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The 40-year-old with the trademark accuracy is looking to add a little extra pop to nail even longer field goals, and says, ‘I want to be an all-around great kicker’
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Published Feb 16, 2026 • 4 minute read
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B.C. Lions kicker Sean Whyte is prepping for his 19th CFL season. Photo by Jason Payne /PNGArticle content
Sean Whyte connected on 39-of-41 field goals for the B.C. Lions last season and he’s still mad at himself.
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“I should have had a perfect season,” said Whyte, the 40-year-old from White Rock who signed a one-year extension with the Lions last month and is now prepping for his ninth campaign with B.C. and his 19th in the CFL.
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“The ones I miss, it’s like golf, where you think that you should maybe add a little bit more on this swing, and that’s when the ball goes everywhere. There was a little bit of wind with the one in Hamilton (53 yards on Aug. 7), and I tried to add a little bit and I pushed it right. I did the same for the one in Ottawa (46 yards on Sept. 5).
“If I swing easy and trust myself, it’ll be totally fine. But that’s the mental battle we have as kickers. If I was smart, I’d be really good at this.”
Whyte was a key component in a B.C. team that won seven-straight games down the stretch last season before dropping a 24-21 heartbreaker on the road to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in the Western Final. Not surprisingly, general manager Ryan Rigmaiden and head coach Buck Pierce opted to keep the band together, bringing back much of last year’s core group.
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The key loss is All-CFL team left tackle Jarell Broxton, who opted to sign with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers as a free agent. Along with Whyte, the Lions inked extensions for receiver Keon Hatcher, running back James Butler, defensive linemen Jonah Tavai and defensive backs Garry Peters and T.J. Lee before they went to free agency on Feb. 10.
The incoming free agent group is led by middle linebacker Darnell Sankey and defensive tackle Casey Sayles, who were East Division all-stars last year with the Montreal Alouettes and Hamilton Tiger-Cats, respectively.
The regular season opens June 13 with a visit to Saskatchewan. The Lions will start the season based out of the Apple Bowl in Kelowna because of the FIFA World Cup, and their first of two home games as part of Touchdown Kelowna is set for June 27, with the Calgary Stampeders providing the opposition. The team gets back in B.C. Place for the first time on July 25, when they play the Toronto Argonauts.
Single-game tickets for Touchdown Kelowna go on sale Feb. 26.
“You need good people and we have great people in that locker room,” Whyte said. “It’s special. It’s a fun atmosphere to go to work in every day and we have each other’s backs.
“When I was fortunate enough to win a Grey Cup in 2015 with Edmonton, it was a special group. We fought for one another. I feel the same with this team, if not even more excited.
“I’m very excited for next year because I think we had something special brewing last year and fell just a little bit short in the end. I’m really hungry for next year. I know all of us are. We’re ready to start cooking.”
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The group will be led once again by quarterback Nathan Rourke, who was named both the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian this past season, and Whyte says that “we all know that he’s going to be the best to ever do it as long as he stays healthy.”
“He’s in there grinding and he’s grinding every day,” Whyte said of Rourke’s off-season workout regiment. “That’s a guy I want to follow and I’ll go into battle with every single day. I trust him with everything.
“We’ve got the right characters, we’ve got the right athletes. We all know what we left out there in Saskatchewan last year and we’re ready to take back what is ours.”
Whyte has talked in the past about kicking field goals in the CFL as long as Lui Passaglia, who was 46 when he finally retired from the Lions. The league is planning on changing its rules, and that will affect Whyte’s position in particular when they move the goalposts to the back of the end zone in 2027.
Accuracy is his forte. He enters 2026 as the league’s all-time leader in field goal success rate (88.8 per cent, 557-of-627) among players with 125 or more attempts, and since rejoining the Lions in 2022 he’s been good on 94 per cent (175-of-186) of his attempts on the three-pointer.
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With the rule changes, he says that eventually “every kick is going to be 45 (yards) plus,” and he’s working to add power this off-season. His longest last year was 49 yards. Five of the league’s nine regular kickers connected from 55 yards out or more, led by a 63 yarder from Winnipeg’s Sergio Castillo.
It’s a fine line, adding power without it coming at the expense of putting the ball exactly where he wants. He believes he can make it happen.
“I want to be an all-around great kicker,” he said. “I know my weakness is my strength and I’m just going to go out and show it off next year when I get it.
“I know I can get that power back. I was hitting 60 yarders in practice in Edmonton in 2016, 2017. I know I can do that. I just have to stay focused and stay healthy. I feel good already and I still have three more months to go.
“This off-season, I’m definitely training a lot more so hopefully I can last longer. I’m not ready to retire. The thought of retiring scares me. I just love playing football.”
His 2,282 career points and 557 field goals are both good ninth on the CFL’s all-time list.
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