OTTAWA\u00a0\u2013 The Ottawa REDBLACKS announced today that the football club has finalized a\u00a0trade\u00a0with the Toronto Argonauts, acquiring the playing rights to national defensive lineman Luiji Vilain.<\/p>\n
\u201cAny time you have the opportunity to add a player of this calibre, it\u2019s something you jump at,\u201d said Ryan Dinwiddie, Head Coach and General Manager of the Ottawa REDBLACKS. \u201cLuiji is a high-level talent who fits the identity we want to build on the field. On top of that, being a national player who can perform at a high level adds valuable flexibility to our roster.\u201d<\/p>\n
Full\u00a0Trade\u00a0Details<\/p>\n
To Ottawa:<\/p>\n
NAT \u2014 DL \u2014 Luiji Vilain
2026 fourth-round pick (31st overall)<\/p>\n
To Toronto:<\/p>\n
2026 third-round pick (23rd overall)
2027 conditional third-round pick<\/p>\n
Vilain, 28, played five games over two seasons in the National Football League with the Minnesota Vikings (2022-23) and Carolina Panthers (2023), registering four total tackles. In addition to his time with the Vikings and Panthers, Vilain also spent the past two seasons with the Cleveland Browns (2024) and Dallas Cowboys (2024-25). The 6\u20194, 250-pound Ottawa, Ontario native was originally selected by the Toronto Argonauts in the third round, 25th overall in the 2021 CFL Draft.<\/p>\n
The former Wake Forest defensive lineman finished his collegiate career with the Demon Deacons, where he suited up in 14 games in his lone season (2021), registering 34 total tackles, 10 tackles for loss, a team-leading nine quarterback sacks, one pass defended, two forced fumbles\u00a0 and one fumble recovery. Vilain began his collegiate career at Michigan where he played 12 games over two seasons (2019-20), registering 11 total tackles, one tackle for loss and one forced fumble.<\/p>\n
OTTAWA \u2013 Le ROUGE et NOIR d\u2019Ottawa a annonc\u00e9 aujourd\u2019hui que le club de football avait acquis le joueur de ligne d\u00e9fensive national Luiji Vilain dans le cadre d\u2019un \u00e9change avec les Argonauts de Toronto.<\/p>\n
\u00ab Chaque fois que l\u2019on a l\u2019occasion d\u2019int\u00e9grer un joueur de ce calibre, c\u2019est une opportunit\u00e9 \u00e0 saisir sans h\u00e9siter \u00bb, a d\u00e9clar\u00e9 Ryan Dinwiddie, entra\u00eeneur-chef et directeur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral des ROUGE ET NOIR d\u2019Ottawa. \u00ab Luiji est un joueur de haut niveau qui correspond \u00e0 l\u2019identit\u00e9 que nous voulons construire en Ottawa. De plus, le fait qu\u2019il soit un joueur national capable de performer \u00e0 un haut niveau apporte une flexibilit\u00e9 pr\u00e9cieuse \u00e0 notre effectif. \u00bb<\/p>\n
\u00c0 Ottawa :\u00a0<\/p>\n
Le joueur de ligne d\u00e9fensive national Luiji Vilain<\/p>\n
Choix de quatri\u00e8me ronde au rep\u00eachage 2026 (31e)<\/p>\n
\u00c0 Toronto :<\/p>\n
Choix de troisi\u00e8me ronde au rep\u00eachage 2026 (23e)<\/p>\n
Choix conditionnel de troisi\u00e8me ronde au rep\u00eachage 2027<\/p>\n
\u00c2g\u00e9 de 28 ans, Vilain a disput\u00e9 cinq matchs en deux saisons dans la NFL avec les Vikings du Minnesota (2022-2023) et les Panthers de la Caroline (2023), enregistrant un total de quatre plaquages. Outre ses passages chez les Vikings et les Panthers, Vilain a \u00e9galement pass\u00e9 les deux derni\u00e8res saisons avec les Browns de Cleveland (2024) et les Cowboys de Dallas (2024-2025). Originaire d\u2019Ottawa, en Ontario, ce joueur de 6\u20194 pour 250lbs a \u00e9t\u00e9 s\u00e9lectionn\u00e9 \u00e0 l\u2019origine par les Argonauts de Toronto au troisi\u00e8me tour, en 25e position, lors du rep\u00eachage 2021 de la LCF.<\/p>\n
L\u2019ancien joueur de ligne d\u00e9fensive de Wake Forest a termin\u00e9 sa carri\u00e8re universitaire avec les Demon Deacons, o\u00f9 il a disput\u00e9 14 matchs lors de sa seule saison (2021), enregistrant 34 plaquages au total, 10 plaquages pour perte, neuf sacks (le meilleur total de l\u2019\u00e9quipe), une passe d\u00e9fendue, deux \u00e9chapp\u00e9s forc\u00e9s et une \u00e9chapp\u00e9e r\u00e9cup\u00e9r\u00e9e. Vilain a d\u00e9but\u00e9 sa carri\u00e8re universitaire au Michigan, o\u00f9 il a disput\u00e9 12 matchs en deux saisons (2019-2020), enregistrant 11 plaquages au total, un plaquage pour perte et un \u00e9chapp\u00e9 forc\u00e9.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA\u00a0\u2013 The Ottawa REDBLACKS announced today that the football club has finalized a\u00a0trade\u00a0with the Toronto Argonauts, acquiring the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":737568,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-737567","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\/737567","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=737567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/737567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/737568"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=737567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=737567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=737567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}