, and I liked how we were able to sign most everybody — unless they went to the NFL, we were able to retain our players, so we were able to return a core and they get to know each other over time, and they have these prior relationships, but I think it just makes them a more cohesive unit going into the next season, which I believe bodes well for us.”
The Grey Cup will be played at McMahon Stadium in Calgary this November, marking the first time since 2019 that the venue has hosted the CFL’s championship game. Orimolade has won two Grey Cups — one as a rookie in 2018, then another with Toronto in 2024.
The five-foot-eleven, 240-pound defender wants to win another one and become the first-ever Stampeders team to do so at home in the process..
“I feel hungry every year, but I will say that it’s pretty cool to be able to win the Grey Cup in your own backyard. I can’t think of many teams that have done that. I can imagine after you win the Grey Cup, you go party in that city, then you go back to your city and party, too, but it’d be cool to not have to go anywhere — we know exactly where we’re going right after. That’d be cool and all the festivities will happen quicker because you don’t have to worry about going back and stuff,” he said.
“The fans deserve it, too. We haven’t been in the game as an organization since 2018, so it would mean a lot to do it in Calgary for the fans. I think it would be unique for the guys. This is a team that I believe deserves to win. I don’t think many people on the team have won a Grey Cup up here and I think the team, honestly, just even for them, I just want them to be able to have that opportunity. I think it’s one of those games in Canada where it makes you feel like, ‘Whoa, this is a big deal,’ and having that feeling would be amazing.”