As the 2026 season approaches, CFL.ca is here to catch you up with the 5 Things To Know series. Each article will look at key storylines facing each team this season, while examining off-season movement and where your team might stand in 2026.<\/p>\n
The BC Lions enter 2026 hungry, motivated, and with their eye on the prize.<\/p>\n
And while most teams are feeling similar ahead of a brand-new campaign, the Lions know how close they came to playing for the 112th Grey Cup last year. And when a team falls short by the smallest of margins like BC did against Saskatchewan in the Western Final, there\u2019s really nothing else to focus on the following season.<\/p>\n
RELATED \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI think we\u2019re going to hit the ground running and hopefully pick up right where we left off,\u201d quarterback Nathan Rourke<\/a> told bclions.com earlier this month.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re a super hungry group and we want to continue to build on where we ended last year and obviously, we\u2019ve got a bittersweet taste in our mouth. So, the motivation is there. We felt like we should have won it and we just didn\u2019t make enough plays.\u201d<\/p>\n With the majority of their core retained, BC will enter 2026 as a 113th Grey Cup frontrunner<\/a> after finishing 11-7 last year. And it feels like anything other than celebrating their first championship since 2011 will feel like a disappointment on the west coast.<\/p>\n Here are five things to know about the BC Lions this season.<\/p>\n 1. HERE TO STAY<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Regardless of his contract situation, Rourke was going to be one of the most prominent stories in BC this year. After all, he\u2019s coming off a stellar campaign that saw him take home the CFL double as Most Outstanding Player and Most Outstanding Canadian. But seeing Rourke sign a multi-year contract extension through 2028<\/a> is a massive boost for the Lions.<\/p>\n It immediately takes away any potential distractions as Rourke was entering the final year of his current deal otherwise. And perhaps more importantly, it\u2019s a message sent to the rest of the locker room that one of the league\u2019s very best players is committed for the long run. You can\u2019t tell me that doesn\u2019t make a positive impact, even if it\u2019s minor.<\/p>\n And just in case, let\u2019s refresh what Rourke accomplished in 2025. Last year saw Rourke finish second overall with 5,290 passing yards and 31 touchdowns, despite missing two games early on. Rourke also led the league with a stellar 112.2 passer rating and 10.6 average per attempt, while our friends at Pro Football Focus ranked him as their top-rated quarterback.<\/p>\n 2. THE NUMBER ONE OFFENCE RETURNS<\/p>\n BC led the league last season in offensive points per game, touchdowns, net offence, and passing yards. And according to Rourke, this group is just getting started in year two with head coach and offensive coordinator Buck Pierce at the helm.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve kind of scratched the surface on what we can do as an offence,\u201d Rourke admitted.<\/p>\n \u201c(There are) a lot of things we can improve on, a lot of things we can expand on. The things that Buck has done over the course of this offence the last couple of years, when he was building in Winnipeg, there are things we haven\u2019t dived into yet. And so, I\u2019m really excited to explore those a little bit in camp and as you go into year two, you kind of figure things out.\u201d<\/p>\n Along with Rourke, the Lions are bringing back a huge swath of their offensive core. For instance, Keon Hatcher Sr. led the league with 1,688 receiving yards and signed a two-year extension in December<\/a>. Justin McInnis finished third at 1,256 yards and was already under contract. Tailback James Butler, coming off a 1,213-yard campaign, also extended as did star tackle Dejon Allen.<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s rather scary if this is what\u2019s considered to be just getting started.<\/p>\n 3. THE BEST IN THE BIZ<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Lower Mainland product Sean Whyte<\/a> will be inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame one day soon. But before we cross that bridge, one of the most accurate kickers in league history still has plenty of juice left in the tank. Don\u2019t forget how crucial Whyte\u2019s automatic accuracy is when talking about this Lions offence.<\/p>\n Signed to a one-year extension in January<\/a>, Whyte is coming off one of the greatest kicking seasons in CFL history. Whyte led the league with a 95.1 per cent accuracy rate, which is the second highest mark of all-time behind Lewis Ward\u2019s rookie season with Ottawa (98.1 per cent) in 2018. Even if we\u2019re not talking about a repeat campaign, you can\u2019t overstate how important Whyte is to BC\u2019s game plan.<\/p>\n 4. REVAMPED AND READY<\/p>\n The Lions aren\u2019t resting on their laurels despite a solid 2025 on the defensive side of the ball. Key pieces like Mathieu Betts<\/a>, Tibo Debaillie<\/a>, and Jackson Findlay were already under contract entering the off-season. From there, BC went to work on retaining important players, with Jonah Tavai<\/a>, Ben Hladik<\/a>, T.J. Lee<\/a>, and Garry Peters<\/a> all signing extensions.<\/p>\n And defensive coordinator Mike Benevides has some new playmakers, too. The Lions wasted little time in signing star linebacker<\/a> Darnell Sankey after he was released by Montreal in December. The same was true with defensive tackle Casey Sayles who was signed in January just days after being released in Hamilton<\/a>. Finally, veterans Jamal Parker and Diont\u00e9 Ruffin were added to an already deep defensive backfield.<\/p>\n 5. BIG SHOES TO FILL<\/p>\n BC\u2019s most significant off-season loss was on the offensive line as 2025 All-CFL left tackle Jarell Broxton<\/a> signed with the Blue Bombers. The anchor of a line that allowed a league-best 20 sacks last season, Broxton also finished last season as PFF\u2019s top ranked left tackle. It won\u2019t be an easy task replacing a player like Broxton.<\/p>\n Importantly, however, the Lions signed Allen to a two-year extension as we mentioned earlier. Keeping a two-time All-CFL right tackle and former Most Outstanding Lineman award winner was crucial. And then there\u2019s Isiah Cage<\/a>, who signed in February. A former teammate of Allen\u2019s, Cage started 24 games at left tackle with Toronto in 2023 and 2024 but didn\u2019t play last season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the 2026 season approaches, CFL.ca is here to catch you up with the 5 Things To Know…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-621436","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\/621436","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=621436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u00bb\u00a05 Things to Know for 2026: Saskatchewan Roughriders<\/a>
\u00bb 5 Things to Know for 2026: Montreal Alouettes<\/a>
\u00bb 3 reasons why BC could win the 113th Grey Cup<\/a>
\u00bb\u00a0Key 2026 off-season dates you need to know<\/a>
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