The Canadian Press
Sometimes we all feel like visionaries.
We wonder what our favourite burger supplier could offer up if they partnered with that nice French restaurant you went to for a special occasion last year. Maybe you imagine Tom Hardy as the next James Bond, or you think about the musical possibilities of an All-Star cast of present-day musicians doing a Motown cover album (that one admittedly is very specific to my likings).
As we delve deeper into the CFL off-season, we can’t help but think about what might be. There are players you watch who jump out at you with a specific skill set — a 1,000-yard running back, for example — and how there are teams out there that were hurt late in the season when they couldn’t make an impact in the run game.
Sometimes these thoughts go beyond fit and you just want to stargaze. You imagine a league-leading receiver pairing up with a gunslinging quarterback and just how astronomically high they could help each others stats climb in 2024. Maybe it’s a loaded cast of defensive characters that for one season is hellbent on making the cliche of trying to hold the opponents to zero points a reality.
That’s what drives this list of free agency what-ifs. Sure, salary cap restrictions can swoop in on some of these to spike you back into reality, but it’s nice to sit back and put the football blinders on and just think about the possibilities that free agency can bring.
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The BC Lions + a 1,000-yard running back
This one is purposely vague so we can accommodate a pair of excellent running backs that are pending free agents.
Vernon Adams Jr. threw for a career-best 4,769 yards in 2023 and the Lions boasted two of the league’s best receivers in Keon Hatcher (1,226 yards) and Alexander Hollins (1,173 yards). Had Dominique Rhymes been healthier this year, the Lions might well have had three 1,000-plus-yard receivers on their roster.
For all of that firepower in the passing game, the Lions lacked on the ground this year. Their 297 rushing attempts and subsequent 77.3 yards per game were the league’s worst. For comparison’s sake, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers ran the ball 448 times and almost doubled the Lions’ production for a league leading 139.1 yards per game.
That’s as good a segue as we’ll get to drop Brady Oliveira‘s name here. Oliveira led the league in rushing yards this year with 1,534 and added 482 receiving yards, with a total of 13 touchdowns, being named the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian Player and earning the West Division nomination for Most Outstanding Player. If Oliveira could bring a fraction of what he’s brought to his hometown Bombers over the last two years, the Lions’ offence would have a tsunami-sized wrinkle added to it.
AJ Ouellette is cut from a similar cloth, though he doesn’t have Oliveira’s Canadian passport. In his fourth season with the Toronto Argonauts, Ouellette broke the 1,000-yard rushing mark over 15 games and added 163 receiving yards, picking up an East Division All-Star nod along the way.
Signing either would be a tremendous challenge and would mean the Lions would likely have to sacrifice from another costly area of strength on its roster. That’s reality talk, though. From a dream pairing standpoint, this is exactly the kind of stuff we’re thinking about.
A sack machine voyaging home
Would Mathieu Betts relish a return back to Quebec in free agency? (BCLions.com)
Mathieu Betts made history in 2023. His 18 sacks led the CFL and set a record as the most in a season by a Canadian player. Betts was the face of the Lions’ defensive line and a key component in the team’s second consecutive 12-win season and return to the Western Final.
You can’t help but wonder, though, as the Montreal Alouettes hoisted the Grey Cup, if it sparked something in the league’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player. A Montreal native that played his U SPORTS football at Laval, Betts knows what football means in Quebec and what the Als’ movie-like run to the 109th Grey Cup meant as the city of Montreal has showered the team with love in the weeks since the win.
The obstacle here, of course, will be cost. As a highly productive National, Betts will likely have a hefty cost for his services. Als’ GM Danny Maciocia has already been busy trying to keep the core of his championship-winning team intact, having signed Cody Fajardo and Shawn Lemon to extensions this week. Alouettes fans would no doubt love to see Betts make that homecoming, but the salary cap might not be as welcoming.
A reunion of sorts, or digging your feet in?
Dane Evans will have some choices to make this winter. He came to the Lions with a bitter taste in his mouth about how his time in Hamilton ended. Pushed out of the picture for Bo Levi Mitchell, Evans landed with the Lions and played a great backup to Adams, helping to form the best QB duo in the league.
If Evans wants to start for a team, it won’t be happening in BC. That’s where an old acquaintance could come in. Shawn Burke has seen firsthand what Evans can do for a team, as he watched Evans shine as a starter in relief of an injured Jeremiah Masoli in 2019 for the Ticats. Masoli is once again coming off of an injury as he heads into the 2024 season. Evans in Ottawa, working alongside Masoli is a proven working recipe. With the Ticats in 2021, Evans relieved Masoli in the Eastern Final and got them to the 108th Grey Cup game. When Evans was hurt in that game, it was Masoli that led the Ticats into overtime, where they came a dropped touchdown pass away from a championship.
There’s also an argument to be made that the best fit for Evans for now might be in BC. The Lions played in the Western Final for the second year in a row and Evans was one play away from getting into those games. He filled in well for Adams when he went in this year, including for a short-but-sweet dose of revenge doled out to the Ticats that set up a game-winning field goal at Tim Hortons Field. If Evans wants to win it all, his safest bet could be to keep that strong QB stable together, where the Lions will be trying to end their 12-year Grey Cup drought at BC Place in the 111th edition of the game in 2024.
Two roving pillars of an offensive line
Inspired by Matt Cauz’s these-guys-can’t-go-anywhere-else argument, I counter by saying, ‘Yeah, but what if they did?’
To Cauz’s point, Jermarcus Hardrick and Stanley Bryant have been with the Bombers so long and been so successful that it’s almost impossible to picture them in any other uniform. For argument’s sake, though, imagine the impact they might have in Ottawa, where the REDBLACKS allowed a league-worst 71 sacks in 2023.
Quarterback protection would no doubt improve and with that so would the quality of life/play of their quarterback. One QB on the REDBLACKS’ roster that would welcome that arrival is Dustin Crum. The 24-year-old was thrust into the starting job as a rookie after Masoli’s injury and ran 97 times for 741 yards and nine touchdowns. With Hardrick and Bryant bookending the line, Crum — or Masoli, or Dane Evans, or whoever is taking snaps there in 2024 — would not only have time to make plays but would be flanked with protection whenever he did decide to tuck the ball under his arm and start running.
Honourary mention destination here: Montreal, where the Als surrendered 61 sacks in 2023.
Let’s make return TDs an every-few-games thing
The Edmonton Elks managed to put a lot of negative streaks to bed this season. They ended their start-of-season losing streak at nine and eventually brought their home losing streak to a halt. In their final game of the 2023 season, they put a seven-season drought to bed when Deontez Alexander took a Sergio Castillo kickoff back for a touchdown. The Elks hadn’t scored a kick or punt return TD since August 28, 2015.
As no slight to Alexander, who could be the league’s next great returner, the draw of landing a proven return commodity in Edmonton is too strong to ignore. That’s where the 2023 Most Outstanding Special Teams Player could come in. Javon Leake is a pending free agent and had four return TDs this year for the Argos. If for some reason Leake rubs you the wrong way, how about the 2022 Most Outstanding Special Teams player? Mario Alford is also a pending free agent.
Leake had four punt return touchdowns in 2023, while Alford had three return TDs, including two in his Week 6 encounter with the Calgary Stampeders. In 2022, Alford had four kick return touchdowns and became the 11th player in league history with four or more kick return touchdowns in a single season. He also became the fourth ever to score a kick return touchdown in three ways (kickoff, punt return and missed field-goal).
