Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym/RFB Sport Photography
The Hamilton Tiger-Cats are led by Orlondo Steinauer in 2026.
The team’s recently-announced football operations department included Brock Sunderland as senior director of player personnel. There was no general manager listed, but the team’s football president can be viewed as the de-facto GM.
“It’s a collective decision that the buck always will stop with me. What people aren’t privy to is the internal, titles are one thing, what you do is something completely different. We were thrust into a situation last year, unfortunately, that made us operate in this fashion,” Steinauer said from the CFL’s offseason winter meetings in Calgary.
“That’s why we have confidence moving forward, where myself and (head coach) Scott Milanovich had to make the final decisions. Rather than change everything collectively, we opted to add value with Brock and his experience, then keep things internally oiled the way that we had it.”
The 52-year-old Steinauer reportedly declined to interview for the Toronto Argonauts head coach position in November. When asked about it, he declined to go into specifics about what may have happened in the offseason with Hamilton’s top rival, instead opting to focus on his current team.
“I’m excited at the role that I’m in. I’m excited to be in a position to support Scott and I was excited to support Ted (Goveia), that’s how we had it arranged. I’ll say the same answer that I’ve said: I would never close the door on coaching, but that’s not something as of today that I’m entertaining. I’ll never say I will never coach again; I’m excited in the position that I’m in right now,” Steinauer said.
The Tiger-Cats re-signed franchise quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell in December. With the veteran quarterback sticking to a year-to-year thought process in regards to his playing career, Hamilton wants to secure a succession plan behind him, which could be pending free-agent Taylor Powell.
“Taylor’s an important piece. Taylor got the short end of the stick, if you will, in that we stayed healthy at the quarterback position. Most other teams, the backup saw some time (in 2025). It’s always important to have your next person ready to go at all positions, but at the most pivotal one also. Definitely, Taylor is an integral part of us moving forward,” Steinauer said.
“Taylor has proven that he can start games in this league and be extremely effective. The fact that we want Taylor back speaks volumes. We would expect, if anything happened to Bo, that he’d step in. This guy prepares like no other — he’s there in the morning, he prepares like he’s starting anyway. You don’t want to put those tags (like franchise QB in waiting) on anybody or expectations, but we would expect him to step in and not be a lot of drop off.”
Pending free-agent receiver Tim White has put together four-straight 1,000-yard seasons for Hamilton. The five-foot-nine, 175-pound target has recorded 383 receptions for 5,488 yards with 33 touchdowns during five years in the Hammer. He was among the top-five highest-paid pass catchers in the CFL last season at $224,800 in hard money.
“We’re working through everything. Tim has been a valuable contributor to us for a long time. We will see how things shake out as we go on, but I would never say that we wouldn’t want Tim White back. We have to make sure that everything fits,” Steinauer said.
In a move that caught Casey Sayles and others by surprise, the Tiger-Cats released him after he produced an East Division all-star season in 2025. The six-foot-three, 289-pound defensive lineman registered 35 tackles and four sacks in 17 regular-season games.
“It sucks. It was tough. He’s got a lot of good ball ahead of him. We have to make everything fit, that’s the bottom line. I would say that this erred more on financial than anything else, that’s the most direct way I can answer it,” Steinauer said.
Sayles was scheduled to earn $139,500 in hard money plus a $20,000 training camp report and pass bonus, which would have brought him up to $159,500, plus $8,000 in possible playtime, all-star, and awards incentives. That money could be put towards trying to re-sign CFL all-star defensive lineman Julian Howsare.
“I can tell you this, we’ve got offers out there to a lot of different people right now. Sometimes they happen quick, sometimes they don’t. Julian is definitely somebody we would like to have back,” Steinauer said.
“We have a lot of pending free agents, as does everybody else. While you might think that you’re freeing up things, sometimes it’s to retain your own versus being able to go out and acquire things in free agency. Julian is definitely somebody we’re looking to have back in the fold.”
Destin Talbert’s another key defensive piece Hamilton would like to keep in Black and Gold. The 26-year-old elevated his play yet again during his second CFL season last year, starting at boundary halfback he posted 55 tackles with three interceptions. Steinauer believes Talbert can continue to trend upward.
“Destin got good in a hurry, he’s in that bucket of people that got good in a hurry,” he said. “I’m saying people that played early, played a lot of games as a rookie.”