The Ottawa Redblacks will have nowhere to go but up when they kick off their Canadian Football League campaign against the Edmonton Elks on Saturday night at TD Place. After a bitterly disappointing 4-14 last-place finish in the 2025 season, the team is eager to turn things around.
Favorable schedule to start the season
There is no better opportunity to start the movement. A year ago, the Redblacks dropped their first two games en route to a 1-6 start from which they could never recover. This time, they get going not just with a friendly schedule that has them playing five of their first seven at home, but also with the first two games at TD Place against the only other teams in the league that failed to reach double digits in wins in 2025. After hosting the Elks, who finished 7-11 last season, they have a bye week before entertaining the Toronto Argos, who were 5-13.
“If you want to be a championship team, you’ve got to win your home games,” new starting quarterback Jake Maier said after Thursday’s practice. “I think that, any level of football, you understand that playing at home is a great privilege and an honour, and you want to make sure that you have the support from the people that pay the bills around here, and that’s the fans. We want to make sure we’re putting on a good performance for them, and, obviously, when you win enough home games, it sets you up pretty nicely throughout the season. So, yeah, playing at home is a great luxury, and you’ve got to take advantage of that.”
New leadership and culture
Why is there reason to believe this season could be different for the Redblacks? After reaching the playoffs just once since losing in the 2018 Grey Cup game, the steering wheel has been put in the hands of Ryan Dinwiddie, a 45-year-old former quarterback who guided the Argos to East Division finals in four of his five seasons (2021-2025) as their head coach and won the coveted mug twice. In addition to becoming Ottawa’s head coach and general manager, it’s important to remember that Dinwiddie is also the team’s new offensive co-ordinator.
Despite missing the playoffs last year, the Argos were the third-highest scoring team in the CFL, putting up 80 more points than the Redblacks. “We preach culture and expectations, and all those things (like) how we want to practise, how we want to look on offence, defence, special teams … so that’s all been laid out for them,” Dinwiddie said while adding that the leaders had come together to change the mentality in the locker room. “It’s tough when you’ve lost for a few years and then the guys don’t know how to win, but they don’t know how not to lose. So that’s the one thing we’ve been preaching this camp.”
Team captains and locker room vibe
Named team captains this week, along with Maier, were fullback Anthony Gosselin and defensive lineman Mike Wakefield, the only holdovers from the 2018 team. “We’re younger, so the energy, it’s a little bit higher,” said Gosselin, who’s also a special-teams force. “We expect to win every single day, like it used to be, but it’s more energetic. It’s a good vibe in the locker room. We’ve got a lot of things going on with all the guys (for) bonding and (getting everybody) all together. I think the locker room, right now, is pretty cool.”
