We’ve finally arrived at Week 1 of the regular season! Buckle up with a few Molsons and a bag of all-dressed chips and make yourself comfy for the summer of 2019, folks.

In league news this week:

• The Montreal Alouettes remain a major point of concern for the CFL. The team was sold to the league by former owner Bob Wetenhall back on May 31st; the league confirmed in its press release that the other eight CFL franchises will finance the team’s operations until a new owner is found – though there’s no timeline set on that happening, either. While there are purported to be a few ownership groups interested in purchasing the team, the fact that the league has stepped in to handle the team’s operations is perhaps due to the fact that none of the potential purchasing parties wanted to meet Wetenhall’s asking price for the Als franchise. Whatever the case may be, while the team has issues – no club seats or naming rights at Percival Molson Stadium, a revolving door of coaching staff, and constant turnover of the roster, not to mention the four-year playoff drought – the CFL is going to fight tooth and nail to keep the team in Montreal. Relocation is entirely out of the question, and folding seems like an extremely premature conclusion to reach just yet.
• Speaking of the gongshow that is the Alouettes, head coach Mike Sherman and GM Kavis Reed “mutually agreed” that Sherman would step down as bench boss – on the eve of the regular season. Terrific timing, guys. 3DownNation cites Sherman’s comfort with Canadian rules and the speed of adaptation to this format of football as the leading reasons to his decision to leave the team. In the meantime, OC Khari Jones will serve as interim head coach and continue to call the plays for the team. A promising start to 2019, indeed.

And with this info out of the way, onto the games!

WEEK 1 PREVIEWS

Saskatchewan vs. Hamilton, Thursday, June 13th, 7:30 PM EST: The 2019 season opener is a matchup of Hamilton’s current starting quarterback versus Hamilton’s previous starting quarterback. Jeremiah Masoli was an MOP candidate in 2018, while Zach Collaros spent a large portion of the year on the injured list and struggled to find his game. The Riders are looking for a bounce-back season from their signal-caller; in pre-season action, he looked sharper and more accurate than he’d shown in quite some time… for whatever stock you want to put in pre-season play. The team also announced that key defensive acquisition Solomon Elimimian will be out for a few weeks, due to an injury to his calf that has been nagging him throughout training camp. For the Ti-Cats, the East is looking like theirs to win, so they’ll need to get to work quickly in order to prove they’re the team to beat. The one notable roster cut from Hamilton was Canadian receiver Shamawd Chambers, who missed all of 2018 with a torn ACL. Despite not being a primary target, his Canadian passport may still well mean he extends his career, with a team in need of balancing their Canadian ratios possibly picking him up later on.

PICK: Hamilton

Montreal vs. Edmonton, Friday, June 14th, 9:00 PM EST: After all the controversies of Alouettes training camp, including the sale of the team to the league and the quitting/firing/resignation/etc. of their head coach, Antonio Pipkin emerged as the winner of the quarterback battle. He’ll be backed up by former Oregon star Vernon Adams, Jr., with Matthew Shiltz claiming the third slot. Jeff Mathews and rookie Hugo Richard were released; with Johnny Football also having been permanently banned from the CFL due to an unspecified contract violation, the saga of how the team would manage six quarterbacks in training camp is finally at a close. On the other side of the field, Edmonton takes off with a revamped roster; Trevor Harris takes over as the Eskimos’ starting QB, and with the departure of former league MOP and Grey Cup winner Mike Reilly to the BC Lions, Harris will have some big shoes to fill this season.

PICK: Edmonton

Ottawa vs. Calgary, Saturday, June 15th, 7:00 PM EST: A Grey Cup re-match to lead off the season… and I would expect the end result to look roughly similar. Calgary’s defence is missing many of the stars that anchored it last season, while Ottawa lost a huge portion of their offensive starters over the same time period. At the end of the day, however, Calgary still has Bo Levi Mitchell; with a quarterback who’s won two Grey Cups and two MOP awards in a seven-year career, you can expect more good things to happen for the Stamps this season. Will it be a high-scoring game? Maybe. Peter King isn’t sure what to think of this one either, I bet. Regardless of the score, I would expect to see some miscues. And if there’s one thing that this sport is good for, it’s CHAOS. And that’s a good thing.

PICK: Calgary

Winnipeg vs. BC, Saturday, June 15th, 10:00 PM EST: This is the game of the week right here. On paper, we’ve got the two best offences in the league about to go at it – it’s also the first look at Mike Reilly in orange and black since 2012, which hopefully will be exciting for LioUns fans. With the Blue Bombers also starting the year at full health, unlike last season, it’ll be interesting to see how the first half of 2019 goes for them; last year’s team finished at 10-8, but didn’t play to full potential due to Matt Nichols missing time with a leg injury and shoulder injury. This is also the first chance will get to see of Duron Carter in Leos colours, as well as former NFL receiver Lucky Whitehead with Winnipeg – after an 86-yard punt return touchdown in the preseason against Saskatchewan, he made his way onto the 46-man roster.

PICK: BC

BYE: Toronto

The Argos start off the regular season with a break, so we’ll have to wait a little longer to see this year’s edition of the Double Blue. Notable cuts out of Argos camp include LB Bear Woods, OL Chris Van Zeyl, RB/WR Anthony Coombs, and QB Brandon Bridge. Bridge, in particular, was a surprise to be cut – he’d previously backed up Zach Collaros in Saskatchewan and saw starting time in both Montreal and with the Roughriders, but he ended up missing out on the third slot to rookie Michael O’Connor, a fellow Canadian, drafted out of the University of British Columbia. As a Canadian, Bridge will still likely end up on a roster somewhere – there is a notable lack of Canadian talent at the quarterback position, and the ability to have someone with CFL-quality playing abilities and the ability to help out roster ratios will ultimately prove too valuable to pass up.

WEEK 1 PICKS

Reminder that this is your last chance to join the Pick ‘Em Pool before the season begins… click the link below to sign up and join! Remember, for added convenience this year, you can also install PoolTracker’s web app to your phone or desktop – it’s free and available here.

https://www.pooltracker.com/join.asp?poolid=168258

Enjoy the games, everyone.