Great organizations pay what their players are worth. Super Bowl MVPs go to the Chiefs. Second chances matter. Ten things I am watching this week.
Jaxon Smith-Njigba is 24 years old and he just became the highest-paid wide receiver in the history of professional football. Four years. $168.8 million. $42.15 million a year. The number surpasses Ja'Marr Chase's record by almost two million dollars per year. And Seattle made it happen without drama, without a holdout, without a single day of negotiating theater. They saw what they had. They paid for it. They moved on.
Three days at the Commonwealth Fieldhouse. Christian Veilleux is the quarterback with NFL combine experience who could leave Edmonton as the top pick at the position. The draft is April 28.
The 2026 CFL National Combine opens Friday at the Commonwealth Fieldhouse in Edmonton, Alberta, running through Sunday, March 29 — with 70 invited prospects preparing to begin three days of athletic testing and full-team practice evaluations in front of scouts from all nine CFL franchises. Friday's schedule includes 40-yard dash timing, three-cone shuttle, short shuttle, and vertical and broad jump testing alongside bench press evaluation. Saturday and Sunday shift to padded practice days, which provide the position-specific evaluation that CFL scouts consider the most reliable indicator of professional projection.
Windsor sends three of the eight. Veilleux headlines the full 70-player invite list at Edmonton. Nine days until the evaluation clock starts.
Eight prospects earned promotion from the CFL Invitational Combine in Waterloo, Ontario, advancing to the main CFL Combine in Edmonton on March 27-29 after standout performances at the University of Waterloo on March 6. The promoted prospects represent the top performers across positions from a U Sports field evaluated against the physical and athletic standards that CFL organizations use to identify prospects worth a full combine invitation. The eight players advancing to Edmonton are running back Liam Talbot from Windsor, wide receiver Tyriq Quayson from Windsor, defensive back Ethan John from Windsor, wide receiver Matt Sibley from Calgary, offensive lineman Victor Olaniran from Manitoba, offensive lineman Chris Pashula from Calgary, defensive back Gianni Green from Guelph, and defensive lineman Steven Kpehe from Queen's.
You want a winner. That is what Kubiak said. Nine days to the CFL Combine. Six days to Lane Kiffin's first LSU practice. Rodgers by end of month. Ten things.
Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy. He threw 41 touchdown passes and 6 interceptions. He led the Indiana Hoosiers to an undefeated regular season and a national championship. He is 22 years old and he has already done something that the state of Indiana will talk about for the rest of its life.
Ten days to the combine. Organizations are filling depth positions through free agency and saving draft capital for premium needs. All nine franchises confirmed in Edmonton.
CFL franchises continued building their rosters in the days leading up to the March 27-29 Edmonton Combine, with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and several other clubs confirming transactions that reflect the final phase of pre-draft roster shaping. Hamilton added three players to their defensive unit: lineman Brandon Bowen, lineman Charbel Dabire, and defensive back Stephen Douglas. The Tiger-Cats' off-season has been oriented around defensive depth, with the Tre Ford and Wynton McManis signings on offense already confirmed from the February 10 free agency opening. The defensive additions reflect the organization's evaluation of where they need bodies ahead of a combine process where interior linemen and defensive backs are traditionally the deepest position groups.
Eberhardt produced 863 yards in 2025. Allen fills a linebacker need. The REDBLACKS have defined their remaining gaps and will look to Edmonton and the draft to fill them.
The Ottawa REDBLACKS added two free agent pieces in the weeks following the February 10 opening of the CFL market, signing moves that reflect an organization building toward the April 28 draft and the Edmonton Combine on March 27-29 with defined positional needs and preserved flexibility. Wide receiver Ayden Eberhardt signed a two-year deal with Ottawa after recording 863 receiving yards in the 2025 season. Eberhardt generates the majority of his production on intermediate routes — possessions catches, third-down conversions, slot routes that require reliable hands in traffic rather than separation against press coverage. His profile addresses a specific gap in the Ottawa passing game: a second receiving option who produces consistently in the moments the offense most needs conversion rate rather than explosive-play production.
Ottawa and Calgary send the largest delegations. Veilleux attends. All nine franchises confirmed. The evaluation clock starts in Edmonton.
Preparations are underway for the 2026 CFL Combine presented by Anytime Fitness Canada, set for March 27-29 in Edmonton, with registration closed and the full list of invited prospects confirmed by the league. The University of Ottawa and University of Calgary head program representation, each sending delegations of six or more prospects for evaluation. The Combine will test prospects across seven metrics: 40-yard dash, broad jump, vertical jump, three-cone drill, bench press, position-specific drills, and formal team interviews — producing the first professional-context evaluation data for players who have competed exclusively in the U Sports system.
Ottawa and Calgary send the largest delegations. Toronto has been the most active team in free agency. The organizational picture for all nine clubs will shift significantly before May's training camp.
The 2026 CFL Combine presented by Anytime Fitness is set for Edmonton from March 27-29, with the University of Ottawa and University of Calgary sending the largest delegations of any programs in the country. The Combine serves as the primary evaluation event for Canadian prospects entering the CFL Draft, running alongside the league's free agency period and providing teams with the athletic testing data and interview time that inform their draft boards. This year's class includes a notable presence of prospects from programs that have historically supplied CFL rosters — schools where the pipeline from university football to professional league is well-established and the transition is understood by coaching staffs on both ends.
The first days of CFL free agency produced a bidding war, a pipeline test for Edmonton, and Winnipeg doing what Winnipeg does — moving early and paying for quality.
The CFL free agent market opened Friday and has continued through the weekend with the volume of movement that typically characterizes the first several days of the signing period — high activity at the receiver and defensive back positions, more deliberate movement on the offensive line, and at least one team that has been significantly more aggressive than its offseason record suggested it would be. Winnipeg, which has been the most consistently successful CFL organization over the past decade, is rebuilding its defensive secondary after losing two starters to retirement. The Blue Bombers have moved quickly and paid at the top of the defensive back market, which is consistent with the organization's approach of not allowing roster depth to erode during transition periods. Winnipeg's track record of developing players within a system gives them a margin for error that smaller-market clubs don't have.
The league set its camp schedule Friday. Four weeks of preseason before the June 12 opener. What each contender needs to figure out before the games count.
The CFL announced its 2026 training camp schedule Friday, with all nine teams opening camp the week of May 18. The regular season begins June 12, which gives organizations approximately four weeks of camp and preseason activity to finalize their rosters before the games that count. Edmonton, which was the most active team in free agency, will enter camp with a reconfigured offensive unit built around the additions of Austin Mack and the returning offensive line that protected Trevor Harris last season. The Elks were a playoff team in 2025, and the front office moved this offseason with the energy of a team that believes it's close. Camp will confirm whether the pieces fit together.
The Elks were the most active team in free agency and came away with the best haul. Montreal lost more than it gained. Hamilton added a linebacker who changes their defense.
CFL free agency opened February 10 and ran hot for the first 72 hours before settling into the slower rhythm that typically follows the initial burst. The dust has largely cleared now, and the picture of which organizations navigated the window well — and which ones created problems they'll spend the summer trying to solve — is becoming clear. Edmonton was the most active team in the window and came away with the best overall haul. The addition of Austin Mack, who had recorded 136 catches for 1,973 yards and six touchdowns across 32 games with Montreal, gives Edmonton a proven possession receiver who has demonstrated durability at the CFL level. Montreal cut Mack earlier in the offseason; Edmonton moved immediately. That's the kind of reactive decision-making that free agency rewards. Mack signed a two-year deal. Edmonton also added Malik Carney, Coulter Woodmansey, and Joe Robustelli, making the offseason a genuine upgrade across multiple roster layers.