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/

[VictorRomano]

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.  That means between Lestage and Philpot, that's a half-mil a year.  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.