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From major free agent additions to experienced veterans changing teams, several clubs received plenty of recognition from around the league ahead of the new campaign.<\/p>\n
Here are three teams CFL players believe improved the most this off-season.<\/p>\n
HAMILTON TIGER-CATS<\/p>\n
The Tiger-Cats received plenty of praise from opposing players after aggressively reshaping their roster ahead of 2026.<\/p>\n
Montreal Alouettes receiver Tyson Philpot<\/a> pointed to Hamilton\u2019s addition of linebacker Wynton McManis<\/a> as one of the moves that stood out most around the league.<\/p>\n \u201cI think on paper, you have to say Hamilton,\u201d said Philpot. \u201cAdding Wynton McManis<\/a> and just big star guys like that. Of course, you do that in the sense that it\u2019s going to make your team better.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI love a challenge,\u201d said the receiver about facing Hamilton\u2019s improved roster in Week 1. \u201cI love Hamilton putting the Avengers together to come on down to Montreal and try to beat us. I respect it, but at the end of the day, the game\u2019s played between the lines.\u201d<\/p>\n Wynton McManis joined the Tiger-Cats this off-season (CFL.ca)<\/p>\n Ottawa linebacker A.J. Allen<\/a> also believes Hamilton took a major step forward.<\/p>\n \u201cI think Hamilton improved a lot, and they got a lot of vibes on offence,\u201d said Allen.<\/p>\n After finishing first in the East Division in 2025, the Tiger-Cats clearly aren\u2019t satisfied with simply getting back into contention.<\/p>\n TORONTO ARGONAUTS<\/p>\n Even after losing several veterans from 2024\u2019s Grey Cup-winning roster, players around the league believe Toronto quickly reloaded during the off-season.<\/p>\n One player specifically pointed to the Argonauts adding players like defensive lineman Ralph Holley<\/a>, linebacker\/defensive back Adarius Pickett<\/a> and defensive back DaShaun Amos.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s weird, but I would say Toronto,\u201d said Hamilton linebacker Wynton McManis<\/a>, who spent the last four seasons with the Argonauts before joining the Tiger-Cats this off-season. \u201cWe kind of lost a lot of veteran guys last season, but now they added a lot of veteran guys back.<\/p>\n \u201cYou add Ralph Holley<\/a>, you got Amos, you got Pickett and a lot of those pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n With a lot of familiar faces back in town, Toronto once again could position itself to compete near the top of the East Division.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n OTTAWA REDBLACKS<\/p>\n When the group of players at the CFL content capture were asked anonymously which team improved the most this off-season, Hamilton and Ottawa received the most attention.<\/p>\n The REDBLACKS led the way with eight votes after an aggressive off-season that included hiring Ryan Dinwiddie as head coach\/general manager while also adding players like Allen, C.J. Reavis<\/a>, Greg Bell<\/a> and Ayden Eberhardt.<\/p>\n Hamilton finished second with four votes after bringing in several high-profile additions, including McManis, as the Tiger-Cats look to build on last season\u2019s first-place finish in the East Division.<\/p>\n Winnipeg received two votes, while Toronto, Edmonton and Saskatchewan each received one vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TORONTO \u2014\u00a0Free agency and the off-season are all about building a roster capable of competing for a Grey…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681561,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-681560","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\/681560","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=681560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681560\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681561"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Wynton_McManis_2026.jpg\")
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