{"id":479063,"date":"2026-02-16T19:30:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479063\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T19:30:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T19:30:08","slug":"the-good-the-bad-and-the-dumb-of-cfl-free-agency-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479063\/","title":{"rendered":"The good, the bad, and the dumb of CFL free agency 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Reuben Polansky\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

One of the busiest weeks on the CFL calendar has come and gone, free agency officially opened on Tuesday, February 11<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This comes after a week \u2014 and definitely only a week \u2014 where teams were able to discuss and negotiate contracts with pending free agents across the league.<\/p>\n

For fans and media alike, the day players officially become free agents is one of the most fun days of the year in professional sports. Everyone loves to see big names on the move and this year\u2019s CFL free agent frenzy didn\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the good, the bad, and the dumb of CFL free agency 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Good<\/p>\n

There was a lot to like in CFL free agency 2026, the Edmonton Elks made a number of good moves including the additions of Malik Carney<\/a>, Coulter Woodmansey<\/a> and Joe Robustelli<\/a>. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats added a lot to what was already a strong roster in an attempt to remain the first-place team in the East.<\/p>\n

However, the best work may have come from the Ottawa Redblacks<\/a> and not even necessarily because the names involved. Signing the likes of A.J. Allen<\/a> and C.J. Reavis<\/a> are important for the Redblacks, but what was more important was a vibes shift for the organization.<\/p>\n

That began in December when the team hired Ryan Dinwiddie<\/a> as their new head coach and general manager. The team continued to prove they are looking at doing things differently after things became rather stale in the nation\u2019s capital over the last number of the years. Not only with additions but the players that didn\u2019t return.<\/p>\n

The fan base in Ottawa has been extremely patient as ownership has seemingly felt more interested in the development of Landsdowne Park than building up their football team. Will the offseason\u00a0moves work out? Only time will tell but at least there\u2019s a reason for fans to be excited again.<\/p>\n

The Bad<\/p>\n

While there are a few decisions that stand out throughout the free agency period and the lead up to it \u2014 such as the Riders\u2019 spending big bucks on Kian Schaffer-Baker<\/a> who has had troubles staying on the field and sacrificing valuable depth to do it, and the Redblacks signing an American running back to a big money deal<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s still a chance KSB could play the entire season, Greg Bell could be a top running back in the CFL. Neither of these deals are likely to sink either team but it\u2019s the B.C. Lions who could find themselves in big trouble should one thing happen \u2014 a significant injury to Nathan Rourke<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Lions had to land a reliable backup quarterback in free agency and it didn\u2019t happen. Reporting by 3DownNation has said the Lions were in on Tre Ford<\/a>, so you can\u2019t blame them for trying and it\u2019s important to remember that players have agency in their decisions too. Even Jake Maier<\/a> would have been an upgrade over what they\u2019ve had.<\/p>\n

Chase Brice<\/a> hasn\u2019t been the answer in Vancouver behind Rourke and having to run that back for another season should leave Lions fans feeling a little uneasy.<\/p>\n

The Dumb<\/p>\n

When the CFL introduced the Ed Hervey legal tampering window<\/a> in 2020, it was done so to try and help the league\u2019s image and to try and slow down tampering.<\/p>\n

During his previous stint as the general manager of the Edmonton Football Team, Hervey infamously signed then-Roughriders defensive end Odell Willis a matter minutes into the official opening of the free agency window.<\/p>\n

Since its introduction, the window has generally worked \u2014 until this year. Does that mean tampering wasn\u2019t occurring the last number of years? No, of course not. Tampering is simply a fact of life in professional sports.<\/p>\n

What happened this year? Well within hours of the legal tampering window opening we learned of many of the league\u2019s top free agents agreeing to terms with teams across the league. Did some of those deals come up organically in that time frame? Perhaps. Did all of them? I would have a hard time believing that.<\/p>\n

Personally, tampering isn\u2019t a thing I really care about all that much. As Hervey said all those years ago about the Willis situation, everyone does it. I\u2019ll expand on that though, everyone does it, has done it since and continues to do it whether directly or through backdoor channels.<\/p>\n

So, what should be done? I think it would make sense for the CFL to shorten the window \u2014 a week is simply unnecessarily long. The first day of official free agency still always produces a few surprises, have those come closer to the start of the opening of the window and you have a pretty good week for the CFL.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Reuben Polansky\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. One of the busiest weeks on the CFL calendar has come and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,183434,183437,49,48,521,522,520,182038,179125,184842,181496,13417,13264,180015,107930,180621,194050,69897,11139,194051,14967,45083,55574,52041,24373,4400,82,13410],"class_list":{"0":"post-479063","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-3down","9":"tag-3downnation","10":"tag-a-j-allen","11":"tag-c-j-reavis","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-canadian-football-league","15":"tag-canadianfootballleague","16":"tag-cfl","17":"tag-cfl-free-agency","18":"tag-chase-brice","19":"tag-communication-window","20":"tag-coulter-woodmansey","21":"tag-ed-hervey","22":"tag-edmonton-elks","23":"tag-greg-bell","24":"tag-jake-maier","25":"tag-joe-robustelli","26":"tag-legal-tampering","27":"tag-malik-carney","28":"tag-nathan-rourke","29":"tag-negotiation-window","30":"tag-ottawa-redblacks","31":"tag-riders","32":"tag-roughriders","33":"tag-ryan-dinwiddie","34":"tag-saskatchewan","35":"tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","36":"tag-sports","37":"tag-tre-ford"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479063","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=479063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}