RELATED HAMILTON TIGER-CATS<\/p>\n Bo Levi Mitchell<\/a>\u2019s return<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Like last week with Trevor Harris<\/a> and Saskatchewan, the biggest decision for the Ticats this winter was somewhat out of their hands. Future Hall of Fame quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell had hinted about an uncertain future following Hamilton\u2019s heartbreaking loss to the Alouettes in November\u2019s Eastern Final. But after a few weeks of reflection, 36-year-old Mitchell chose to run it back, signing a two-year extension in mid-December<\/a>.<\/p>\n It\u2019s a huge win for the Tiger-Cats, who own the league\u2019s longest current Grey Cup drought. Mitchell is coming off two resurgent seasons after some wondered if his time as an elite pivot had come to an end. Mitchell has been the league\u2019s leading passer for two consecutive years, which included 5,296 yards and 36 touchdowns last season. Mitchell\u2019s early decision to come back set Hamilton\u2019s entire course for the rest of the off-season.<\/p>\n OTTAWA REDBLACKS<\/p>\n Hiring Ryan Dinwiddie<\/p>\n New head coach Ryan Dinwiddie arrives in Ottawa after five successful seasons leading the Toronto Argonauts (The Canadian Press)<\/p>\n After snapping a string of four straight seasons out of the playoffs in 2024, the REDBLACKS took a disappointing step back last year. Finishing 4-14, Ottawa felt it was time for a change and fired head coach Bob Dyce in late October. Less than two weeks later, the REDBLACKS shocked the league by hiring Ryan Dinwiddie out of Toronto as their new head coach and general manager<\/a>.<\/p>\n It was quite the coup for Ottawa. In five seasons with the Argos, Dinwiddie established himself as one of the league\u2019s most successful head coaches. Toronto reached the Eastern Final in each of Dinwiddie\u2019s first four seasons at the helm, winning the Grey Cup twice during that span. Even with a 5-13 record in 2025, Dinwiddie makes the jump with a 0.593 career winning percentage and feels like the perfect guy to bring the REDBLACKS back to contention.<\/p>\n TORONTO ARGONAUTS<\/p>\n Taking a breath<\/p>\n Head coach Mike Miller takes over in Toronto as the Argonauts embrace a \u201creset, not regret\u201d approach to the 2026 season (Thomas Skrlj\/CFL.ca)<\/p>\n With the combination of last year\u2019s disappointing campaign and the loss of Dinwiddie, the Argos were forced to reevaluate things. But instead of panicking after a down year amidst all that success, general manager Michael \u201cPinball\u201d Clemons took a calm, measured approach this off-season. Toronto took their time and promoted quarterbacks coach <\/a>Mike Miller<\/a> to head coach<\/a> and approached free agency in a calm, calculated manner.<\/p>\n \u201cWe say reset, not regret,\u201d Clemons told CFL.ca at the CFL Winter Meetings in January<\/a>. \u201cSo, we\u2019re glad it happened. We had a very successful stint there, but now with the reset, we think we get a chance to recharge ourselves again.\u201d<\/p>\n MONTREAL ALOUETTES<\/p>\n An early statement<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n After falling just short of winning the 112th Grey Cup in November, the Als were always going to be one of the most interesting teams to watch this winter. And with franchise quarterback <\/a>Davis Alexander<\/a> under contract through 2028<\/a>, the big priority for Montreal was going to be keeping their core together. They wasted no time in starting that process by signing their two most important pending free agents just two weeks after their season ended.<\/p>\n The Alouettes made the league\u2019s first big free agency news by signing offensive lineman<\/a> Pier-Olivier Lestage<\/a> and receiver<\/a> Tyson Philpot<\/a> to multi-year extensions in early December. Lestage is coming off his first East Division All-CFL nod in 2025, while Philpot looks on the verge of a true superstar season. Getting both done so early was an important statement for Montreal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Here\u2019s some good news for football fans: the eight-week countdown to the beginning of training camp 2026 has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-540222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540222","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=540222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00bb\u00a0Way-too-Early AMSOIL Power Rankings: Who sits at the top?<\/a>
\u00bb MMQB: One key off-season decision for every West Division team<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Subscribe to the CFL\u2019s official YouTube channel<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Subscribe to the CFL\u2019s newsletter for exclusive offers and league updates<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0View the entire 2026 season schedule here<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Ryan_Dinwiddie_2026_002.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mike_Miller_2026_Combine.jpg\")
<\/p>\n