Welcome to the first edition of 3rd and 1! 

Each week of the CFL season, we’ll take a deep dive into both the betting lines and player fantasy salaries as we share our four favourite plays of the week. We’ll provide a mixture of bets to consider and players to keep in mind when setting your CFL Fantasy roster, and some weeks we’ll even make a few honourable mentions that you should consider. 

The season's opening week featured a little bit of everything and certainly didn’t let us down. Now it’s time for Week 2, and the slate of games gives us every reason to believe we’re in store for another good one.

THREE BETS TO CONSIDER

ROUGHRIDERS -7.5

I liked the Saskatchewan Roughriders at the start of the week when they opened as 6.5-point favourites against the Elks, and I still like them even though the line has moved to 7.5 at FanDuel Canada. Last week the Riders were in a special teams battle with Hamilton until the fourth quarter when they finally found the end zone, but that’s not going to be the case this week. I’m not expecting the Riders to put up 59 on the Elks like the BC Lions did, but if they put up 30 on the Ticats there’s a good chance they put up 30+ against Edmonton this week. The Elks are also dealing with a tougher defence, so they might struggle to keep up with a high-powered Saskatchewan offence. 

TICATS -1.5

This is another line that has moved as the week has gone on, and like the Riders, I like the Ticats just as much now than at the start of the week. We didn’t get anything out of Hamilton’s offence last week, but let’s not forget they were the visitors in one of the toughest buildings to play in, and this week they’re back in The Hammer for their home opener. Hamilton has won its last two home games against Calgary, with one coming last year and the other back in 2019, and I think they extend that streak to three this weekend. 

ARGONAUTS MONEYLINE

The Toronto Argonauts made a lot of moves in the offseason, both on offence and defence, and we’ll get our first glimpse of the new-look Argos on Thursday against the Alouettes. If William Stanback was healthy for the Als, I would be a little bit stumped for this game, considering he went off for 336 yards on the ground in two games against Toronto last year. But with Stanback out of the mix for this game and the moves the Argos made on the defensive side, I think they play the bigger role in this win for Toronto. I took the under on Andrew Harris’ total rushing yards this season, but that doesn’t mean I think we won’t see some Andrew Harris games this year. I believe we’ll see more of them at the start of the season compared to the end of the season, and if there’s one person who will want to make a statement in his debut with his new team, it’s Harris. 

ONE PLAYER YOU GOTTA START IN CFL FANTASY

START JAMAL MORROW

You’re most likely going to have to drop some extra coin on your starting quarterback this week with Jeremiah Masoli priced at $11,497 and Cody Fajardo and Vernon Adams Jr. priced above $12k for the week (Fajardo $12,090, Adams Jr. $12,557), so it’s a good thing Saskatchewan Roughriders running back Jamal Morrow is still listed as a discounted price at $5,313. 

Sure, last week Morrow only picked up 14 yards on the ground on nine carries against the Ticats, but he still picked up more than 15 fantasy points thanks to the other categories. He’s also not going against a defence anywhere close to the same level as the Ticats this week in the Edmonton Elks. I’m not saying to expect a 40+ point week from him like James Butler did last week, but considering Morrow is still returning punts and kickoffs, on top of being the starting back and active in the passing game, there’s a very good chance we see Morrow top the 25-point mark this week. 

Send us a tweet at @TSN_Edge and let us know what bets you like for the week or who you’re riding with in CFL Fantasy.