The CFL regular season begins on Thursday and odds are up at the sportsbook for the Week 1 games. The Montreal Alouettes are the defending CFL champs and they begin play on Thursday as they travel to Saskatchewan in a rematch of last year’s Grey Cup. The other game on the sportsbook online board on Thursday has Toronto at Calgary.
Friday in Week 1 of CFL action it will be Hamilton at Winnipeg while BC is at Edmonton on Sunday. The West Division looks to be very competitive this season with Saskatchewan trying to repeat. They lost John Chick and Stevie Baggs to the NFL. They will have to hope that they can put more points on the board to offset the defensive losses. Calgary may have an opposite problem as they lost three offensive linemen in the off-season and they lost their kicker Sandro DeAngelis who went to Hamilton. The Stampeders had better hope that Rob Maver is ready for the job. Edmonton has some defensive questions so it may take some time before they come together this season. British Columbia lost pass rusher Ricky Foley and running back Martell Mallett which means they will need Keron Williams and Jamal Robertson to play well.
The East Division favors Montreal but they could get some competition from Hamilton. The Alouettes didn’t make many changes so they are still going to be good. They did lose offensive lineman Bryan Chiu, defensive lineman Keron Williams and kick returner Larry Taylor. Hamilton will be looking to overtake Montreal and the addition of wide receiver Maurice Mann should help. They also added defensive backs Will Poole, Jason Shivers and Jerome Dennis in addition to kicker DeAngelis. Winnipeg made a ton of changes so who knows what to expect from them. They are looking at either Buck Pierce or Steven Jyles at quarterback. Losing top corner Jonathan Hefney will hurt. Toronto is also in rebuilding mode. The team has no experienced quarterback and no talent at receiver or running back. It is likely to be a long year in Toronto. The Argos are big underdogs in Week 1 as they travel to Calgary.
The highlight of Week 1 is definitely the Grey Cup rematch between Montreal and Saskatchewan with the Roughriders looking for revenge.