CFL (Non-Bombers) off-season news

[Tecno]

Wowsers, $275,000 with a $100k signing bonus

It would be a darn shame if Philpot got a season-ender in week 3, a la Schoen... Would really hurt their 2026 campaign, a la WFC 2025...  just saying!  (And while I'm coming up with my Christmas list, how about the same for SSK?)

       

[Jesse]

Put me down in the "pigs must be flying" camp, too.  This is insane.  The only thing I can think of is he was kind of ousted by the owners.  Maybe they got tired of losing and empty stands?

Or maybe the idea was he'd retire (he's getting quite old and haggard) and the old codger is doing the "I'm not dead yet!" routine.

My only question is: where are teams getting all the coaches cap space to hire all of these "advisors"?  Same question to WFC with Hall/Jarius.  I smell funny business.  Huff goes from massive pay day head honcho in CGY to be lowly "advisor" in TOR at $100k (or whatever)?  Explain how that makes sense.

Maybe "advisors" are outside the cap?  That would make a lot of sense...

Just the late career Wally Buono move of wondering around collecting a pay check from desperate teams.

Advisors must be outside the cap, but maybe a team like Toronto who doesn't have a lot of people in place needs people to fill in the gaps.

[Blue In BC]

The cap for 2026 is likely going to be at least 800k larger than in 2025.

The 400k bump that wasn't used prior to free agency and likely another bump (hopefully announced earlier than last year).

The salaries we are used to seeing are going to increase.

I doubt there is an additional SMS increase beyond that increase from 2025. There is a question about how much of the 2025 increase is left for any team that they will use before the end of the year.

Obviously some salaries are going to go up. It doesn't go far when a small handful of players are getting $100K increases. Montreal has done that with 2 players already.

[VictorRomano]

That's a lot of money.

The Als also signed OL Lestage for 3 years at a total cost of $750k yesterday, making him one of the highest-paid non-QBs in the league.  Can't see where they're gonna have a lot of extra cash for FA when you're paying two different guys at the top of their positional salary grid....unless they simply don't care about the cap.

https://3downnation.com/2025/12/01/montreal-alouettes-make-pier-olivier-lestage-one-of-cfls-highest-paid-non-quarterbacks-sources/

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Put me down in the "pigs must be flying" camp, too.  This is insane.  The only thing I can think of is he was kind of ousted by the owners.  Maybe they got tired of losing and empty stands?

Or maybe the idea was he'd retire (he's getting quite old and haggard) and the old codger is doing the "I'm not dead yet!" routine.

My only question is: where are teams getting all the coaches cap space to hire all of these "advisors"?  Same question to WFC with Hall/Jarius.  I smell funny business.  Huff goes from massive pay day head honcho in CGY to be lowly "advisor" in TOR at $100k (or whatever)?  Explain how that makes sense.

Maybe "advisors" are outside the cap?  That would make a lot of sense...

Everyone above the GM is exempt from the coaches cap including team presidents, their salary would fall under the operational budget which has no limits.

[Ridermania]

Lions make Hatcher, highest paid receiver in the CFL.

The BC Lions have signed 2025 All-CFL wide receiver Keon Hatcher Sr. to a two-year contract extension, the team announced on Wednesday.

The deal is worth a guaranteed $630K and includes a $125K signing bonus, according to TSN's Farhan Lalji, and makes Hatcher the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league.

https://3downnation.com/2025/12/03/b-c-lions-sign-top-cfl-receiver-keon-hatcher-to-multi-year-contract-extension/

[Blue In BC]

Lions make Hatcher, highest paid receiver in the CFL.

The BC Lions have signed 2025 All-CFL wide receiver Keon Hatcher Sr. to a two-year contract extension, the team announced on Wednesday.

The deal is worth a guaranteed $630K and includes a $125K signing bonus, according to TSN's Farhan Lalji, and makes Hatcher the highest-paid non-quarterback in the league.

https://3downnation.com/2025/12/03/b-c-lions-sign-top-cfl-receiver-keon-hatcher-to-multi-year-contract-extension/

Insanity. $315K per season? Yikes. That has to be at least a $100K increase if not more.

Lions appear to have some of the 2025 SMS left over as well.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Insanity. $315K per season? Yikes. That has to be at least a $100K increase if not more.

Lions appear to have some of the 2025 SMS left over as well.

Maybe not and I can't see how they have anything left, but what if the contract doesn't kick in until Jan. 1st?

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

Insanity. $315K per season? Yikes. That has to be at least a $100K increase if not more.

Lions appear to have some of the 2025 SMS left over as well.

Receiver salaries are leaping back up to Chris Jones level insanity, Gino Lewis signed with the Elks for $320k in 2023, last season with the RB's he played for $223k.

[Waffler]

The cap increase is going to the elite players. Predictable. This is far from the last big contract we will see signed this off season.

[blue_gold_84]

$315K for a receiver is insane.

[Blue In BC]

Maybe not and I can't see how they have anything left, but what if the contract doesn't kick in until Jan. 1st?

Usually a signing bonus is early money being used from remaining SMS paid before the end of the season. We see that every off season. Like most teams, it doesn't appear the Lions padded their 1 game IR to the extent of consuming an extra $400K IMO.

Essentially it's half the reason players get re-signed in December for big raises. It just turns out that bigger is even bigger than normal due to the $400K increase instead of the usual $50K annual SMS increase.

[Blue In BC]

The cap increase is going to the elite players. Predictable. This is far from the last big contract we will see signed this off season.

Agreed. The additional SMS will go about 6 - 8 players or less. It's good for them but changes nothing. Same players just getting more money.

The issue is that many of the other players will consider changing teams for another $10K-$20K. The teams spending the $400K on the stars means losing others possibly.

We'll see how many players change teams etc.

[Pete]

Insanity. $315K per season? Yikes. That has to be at least a $100K increase if not more.

Lions appear to have some of the 2025 SMS left over as well.

be interesting to see if there are more details, ie money hid behind marketing money similar to what they did with Roarke. Some teams are gonna have sms money from ly due to the extra 400k that wasn't budgeted in, The cflpa should have been making more noise about this to ensure that it isn't just given to the elite players. The smart teams would have set some of this aside just for this purpose, I wouldn't be surprised if mtrl did this and hence the 100k signing bonus given to Philpot.

[Blue In BC]

be interesting to see if there are more details, ie money hid behind marketing money similar to what they did with Roarke. Some teams are gonna have sms money from ly due to the extra 400k that wasn't budgeted in, The cflpa should have been making more noise about this to ensure that it isn't just given to the elite players. The smart teams would have set some of this aside just for this purpose, I wouldn't be surprised if mtrl did this and hence the 100k signing bonus given to Philpot.

That's always been the question. The CFLPA negotiated an increase to the SMS based on increased revenue. Didn't they have a plan on how to use it?

I've suggested a simple solution would be to add 2 - 4 players to the AR. More jobs is a better plan than just giving a few players more money.

More players mean better in game injury protection and development of those players that get game experience.