Marquee matchups headline CFL's Week 1 on TSN
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The 2025 CFL regular season officially kicks off on Thursday, June 5 and TSN has you covered with all of the action from the opening week as the new year gets underway.
Redblacks vs. Roughriders - June 5
The season officially kicks off with a matchup between Dru Brown and the Ottawa Redblacks facing off against Trevor Harris and the Saskatchewan Roughriders on Thursday night.
Brown enters 2025 in his second season as the the Redblacks' starting quarterback. He looks to build off of an impressive 2024 campaign that saw him lead the team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2018.
The 28-year-old pivot started 15 games for Ottawa last season, posting career-high marks with 312 completions, 3,959 passing yards, and 18 touchdowns, before completing a playoff record 46 passes for 476 yards and three scores in their Eastern Semifinal loss to the Toronto Argonauts.
"There’s just comfort now," Redblacks general manager Shawn Burke said of his quarterback at the start of training camp. "Everything’s not new anymore. He knows the playbook, he knows the guys around him. You saw the progression last year. His leadership is steady.”
A native of Palo Alto, Calif., Brown showed immediate rapport with top receiving threat Justin Hardy, who led all pass-catchers in the East Division with a career-high 1,343 receiving yards in 2024.
Hardy, Kalil Pimbleton, and Bralon Addison formed one of the best wide receiver groups in the league last season, helping the Redblacks post the second-highest passing yardage mark in the CFL.
The trio is now joined by 1000-yard receiver Eugene Lewis, who inked a two-year deal with the team in free agency, and 2025 sixth-overall pick Keelan White, a Canadian pass-catcher who spent six years playing at the University of Montana.
Ottawa also added premier running back William Stanback in the off-season to shore up their backfield.
Stanback recorded 1,175 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 231 carries in his lone season with the BC Lions last year.
While the Redblacks may boast one of the most balanced offences in the CFL, the Roughriders have a case for having the most depth in the league as they look for a return to the playoffs for a second consecutive year following a 9-8-1 season.
Harris enjoyed a resurgent 2024 campaign with 3,264 yards and 10 touchdowns, earning West All-Star honours while playing in just 12 games.
He headlines a quarterback room featuring Jake Maier and Tommy Stevens, giving Saskatchewan three viable options at the position.
Samuel Emilus was a breakout star for the Roughriders with 1,064 yards and five touchdowns on 87 receptions in 2024, finishing inside the top 10 among receivers in all three categories.
A.J. Ouellette played in just eight games last season, posting 558 yards on 130 carries while dealing with injury.
The 29-year-old rusher will look to stay on the field more often in his second year with the club as Saskatchewan looks to improve on a league-worst 4.7 yards per carry from 2024.
Argonauts vs. Alouettes - June 6
The Toronto Argonauts begin their Grey Cup title defence with a Week 1 matchup against the Montreal Alouettes on Saturday in a rematch from last year’s Eastern Final.
Davis Alexander Montreal Alouettes
Toronto emerged as winners over Montreal in a tight 30-28 matchup that went down to the wire.
Starting quarterback Chad Kelly suffered fractures to his right tibia and fibula after being tackled while scrambling out of the pocket, and will remain out for the Argos’ season-opener while working his way back from the injury.
The 2023 CFL Most Outstanding Player was recently cleared for a return to practice, but will stay on the sidelines in favour of Nick Arbuckle in Week 1.
Arbuckle stepped in to replace Kelly to close out the Alouettes in the Eastern Final, before eventually going on to win the 111th Grey Cup MVP in Toronto’s 41-24 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
This is now the second consecutive season that the Argonauts will be without their starting quarterback to begin the year as Kelly missed the first nine games of 2024 while serving a suspension for violating the league’s gender-based violence policy.
Arbuckle will be going head-to-head with Alouettes pivot Davis Alexander, who enters the 2025 season as the new face of the franchise after inking a lucrative three-year deal as Montreal’s new starter.
General manager Danny Maciocia made the decision to move on from 110th Grey Cup MVP Cody Fajardo this off-season, handing the reigns to Alexander after spending much of the last three seasons as a back-up option.
“Davis Alexander has been given a great opportunity here,” said TSN’s CFL analyst Henoc Muamba. “He’s had time - he wasn’t forced into this position here, he’s had time to think about it, he’s had time to learn under some great quarterbacks ahead of him. He saw a Grey Cup in front of him, as well. He has a great opportunity in front of him and he has the skills necessary right now.”
Alexander threw for 1,347 yards and six touchdowns in five games for the Alouettes last season while Fajardo was sidelined with a hamstring injury.
"I honestly would feel more pressure coming in as a 2-3-4 fringe guy than I would as the (No.) 1,” Alexander said at the start of training camp. "It's been awesome. Not that I treat it this way, but it is kind of your room, the rules that you want in the playbook.
"I don't feel that much pressure. Maybe I'm supposed to, maybe I'm not. Right now, I'm good. I feel great, I feel confident. We've got an amazing team.”
The Gig Harbour, Wash., native has been handed the keys by the team’s front office, and will now look to make a statement on Friday Night Football against the defending champions.
Tiger-Cats vs. Stampeders - June 7
The action continues into Sunday beginning with a matchup between the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and the Calgary Stampeders.
Bo Levi Mitchell Hamilton Tiger-Cats Julian Howsare Calgary Stampeders
The Ticats missed out on the playoffs last year for the first time since 2017 despite stellar play at the quarterback position from Bo Levi Mitchell.
Mitchell, now entering his 13th season in the CFL, led all quarterbacks with 5,451 passing yards and 32 touchdowns en route to winning 2024 All-Star honours.
Mitchell thrived in the Ticats offence with Tim White as his top target last year, with the latter recording 1,164 receiving yards and eight touchdowns, good for the second and third-best marks among all receivers in the league.
Hamilton’s passing attack could be even better this time around after the off-season signing of Kenny Lawler, who comes over from the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
Lawler played in just 10 games for Winnipeg last season after breaking his arm in their season-opener, but still managed 41 receptions for 662 yards and four touchdowns.
A native of Pomona, Calif., Lawler had eclipsed the 850-yard mark in each of his last three seasons before getting hurt last year, and will look to rebound with Mitchell after parting ways with Zach Collaros and the Bombers.
Like the Ticats, Calgary also missed out on the playoffs last year, ending a streak that went back to the 2004 season.
The Stampeders responded to that disappointment by bringing in Vernon Adams Jr., Dominique Rhymes, and Folarin Orimolade to bolster their roster.
Adams looked like a runaway MOP winner for the Lions last season before suffering a knee injury in August.
Adams had thrown for 2,203 yards and 12 touchdowns throughout the first six weeks of the season, leading his team to a 5-3 record before losing the starting job to Nathan Rourke after going down with the injury.
Rhymes spent 2024 with the Redblacks, recording the third 1,000-yard receiving season of his career.
The pair were teammates with the Lions during the 2023 season and have expressed excitement to be playing together again with the Stampeders.
“We've been good brothers ever since then and, yeah, playing together in '23 really helps when we came here to Calgary," Rhymes said.
"I've had success with him in the past and history repeats itself," he added. "We challenge each other. If I'm not doing it right or catching the ball right, he'll let me know. If he's not throwing the ball, I'm going to let him know.
"We want to be great for our team. We have that relationship where we're not afraid to critique each other, because we know we want the best out of each other."
Orimolade came over from the Argonauts in a trade for Cameron Judge this off-season as he now returns to the team he began his CFL career with.
He earned a 2023 CFL All-Star selection and was a key piece in Toronto’s 2024 Grey Cup-winning defence, amassing six sacks, one forced fumble, and one interception last year.
After a pair of disappointing campaigns last year, the Tiger-Cats and Stampeders go at it in their season-opener with bolstered rosters and hopes of more success in 2025.
Elks vs. Lions - June 7
CFL’s Week 1 state closes on Sunday night as Tre Ford leads the Edmonton Elks against Nathan Rourke and the BC Lions.
Nathan Rourke BC Lions
Ford has been with the Elks since 2022 but now enters his first full season as the team’s starting quarterback after signing an extension with the team through the 2027 season.
A native of Niagara Falls, Ont., Ford started in six games for Edmonton last season, throwing for 1,137 yards and 10 touchdowns before going down with an injury, a recurring theme in his young career.
Over a three-game stretch from Weeks 8-10, the fourth-year pivot completed 79 per cent of his passes with five touchdowns and one interception, prompting the Elks to give Ford the starter’s job in 2025.
He also brings another dimension to the offence with his running ability, as he rushed for 203 yards on just 23 carries last year. In Week 21, Ford ran for a season-high 81 yards on six attempts, good for an average of 13.5 yards per carry.
The front office brought in Alexander Hollins this off-season to give Ford a top receiving weapon after the 28-year-old posted 2,110 yards and 15 touchdowns over the past two seasons.
Hollins will take the field in Week 1 against his former team as he looks to help the Elks make their way back into the playoffs for the first time since 2019.
The Lions enter the 2025 season on the heels of a disappointing 2024 that saw a quarterback shakeup and the firing of the head coach Rick Campbell.
Rourke returned to the team last season after being cut in training camp by the NFL’s Atlanta Falcons, and struggled to the tune of four touchdowns and nine interceptions in eight games played after debuting in Week 11.
Despite his struggles in 2024, the Lions are confident that Rourke can re-gain his MOP form he showed back in 2022 that saw him set the CFL’s single-season completion percentage record (78.7).
“He’s got that confidence, he’s got that offence," said wide receiver Keon Hatcher of his quarterback. "It’s his team. Everyone’s rallied around him.
“Nathan Rourke — great leader, great man, great friend," he added. "He comes to work every day with his hard hat on…I’m so excited to see what he gets to do this year, stepping back into that role, being fully confident in what he's doing out here. And I don't expect nothing less from 2022 to this season when he’s had a full year out there.”
Hatcher and the Lions aren’t the only ones betting on a comeback season for Rourke, either.
“The last time that Nathan Rourke had an off-season that he knew he was going to be the starting quarterback, he had the opportunity to prepare…that was 2022, when he put up what was a historically good season,” said TSN football analyst Dave Naylor.
“Now, there was some disappointment in what Nathan Rourke put up when he came back in the second half of last season. I should remind people, he was in five playbooks across two leagues over the previous year. This year will be different.”
Sunday’s meeting will also mark the head coaching debuts for both Mark Kilam and Buck Pierce, who were hired by their respective teams over the off-season.
Kilam joined the Elks after 20 years in the Stampeders’ organization, while Pierce comes over to the Lions following 10 seasons with the Blue Bombers.
Kilam has won three Grey Cups in his coaching career with Calgary, while Pierce helped Mike O’Shea lead the Bombers to five consecutive Grey Cup berths prior to his departure this past offseason.
Both will be looking to get their tenures started off with a win to finish off Week 1 in the CFL.