{"id":441121,"date":"2026-01-29T15:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441121\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T15:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T15:52:10","slug":"jake-ceresna-healthy-after-injury-plagued-season-ready-for-cfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/441121\/","title":{"rendered":"Jake Ceresna healthy after injury-plagued season, ready for CFL free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Arthur Ward\/CFL.ca<\/p>\n

Jake Ceresna is likely heading to CFL free agency next month and he\u2019s fully recovered from the knee injury that spoiled his 2025 season.<\/p>\n

Ceresna suffered a bucket handle meniscus tear in late June, though it went undetected on his initial MRI. The injury often results in cartilage flipping and getting caught inside the joint, momentarily locking the knee in place.<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old fought to play through the ailment for two months, indicating it didn\u2019t bother him too badly at times. He was carted off the field against the B.C. Lions in July, then his season came to an end against the Calgary Stampeders in the Labour Day Classic.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The meniscus) essentially flipped and stayed stuck in my knee, and it kind of locked up my knee in a bent position. I wasn\u2019t able to put any weight on it and I had to use surgery to get it unstuck,\u201d Ceresna told\u00a03DownNation via telephone on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey couldn\u2019t tell me what exactly was going on (after the initial assessment in June), so that was part of the reason (I played through the injury in July and August). I\u2019m also a guy that likes to play through stuff. I\u2019m a little hard-headed and stubborn and I didn\u2019t want to come off the field. (Playing hurt) is part of the game and when you\u2019ve got your teammates, you don\u2019t want to let people down and you just find a way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ceresna could have undergone surgery to trim the meniscus, which would have allowed him to make a relatively quick return to the lineup. Instead, he chose to have it fully repaired, which he\u2019s hoping will allow him to play another five or six years.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-four, 295-pound defender made only 16 defensive tackles, one sack, and one interception over 11 regular-season games in 2025 \u2014 the lowest production of his career. He understands those who question if he\u2019ll ever return to being a dominant player.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t produce (in 2025), I didn\u2019t do what I was supposed to do, so I\u2019ve got no arguments about that. The biggest worry with a guy getting injured is, \u2018Are they going to be the same player?\u2019 They\u2019re going to have their worries and you know what? I\u2019m not going to be the same player, I\u2019m going to be a better player going into 2026,\u201d said Ceresna.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I can do is show with my actions. I know there\u2019s gonna be people that don\u2019t believe in me or question if I\u2019ve still got it and that\u2019s fine \u2014 that\u2019s just gonna add fuel to the fire and it\u2019s gonna motivate me more and more to prove them wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The native of New Fairfield, Conn. set new career-highs in 2023 with 48 defensive tackles and 12 sacks. He was named All-CFL in 2022 with the Edmonton Elks and again in 2024 with the Toronto Argonauts, when he won his first Grey Cup.<\/p>\n

Ceresna has made a full recovery from knee surgery and claims his body feels better than it did at any point over the last few offseasons. He hasn\u2019t ruled out a return to Edmonton, though he suspects he\u2019ll likely be with a new club for 2026.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still holding out hope Edmonton works out, we\u2019ll see \u2014 things go up in the air. I got hurt and I didn\u2019t do what I was supposed to do last year and if they choose to go in a different direction, that\u2019s their choice and there\u2019s no grudges about it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see what happens. If not, I\u2019m welcome to any team that wants me and believes in me. All I\u2019m asking for is an opportunity to go out there and and show what I got and dominate.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CFL free agency communications window is scheduled to open on Sunday, February 1 at noon EST, allowing teams to negotiate with all pending free agents. Deals cannot be ratified until free agency officially gets underway on Tuesday, February 10 at noon EST.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arthur Ward\/CFL.ca Jake Ceresna is likely heading to CFL free agency next month and he\u2019s fully recovered from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":441122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,100127,49,48,7028,521,522,520,23752,13264,77213,527,14108,5718,182041,61343,182609,20739,70504,82,3302],"class_list":["post-441121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-argonauts","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-edmonton","tag-edmonton-elks","tag-elks","tag-football","tag-free-agency","tag-injury","tag-jake-ceresna","tag-knee","tag-meniscus","tag-ottawa","tag-redblacks","tag-sports","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441121","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=441121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/441121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/441122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=441121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=441121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=441121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}