{"id":626015,"date":"2026-04-24T17:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/626015\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T17:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T17:44:09","slug":"the-weekly-say-who-will-score-the-first-td-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/626015\/","title":{"rendered":"The Weekly Say: Who will score the first TD of 2026?"},"content":{"rendered":"

TORONTO \u2014 Predicting the outcome of a CFL game is not an easy thing to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cNever leave a CFL game early\u201d is something fans say a lot, and for good reason. Don\u2019t ever count out a team. There\u2019s always a chance for things to change in the final three minutes.<\/p>\n

But what about predicting the entire season? Will that be any easier? Head over to CFL Game Zone<\/a> to play Season Predictor to try doing the impossible for a chance to win a trip to the 113th Grey Cup.<\/p>\n

If any help is needed while you answer your questions in the game, the expert CFL.ca writers have taken their shot at answering some of the CFL Season Predictor questions themselves.<\/p>\n

RELATED
\u00bb\u00a0Play Season Predictor now on CFL Game Zone<\/a>
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\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

WHICH POSITION WILL SCORE THE FIRST TOUCHDOWN OF THE 2026 SEASON?<\/p>\n

Don Landry: Odds are it\u2019ll be a receiver. I mean, there\u2019s just more of them right? Prediction: A Kenny Lawler<\/a> deep shot sets the Hamilton Ticats up in the red zone and from there, Bo Levi Mitchell<\/a> finds Kurleigh Gittens Jr.<\/a> for the touchdown.<\/p>\n

Pat Steinberg: I\u2019ll take a receiving touchdown, with Kenny Lawler<\/a> reeling his first of many TD\u2019s this season on a Bo Levi Mitchell<\/a> pass.<\/p>\n

Kristina Costabile: The first touchdown of the 2025 was a rushing TD (proof is in my post on X here<\/a>), so I\u2019m going with the same: a QB rush. I\u2019ll go with either Jake Dolegala<\/a> or Tre Ford<\/a> of the Ticats for a one-yard major, either a nice plunge into the end zone from six-foot-seven Dolegala or a scamper around the outside from Ford.<\/p>\n

Jamie Nye: Kenny Lawler on a 35 yard TD pass from Bo.<\/p>\n

Matt Cauz: Kenny Lawler with a 18-yard touchdown reception from Bo Levi Mitchell.<\/p>\n

Jos\u00e9 Ferraz: Let\u2019s go with a Wynton McManis pick-six.<\/p>\n

WHICH QUARTERBACK WILL LEAD THE 2026 SEASON IN PASSING YARDS?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Landry: I\u2019ll take Nathan Rourke<\/a> as the 2026 yardage king. He finished merely six yards shy of the leader (Bo Levi Mitchell<\/a>) in 2025, and played two fewer games. And he still has a pretty fine stable of pass-catchers to hit. For the bonus question, I\u2019ll predict Rourke throws for 5,436 yards.<\/p>\n

Steinberg: It\u2019s hard not to go with BC\u2019s Nathan Rourke<\/a> coming off the season he just had. With his key receivers back and a year of learning and getting comfortable under Buck Pierce, a healthy Rourke could flirt with 5,500 yards or more.<\/p>\n

Costabile: Nathan Rourke. He\u2019s a popular choice, but after missing the league-lead by just six yards in 2025 and playing in fewer games than Bo Levi Mitchell, he\u2019ll surpass his 2025 total and lead everyone by season\u2019s end.<\/p>\n

Nye:\u00a0Nathan Rourke is going to have another outstanding season with 5,250 passing yards.<\/p>\n

Cauz: Chad Kelly. Going off the board here. Toronto had the fewest rushing attempts in the league and Chad Kelly should be healthy.<\/p>\n

Ferraz: Nathan Rourke lost the passing yards crown to Bo Levi Mitchell by six yards in 2025. Six yards! Rourke missed two games last season, so we\u2019re going to project him for over 6,000 yards in 2026, because why not?<\/p>\n

WHICH TEAM WILL WIN THE EASTERN FINAL?<\/p>\n

Landry: The Montreal Alouettes will win the Eastern Final. A full year of Davis Alexander<\/a> at QB coupled with \u2014 as usual \u2013 a top-flight defence will see the Als winning at home on November 7.<\/p>\n

Steinberg: The Hamilton Tiger-Cats. After coming agonizingly close to beating Montreal last season, I\u2019ll take the Ticats to get over the hump to give Mitchell a shot at another Grey Cup ring.<\/p>\n

Costabile:\u00a0The Hamilton Tiger-Cats. They were *this close* to winning last year\u2019s game against Montreal and I\u2019m going with Bo Levi Mitchell to take his team (including another former Stampeder in Wynton McManis) to the Grey Cup in his old stable.<\/p>\n

Nye: With a fully healthy Davis Alexander, the Alouettes return to the Grey Cup by beating the crossover Edmonton Elks.<\/p>\n

Cauz: Montreal.<\/p>\n

Ferraz: Bo Levi Mitchell and McManis winning the Eastern Final to earn a trip to Calgary would be a story for the ages.<\/p>\n

WHICH TEAM WILL WIN THE WESTERN FINAL?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Landry: The BC Lions will be West champs in 2026, riding a dominant regular season to a home date in the Western Final.<\/p>\n

Steinberg: The Saskatchewan Roughriders. Even with some significant departures, the Riders kept a good chunk of their core on both sides of the ball this winter. And it\u2019s hard to bet against a team coached by Corey Mace at this point.<\/p>\n

Costabile:\u00a0This year the BC Lions will finally win the Western Final. After getting to three of the last four finals (2022, 2023 and 2025), it feels like this is their year to finally get to the big show.<\/p>\n

Nye: The BC Lions get their revenge for the last second TD in Saskatchewan last year by beating the defending champs.<\/p>\n

Cauz: BC.<\/p>\n

Ferraz: Why not pitch Mitchell against Rourke in the 113th Grey Cup? In this purely hypothetical (and likely hyper wrong scenario), the Lions narrowly beat the Roughriders in the Western Final.<\/p>\n

WHICH TEAM WILL WIN THE 113TH GREY CUP?<\/p>\n

Landry: The Montreal Alouettes will be back on top of the mountain in 2026. The score? 38-36, in overtime. Stevie Scott III with the winning two-point conversion on a short swing pass into the flat. Now, if you\u2019ll excuse me, I have to get back to doing some flux capacitor maintenance on my DeLorean.<\/p>\n

Steinberg: The Saskatchewan Roughriders. This group feels poised to start flirting with dynasty territory.<\/p>\n

Costabile: Hamilton Tiger-Cats. I picked the Saskatchewan Roughriders last year around this time to win the 112th Grey Cup and I was right. Hamilton\u2019s receiver group got better during free agency and the addition of Wynton McManis<\/a>\u00a0is huge. I feel like I\u2019m going two for two.<\/p>\n

Nye: BC Lions. Davis Alexander and Nathan Rourke is going to be a heck of a showdown, but the additions on defence for the Lions get it done.<\/p>\n

Cauz: Montreal.<\/p>\n

Ferraz: In an offensive battle for the ages, the Tiger-Cats get the perfect ending to their story.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014 Predicting the outcome of a CFL game is not an easy thing to do. \u201cNever leave…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-626015","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\/626015","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=626015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}