Thomas Skrlj, Christian Bender/CFL.ca
TORONTO — As the CFL’s off-season unfolded, some select names continued to work their way to the consciousness of the CFL.ca staff. With the 2024 season upon us, we worked together to form a list of people who will impact the coming season. When it came time to determine how big the list was, we looked no further than the year that we’re in. With that, our list of 24 people that will impact the 2024 season was born.
A couple of things to keep in mind with this list: it’s not a ranking, nor does someone’s exclusion from it infer that they won’t impact the coming season. There are 2023 award winners and All-Stars that didn’t make the list; that doesn’t lessen their excellence in our eyes.
What is the list? It’s a collection of people playing and working in and around the CFL who will enhance your enjoyment of the game this year. Before the 2024 season kicks off on Thursday night, we want to put the spotlight on them.
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BEAU BALDWIN
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Baldwin’s late March hire flew somewhat under the radar, but the former Eastern Washington and Central Washington head coach has supplied the CFL with some of its top QBs over the last decade. At Eastern, he worked with Bo Levi Mitchell, Vernon Adams Jr. and Matt Nichols. At Central Washington, he worked with Michael Reilly. The timing of his crossing the border into the CFL couldn’t be better. After Jake Maier’s up-and-down debut season as a starter, Baldwin could be just the presence needed in Calgary this year. Baldwin couldn’t have thought of it when he was coaching a couple of CFL MOPs in the making, but he heads to the CFL as something of a quarterback whisperer. If he can help Maier get to a new level this year, the Stamps could put their six-win 2023 showing behind them. |
DRU BROWN
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING The REDBLACKS have been besieged by bad luck at the quarterback position basically since Trevor Harris left town in free agency in 2019. Nick Arbuckle didn’t pan out in 2021. Jeremiah Masoli suffered season-ending injuries in 2022 and 2023. It’s no coincidence that the REDBLACKS haven’t seen the playoffs in any of those seasons. After three seasons of watching a model quarterback in a model franchise, Brown will get the chance to steer the REDBLACKS back into the playoffs. With Masoli present and still rehabbing his ACL, it almost feels like the perfect situation for Brown to succeed. He’ll get his opportunity on the field and he’ll have a tremendous resource in Masoli on the sidelines to start the season. There are a lot of ifs at play here, but if it pans out for Brown and Masoli can get back on the active roster the REDBLACKS would have some tremendous QB depth. |
VERNON ADAMS JR.
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING After years of pushing up against the ceiling of his potential, Adams broke through in 2023. The 31-year-old enjoyed career highs in passing yards (4,769), touchdowns (31) and rushed for 324 yards, leading the Lions to the Western Final in his first year as the team’s full-time starter. He’s the fuse to BC’s firework show offence that posted a league best 5,672 passing yards (315.1 yards per game). What’s next for Adams? Most Outstanding Player consideration? All-Star nods? Ending the Lions’ 11-season Grey Cup drought on home turf in November is the ultimate goal. |
KA’DEEM CAREY
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING It was just two years ago that Carey was a threat to lead the league in rushing with 1,088 yards with the Stampeders. Injuries limited him last year, but he made a shrewd plug-and-play move in free agency, sliding into AJ Ouellette’s vacated role in Ryan Dinwiddie’s offence in Toronto. Carey gets a fresh start in Double Blue and given the team’s quarterback situation as we go into Week 1, the run game’s importance could ramp up even more as the Argos look to continue on their winning ways. |
CFL.ca PICK MAKERS/VOTERS
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING We know how this looks. Back-patting on our own platform, right? Why don’t we just get jerseys printed out with our last names and a No. 1 on the back? First, who says we haven’t? Second, we can prove our validity in this list. We see firsthand every week during the season how players and the teams’ social media accounts react to who we take in CFL Pick Em, and how fast they are to rub it in our faces when we’re wrong. This time last year, none of us knew just how angry the Montreal Alouettes were about being picked last in our off-season power rankings. Did we help spark a team to a Grey Cup win? You can’t outright say we did, but you also can’t outright say that we didn’t. |
DUSTIN NIELSON
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING If you’ve ever wondered what it would sound like if a broadcaster had the ability to spew fire emojis while calling a game, we give you Dustin Nielson. You often see players and teams top each other on the field, ripping the torch from an established entity and forging their own legacy. As he’s called those moments on the field over the last three years, you can feel it happening in the broadcast booths of CFL stadiums across the country. Week after week this year, Nielson will remind you that the future is here. We ask this with no disrespect to the establishment, but can we get him in a headset for the Grey Cup this year to bring that fire to an audience of millions? Finally? (the above video is Nielson’s radio call from the 11oth Grey Cup) |
AMAR DOMAN
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING In the wake of the passing of Canadian Football Hall of Famer David Braley, there was uncertainty around the state of the Lions. Since taking ownership of the club in 2021, Doman has led in a very admirable way, passionate about his club’s success while giving it what it needs with an eye to growing its business. The timing feels perfect for the Lions to act as Grey Cup hosts. Commissioner Randy Ambrose often boasts of the strength of the league’s present ownership; Doman is a big part of those good vibes. |
JOEL DUBLANKO
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING In 2019, Chris Jones had the first pick in the CFL Draft and like the four other teams that picked after him, missed out on Alex Singleton. The linebacker went on to set records for the Stamps, was named Most Outstanding Defensive Player in 2017 and helped the team to a 2018 Grey Cup win. With the first pick in the 2024 CFL Draft, Jones wasted no time in taking Dublanko, who enters the league in an eerily similar way that Singleton has. One player won’t turn the Elks’ fortunes around, but keep an eye on Dublanko as this season unfolds. A pro-ready pick, he could make an impact right away at a spot that the Elks could use some help. If he can do his part in bottling up ambitious running backs, a Green and Gold turnaround is headed in the right direction. |
RICK LELACHEUR
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Like the veteran detective in a hard-hitting action movie, Lelacheur has a way of getting pulled back into the Elks’ office, no matter how many times he’s retired or left the organization. A two-time winner of the CFL Commissioner’s Award, Lelacheur is steering the Elks through one of their most delicate moments in franchise history, as they explore private ownership. A born-and-raised Edmontonian who won a Memorial Cup with the Edmonton Oil Kings in 1966, he served as the club’s president and CEO from 2002-2011. Lelacheur knows the Elks’ culture and its place in the city well. After serving as the BC Lions’ president from 2018-2022, he returned to the Elks on an interim basis to help the franchise determine what its future will look like. On the heels of a difficult few years for the Green and Gold, these very delicate duties are in the right hands. |
JASON MASS
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING There’s an argument to be made that Maas was among the top-three most important people in 2023 and there’s no reason to believe the same doesn’t hold true for 2024. The Alouettes’ head coach walked into a new job last year with the franchise undergoing an ownership change and reeling from losing a number of key players in free agency. It didn’t matter to the 48-year-old. He built a culture from the ground up and successfully instilled a winning mentality on his roster, as they stunned the Blue Bombers in the 110th Grey Cup. Now it’s time to prove they can do it again with all eyes on the champs. |
COREY MACE
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Mace’s presence is already being felt throughout Saskatchewan’s roster with players raving about his leadership skills. Despite it being his first season in Regina, the expectations will be high for the former Argonauts’ defensive coordinator, with the Riders bringing in off-season additions such as AJ Ouellette and Jermarcus Hardrick. We’ve barely seen him at work yet, but we already know that Mace has a commanding presence leading his team. It’s more fun around the league in general when the Riders are in the mix. If Mace can get his team back to the playoffs this year, football will feel festive again in Saskatchewan. |
BO LEVI MITCHELL
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Mitchell’s impact in Hamilton was diminished by injuries in 2023 as the team turned to rookie Taylor Powell under centre through the middle third of the season. A fully healthy Mitchell could mean bigger things for the Tiger-Cats in 2024. If the future hall of famer can return to his Grey Cup-winning form, the dynamics of the East Division will shift quickly. |
BRADY OLIVEIRA
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING The 2023 Most Outstanding Canadian reached new heights in 2023 by becoming the first National running back to reach 2,000 yards from scrimmage since Jon Cornish did it in 2013. It’s all about surpassing that and helping the Bombers reach a fifth-straight Grey Cup game for a recently extended Oliveira, who should continue to be at the centre of the CFL’s most prolific offence. |
RETURN SPECIALIST
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Janarion Grant sat as a free agent all winter, before signing with the Toronto Argonauts on May 28. Training camp was an audition for the team’s next return star and it appeared that they might have found him when Chris Smith ran in a highlight reel 109-yard TD in the team’s second preseason game. Smith’s name found its way to the Bombers’ cut list, though, after he was hurt in the game. Myron Mitchell handled returns in practice on Monday, the Winnipeg Sun reported, but it appears locking in a replacement for Grant — an integral part of the Bombers’ success the last four years — will be an ongoing story as the season kicks off. |
RIGHT TACKLE
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Football games are won and lost in the trenches. That means the Bombers will have to figure out a way to replace Jermarcus Hardrick, who left for the Roughriders in free agency over the winter, leaving an All-Star-sized hole on the right side of the line. A powerful ground game led by Brady Oliveira relies heavily on stability at the right tackle position, putting extra pressure on whoever takes over for Hardrick. That could be former Rider Eric Lofton — who lined up in the spot on Monday — , who started 14 games Saskatchewan in 2023 and now takes the opposite route from Regina to Winnipeg. |
CO-DEFENSIVE COORDINATORS
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Toronto had the best defence in the CFL in 2024 thanks to a superb job by Corey Mace and his crew. With his departure to the head coaching role in Regina, the Argos turned to Kevin Eiben and Will Fields as co-defensive coordinators. The duo inherits a defensive unit that led the league in sacks but lost important names like Brandon Barlow, Dewayne Hendricks and Jamal Peters (Hamilton), alongside Adarius Pickett (Ottawa) over the off-season. It’s unconventional — they’ll be the only DC duo in the league this year — but we have co-general managers in Calgary and we’ve seen it in Hamilton in the past. Will two heads be better than one at the role? |
JAVON LEAKE
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Edmonton needed a spark in its return game and getting Leake this off-season will surely ignite their special teams. Leake led the league with four kick return touchdowns and in punt return yards (1,216). If 2023’s Most Outstanding Special Teams Player can replicate that success in Green and Gold, it’ll help an offence with a new starting quarterback, in McLeod Bethel-Thompson, and should swing a few games in their direction this year. |
CAMERON DUKES
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING In his first CFL season as the Argos’ backup in 2023, Dukes completed 63 of his 96 passes for 760 yards. Three hundred seventeen of those yards came in Week 21 against Ottawa, along with two touchdowns and three interceptions. How will he fare thrust into Toronto’s No. 1 spot in just his second year in the league? |
MARC-ANTOINE DEQUOY
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Dequoy has solidified himself has one of the best safeties in the CFL and was a massive piece of the Montreal Alouettes’ defence that helped the team capture the 110th Grey Cup. You could say his most iconic play of the 2023 season was his pick-six in the Eastern Final, that swung and kept the momentum in his team’s favour on their way to victory at BMO Field. Does he have more of that in store in 2024? |
CARTHELL FLOWERS-LLOYD
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Flowers-Lloyd was an impact player on special teams in 2023, leading the league with 31 special teams tackles. He’ll be important there again this season but it’ll be interesting to see how the Ticats use him on defence after Hamilton’s starting SLB from 2023 has departed. Flowers-Lloyd backed up that spot last season and seems like a natural fit to be promoted. With change swirling in coach Scott Milanovich’s defence this year, Flowers-Lloyd stands to be someone who could blossom into a defensive starter, or maybe even a star this year. |
TRE FORD
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Ford was one of the most exciting players to watch in 2023 and all eyes will be on the Elks and how they use him this year. Will he do short yardage plays? Will the team build certain packages for him to come in in place of McLeod Bethel-Thompson? As teams’ quarterback situations evolve through this season, will he become coveted around the league? It remains to be seen how the Elks will use him, but Ford is certainly someone to keep on your radar for 2024. |
DEMERIO HOUSTON
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING The Calgary Stampeders were looking to cash in on more turnovers in 2024 and adding a ballhawk like Houston to the mix addresses that right away. Houston led the CFL in interceptions with seven in 2023 to go along with three fumble recoveries. Keep an eye out for his ability to give the football back to his offence in his first season in the Red and White. |
WILLIE JEFFERSON
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WHY WE’RE WATCHING Any time Jefferson is near the football, good things happen for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ defence. Of course, the defensive lineman can get after the quarterback; he had 11 sacks last year, just one off his career-high of 12 in 2019. His long wingspan forces quarterbacks to throw around him and if they can’t, he’ll bat the ball down (he led the CFL with 13 pass knockdowns). With a motor that’s seemingly as limitless as that wingspan, you know the nine-year vet will make a difference this season. |
