{"id":465891,"date":"2026-02-10T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/465891\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T13:33:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T13:33:07","slug":"cfl-free-agency-to-open-as-saskatchewan-roughriders-put-together-2026-roster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/465891\/","title":{"rendered":"CFL Free Agency to open as Saskatchewan Roughriders put together 2026 roster"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>CFL free agents can officially sign with their new teams Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>After the CFL Free Agent communication window last week, reported deals can now become reality with the period opening.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n<p>After winning the Grey Cup in 2025, the Saskatchewan Roughriders appear set to lose a few key contributors despite<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2026\/02\/02\/a-j-ouellette-excited-to-be-back-with-riders-for-2026\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> being able to retain<\/a> a good number of them. It remains to be seen how active the Riders will be come free agency as not a lot of reports came out about who the Riders would be signing.<\/p>\n<p>One of the additions to the Riders this season is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2026\/02\/03\/james-letcher-jr-joins-sask-roughriders-after-three-seasons-in-montreal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">returner James Letcher Jr.<\/a> The speedster was released by the Montreal Alouettes in order to sign the contract ahead of free agency. He spent three seasons with Montreal but only played nine games in 2025. Last season, he returned 39 punts for 428 yards and 19 kickoffs for 476 yards, while adding five receptions for 42 yards and a touchdown.<\/p>\n<p>The Riders have also officially signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2026\/02\/04\/veteran-linebacker-josh-woods-leaves-b-c-lions-to-join-saskatchewan-roughriders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">linebacker Josh Woods<\/a> to a deal. The 28-year-old has spent the past five seasons with the B.C. Lions. He played in 14 games for the Lions last season, starting in 10 of them.<\/p>\n<p>James Vaughters has reportedly agreed to a deal with Saskatchewan. The 32-year-old defensive end will enter his sixth CFL season, spending four years in Calgary and last season in Winnipeg. He was in the NFL from 2019 until he rejoined the CFL in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Vaughters has 27 sacks in his CFL career and\u00a0provides a veteran presence as the team appears set to lose one of the top pass-rushers in the CFL<\/p>\n<p>Reports are that defensive end <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2024\/10\/25\/riders-malik-carney-back-in-the-lineup-for-regular-season-finale\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Malik Carney<\/a> will join the Edmonton Elks. Carney played in all 18 games for the Riders this past season, recording eight sacks. Also reportedly set to join him is wide receiver <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2025\/05\/16\/improbable-road-leads-joe-robustelli-to-massive-opportunity-with-riders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Joe Robustelli<\/a>, who had 544 yards and three touchdowns for Saskatchewan.<\/p>\n<p>The Ottawa Redblacks appear set to bring in a number of 2025 Riders into the fold.<\/p>\n<p>Reports are the team has signed stalwart defenders such as linebackers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2025\/11\/07\/a-j-allen-faces-childhood-teammate-nathan-rourke-as-riders-take-on-lions\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A.J. Allen<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2025\/09\/10\/riders-cj-reavis-speaks-on-hit-to-bombers-quarterback-zach-collaros\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">C.J. Reavis<\/a> as well as defensive end <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2024\/05\/09\/rome-to-cfl-roughrider-rookie-habakkuk-baldonados-journey\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Habakkuk Baldonado<\/a> and quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2025\/10\/17\/jake-maier-leads-saskatchewan-roughriders-into-clash-with-winnipeg\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Jake Maier<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Allen was named the Riders\u2019 Most Outstanding Canadian after a breakout season where he had 87 tackles, four sacks and three interceptions. Reavis, who was an all-CFLer for the second time in his career last season, had 61 tackles and an interception in 2025.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s also reported that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2025\/11\/08\/the-play-you-dream-about-tommy-nields-late-touchdown-sends-riders-to-grey-cup\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CFL West Final<\/a> hero <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cjme.com\/2025\/08\/15\/riders-tommy-nield-grateful-for-cfl-opportunities\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Tommy Nield<\/a> will be set to join the Bombers once free agency opens.<\/p>\n<p>Deals can become official at 11 a.m.<\/p>\n<p>Read more:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CFL free agents can officially sign with their new teams Tuesday. After the CFL Free Agent communication window&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":465892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-465891","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\/465891","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=465891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/465892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}