{"id":312251,"date":"2025-11-28T12:38:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T12:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/312251\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T12:38:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T12:38:16","slug":"riders-players-look-to-keep-band-together-for-2026-cfl-season","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/312251\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders\u2019 players look to keep band together for 2026 CFL season"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are plenty of pending free agents the Saskatchewan Roughriders will look to bring back \u2014 and a few of the players already locked in for 2026 have already begun their recruitment pitches.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cThat started happening weeks ago,\u201d said defensive back Rolan Milligan Jr<\/a>, who is signed through 2026. \u201cWe have a good group and as many guys that we can keep, that will be better for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more:\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defensive back Marcus Sayles<\/a> signed a two-year extension last offseason<\/a>. He said the guys in the locker room saw firsthand how special the group was.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know how bad these guys want to win and how bad they want to be around this team and the camaraderie we had all season. You\u2019re going to see a lot of people that are going to want to come here \u2014 it\u2019s infectious,\u201d Sayles said. \u201cHopefully, all these guys can get their money, come back and we can do it again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Linebacker A.J. Allen<\/a>, who is a pending free agent, has already received a pitch from fellow linebacker Jameer Thurman.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not much of a convincing guy \u2014 he\u2019s not much of a seller. He just told me I am (coming back) and walked away,\u201d Allen said. \u201cThat\u2019s how Thurm works. He just said, \u2018Yeah, we\u2019re back.’\u201d<\/p>\n

The 2025 edition of the Riders was one of the best in franchise history. The club finished the regular season atop the CFL standings<\/a> with a 12-6 record. After beating the B.C. Lions in the West Final<\/a>, Saskatchewan defeated the Montreal Alouettes 25-17 in the 112th Grey Cup<\/a> in Winnipeg.<\/p>\n

It was just the fifth time in the Riders\u2019 history that the team has raised the Grey Cup.<\/p>\n

For Milligan, it was the first title he has ever won in the sport.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt meant a lot,\u201d Milligan said. \u201cIt took about 25 years to get here. The hard work paid off finally.\u201d<\/p>\n

When he raised the CFL championship on the stage, the normally soft-spoken defensive back let out a loud yell. He admits it was probably the loudest he\u2019s ever yelled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ain\u2019t have nothing left in me now. My voice is real scratchy so it probably was (the loudest),\u201d Milligan said.<\/p>\n

During the parade<\/a>, one of the special moments for Sayles was raising his newborn child up\u00a0Lion King style on the balcony of the Legislative Building.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that was the best part of the whole parade, at least for me. She had a great time, my wife had a great time and it was just a special event. All of Regina came out and we really turned it up. I\u2019m happy we were able to get this Grey Cup done because (Parade Day) was special,\u201d Sayles said.<\/p>\n

While the players can make their best pitches to keep the group back together, it will be up to general manager Jeremy O\u2019Day<\/a>\u00a0to try and reach the deals that will shape the 2026 roster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There are plenty of pending free agents the Saskatchewan Roughriders will look to bring back \u2014 and a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":312252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-312251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=312251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/312251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/312252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=312251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=312251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=312251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}