{"id":725376,"date":"2026-06-09T15:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/725376\/"},"modified":"2026-06-09T15:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T15:09:10","slug":"wynton-mcmanis-talked-to-saskatchewan-roughriders-other-teams-in-cfl-free-agency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/725376\/","title":{"rendered":"Wynton McManis talked to Saskatchewan Roughriders, other teams in CFL free agency"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPhoto courtesy: Bob Butrym\/RFB Sport Photography<\/p>\n

Wynton McManis was sought after during the Canadian Football League\u2019s communication window and free agency period.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was talking to a lot of teams, honestly. Ottawa was one of the ones that I talked to.\u00a0I had talked to Sask. I had talked to Calgary.\u00a0I talked to quite a few teams. I even talked to Montreal a little bit,\u00a0but not as much as I would say the other ones,\u201d McManis told 3DownNation.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut I felt like the best fit for me,\u00a0and the best team fit, was Hamilton. The kind of player I am and the fire that I bring, how I like to talk stuff,\u00a0I feel like those fans are right there with me and feel the same way. You know what I\u2019m saying?\u00a0So it was the best, a match made in heaven almost.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n 1900 Rose St, Regina SK S4P 0A9.<\/p>\n

One Stampeders connection won out over another in McManis\u2019 decision to sign with the Black and Gold<\/a>: Brent Monson beat out Corey Mace. The former enters his second season as the Tiger-Cats\u2019 defensive coordinator, and the latter comes into his third year as the Roughriders\u2019 head coach with a Grey Cup as a bench boss on his resume.<\/p>\n

\u201cSask is an attractive place, too, for players. Storied past,\u00a0and my relationship with coach Mace has always been strong; he\u2019s a great coach. But I don\u2019t think at this time I was what they needed, and I don\u2019t think at this time they were what I needed,\u201d McManis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome teams, I don\u2019t really have much of a connection to the coaching staff or know much about the coaching staff, I would say. Me and coach Monson go way back to our Calgary days. That was an easy decision.\u00a0It would be an easy merge to rekindle that.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 31-year-old admitted there would be some change with regard to learning Monson\u2019s defensive scheme as it has evolved since the pair were in Cowtown together in 2019. That year, the six-foot, 220-pound linebacker recorded 86 defensive tackles, nine special teams stops, two sacks and one forced fumble, which earned him an NFL contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot everything is the same, and even the things that I think are the same have changed over the years. You\u2019ve got different names for different things. That\u2019ll be the biggest thing, remembering the names. I\u2019m always open to learning, so I\u2019m trying to not forget everything that I\u2019ve learned,\u00a0but make sure I have enough room to add on to it,\u201d McManis said.<\/p>\n

\u201cTake a lot of messing up, but a lot of trying. I think you\u2019ve got to make mistakes, and I\u2019m all for it at this point in my career. I can be loud and wrong at the same time, but I feel like if we\u2019re all wrong, we\u2019re all right. As long as we\u2019re all on the same page, I feel like we can make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

McManis noted he was \u201cready to go\u201d for the 2026 CFL season after being shutdown with a groin injury last year<\/a>, but the veteran needs more time prior to officially making his Tiger-Cats debut after missing Week 1 with a knee issue. Hamilton plays Winnipeg on Thursday, June 11.<\/p>\n

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Football insider, reporter and analyst.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Bob Butrym\/RFB Sport Photography Wynton McManis was sought after during the Canadian Football League\u2019s communication window…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":725377,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,49,48,521,522,520,3801,15655,941,14967,4400,82,39579,43334,167300,15656,171547],"class_list":["post-725376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-hamilton","tag-hamilton-tiger-cats","tag-montreal-alouettes","tag-ottawa-redblacks","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-sports","tag-steel-city","tag-ticats","tag-tiger-cats","tag-toronto-argonauts","tag-wynton-mcmanis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725376","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=725376"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/725376\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/725377"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=725376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=725376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=725376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}