With Rookie Camps getting underway Wednesday, it's time to talk about the 2026 CFL season!

Remember when a qb getting a million dollar contract was scandalous?

Jeepers that's a lot of money for a receiver. Dude is good no question but.... it's not like he's a Stegall or Simon type receiver.

5 hours ago, Bubba Zanetti said:

CFL Players Anonymous Best teams of all time Ranking:

1 - 1976 Tampa Bay Buccaneers

2 - 2008 Detroit Lions

3 - 1992-1993 Ottawa Senators

4 - 1980-1981 Winnipeg Jets

5 - 2009-2010 New Jersey Nets

4th ranked?

Weird.

Best nine win team ever.

Kenny is a one of a kind talent...You can't question his ability BUT a few years ago the Esks paid him a bundle to toil for them...As I remember he didn't finish the season because of injury....That's always a worry for every player but every player isn't being paid 333,000 ducats plus to perform...I hope I haven't hexed Kenny ...really like the guy and hope he fills the bill for them BUT that's a lot of cash to tie up in one player...Good luck Lawler ...except when he's trying to carve- up our db's

7 minutes ago, Stickem said:

Kenny is a one of a kind talent...You can't question his ability BUT a few years ago the Esks paid him a bundle to toil for them...As I remember he didn't finish the season because of injury....That's always a worry for every player but every player isn't being paid 333,000 ducats plus to perform...I hope I haven't hexed Kenny ...really like the guy and hope he fills the bill for them BUT that's a lot of cash to tie up in one player...Good luck Lawler ...except when he's trying to carve- up our db's

In 6 seasons, he's only played 18 games once. He played 12/18 in Edmonton and 22/36 in his second stint here. He also had 5 games under 50 yards in those 12 he played with Edmonton. He lights the world on fire for 5-ish games in a year. Misses 1/3 of the games, and tends to be average in the remaining 1/3 ish.

In Dalton's first 2 years here, he had 8 games under 50, only 1 was under 30, though, and only 1 was a single catch game. He still gave us the 5-ish games a season of pure dominance, but in the remaining nearly half a season, he was a strong, steady producer.

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by wbbfan

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

4th ranked?

Weird.

Best nine win team ever.

(Paraphrased) When asked which would be worse, finding out his wife was cheating on him, or coaching a 9 win NHL team.

Tom McVie replied: The team...At least I could tell my wife to stop.

Edited 17 hours ago17 hr by Pete Catan's Ghost

2 hours ago, blue85gold said:

Kenny is an unreal talent and I loved watching him play.

Consistent he ain't though. 2025 was is first season playing every game.

Letting someone walk to become the highest paid non-QB in the league isn't the same thing as saying you don't want him on your team.

But that's not what happened

2 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Remember when a qb getting a million dollar contract was scandalous?

Jeepers that's a lot of money for a receiver. Dude is good no question but.... it's not like he's a Stegall or Simon type receiver.

No one can match the turtle man.

56 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

But that's not what happened

Pretty much is tho. Bombers didn’t want to pay him as much as Hamilton did. Here’s reality. The bombers could have offered 300,000 dollars per. Hamilton would offer 301,000. Lawler takes the 301. That’s the guy he is. He’s a great player for 1/3 of the season. He’s just not for the other 2/3rds. The spectacular catches don’t happen every game. But good for him. Wonder how much is guaranteed cuz almost 400 on a 34 yr old in 3 years might not age well.

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Goalie

19 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

No one can match the turtle man.

He's the league's best ever and it's not close... I don't even like discussing his name among other receivers because it makes no sense.

Thing is when talking bomber receivers you need to bring up Milton cuz he is the true gold standard on and off the field. Kenny maybe more in the Arland Bruce III group tho. A tier below Milton. So who is in that group? Geroy? Not as a bomber. Robert Gordon? Possibly. I mean. I dunno. Schoen probably ranks higher than Kenny as Schoen was the man from game 2 or 3 on. Where would Kenny rank I wonder.

47 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Thing is when talking bomber receivers you need to bring up Milton cuz he is the true gold standard on and off the field. Kenny maybe more in the Arland Bruce III group tho. A tier below Milton. So who is in that group? Geroy? Not as a bomber. Robert Gordon? Possibly. I mean. I dunno. Schoen probably ranks higher than Kenny as Schoen was the man from game 2 or 3 on. Where would Kenny rank I wonder.

It's so funny but I had the exact same comp in mind... AB3... Not in terms of their abilities, but in terms of "tiers" of receivers... That's exactly who is out Kenny with.

Tier 1-Milt

Tier 2-James Murphy and Joe Popp

2 hours ago, Goalie said:

Pretty much is tho. Bombers didn’t want to pay him as much as Hamilton did. Here’s reality. The bombers could have offered 300,000 dollars per. Hamilton would offer 301,000. Lawler takes the 301. That’s the guy he is. He’s a great player for 1/3 of the season. He’s just not for the other 2/3rds. The spectacular catches don’t happen every game. But good for him. Wonder how much is guaranteed cuz almost 400 on a 34 yr old in 3 years might not age well.

Except that's not true. Lawler left money on the table to come back to us. He and his 1500 yds receiving yards last year kind of make an actual fact counter to your opinion.

Kenny is the best and most impactful receiver in the CFL. That is a fact. Everything you are saying is either speculation or opinion. Would I have paid him 333k last year..nope. This year, with the big SMS jump, yep. He is a guy that instantly makes any offence far more harder to defend.

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by GCn20

4 hours ago, Stickem said:

Kenny is a one of a kind talent...You can't question his ability BUT a few years ago the Esks paid him a bundle to toil for them...As I remember he didn't finish the season because of injury....That's always a worry for every player but every player isn't being paid 333,000 ducats plus to perform...I hope I haven't hexed Kenny ...really like the guy and hope he fills the bill for them BUT that's a lot of cash to tie up in one player...Good luck Lawler ...except when he's trying to carve- up our db's

It is a lot, but % of SMS it's about the equivalent of the 275k we paid him. The 333k number shocks us all but we all need to remember the massive SMS jumps last year and again this year.

I dont think we, as fans, are used to the new SMS reality now.

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by GCn20

2 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

Tier 1-Milt

Tier 2-James Murphy and Joe Popp

ahhh include #31 Rick House into the tier 2 grouping. Him and Joe Pop were a great duo. I’d probably add Eugene Goodlow as well into the mix.

It would be great if Lawler were still on the team but I don't think he signs a million dollar contract this year if he had Collaros, Streveler, and Wilson throwing him the ball last year

9 hours ago, Tracker said:

Walters is going to regret his departure for a long, long time.

Not at that price.

10 hours ago, GCn20 said:

It is a lot, but % of SMS it's about the equivalent of the 275k we paid him. The 333k number shocks us all but we all need to remember the massive SMS jumps last year and again this year.

I dont think we, as fans, are used to the new SMS reality now.

The number doesn't shock me. He's made that his whole career, like you say.

I think Walters, and I agree with him, got sick of paying that premium for a guy who was only available for half of every season and still left at every opportunity. I am always in favour of athletes with short careers taking the money where they can, but Lawler is a guy we stuck by when he got in trouble and didn't attempt to nickel and dime him over his injury history and he still bailed multiple times.

Good riddance.

12 hours ago, GCn20 said:

Except that's not true. Lawler left money on the table to come back to us. He and his 1500 yds receiving yards last year kind of make an actual fact counter to your opinion.

Kenny is the best and most impactful receiver in the CFL. That is a fact. Everything you are saying is either speculation or opinion. Would I have paid him 333k last year..nope. This year, with the big SMS jump, yep. He is a guy that instantly makes any offence far more harder to defend.

"Best and most impactful" is literally an opinion, not a fact. He was not the most productive receiver in the league in 2025, either by volume or on a per-game basis. He is what he is at this point and I'm really of the belief that he's more of an electric highlight reel receiver than a winner, not to say he's not productive but he's not a player I'd be looking to add to my roster. He's a target vacuum who catches a relatively low percentage of the balls thrown his way.

One stat I've become a fairly big fan of is yards per target and Lawler registered at 10.02 last year.

Dohnte Meyers 12.13, Justin McInnis 10.82, Nic Demski 10.88, Keon Hatcher 11.64, Dejon Brissett 10.67 all more productive per target and all with a better balls caught % than Lawler too ... Lawler wasn't even the most reliable target on his team, he caught less of his targets (59.7%) than Kiondre Smith (73.5%) and Tim White (66.6%) and to me, that's a statistic that becomes even more impactful when you consider that he was 2nd in the league in targets with 144. The only receiver who really even comes close to being as unreliable as him with a comparable level of productivity is Eugene Lewis. Couple that with the fact that despite being targeted 144 times, Lawler didn't even rank in the top 25 in the CFL in YAC.

He's a highlight reel receiver, but he's not a winning football player. His numbers all point to the fact that he's productive, but he's also a relatively unimpressive player once the ball is in his hands and he's a drive killer. It's not a smear opinion on Lawler, I think he's a hell of a receiver and he's got some of the best go up and get it ability I've seen in a long time, but I just don't think it's anywhere near a fact that he's the "best" receiver in the CFL.

I don't think your stats all mean exactly what you say they do... think there is a lot of context missing....

Now I'm not saying Lawler is the best or any of that, just that I think your interpretation of statistics could use some refinement.

55 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

I don't think your stats all mean exactly what you say they do... think there is a lot of context missing....

Now I'm not saying Lawler is the best or any of that, just that I think your interpretation of statistics could use some refinement.

Explain.

Is it a mystery that the guy with the most targets gets the most yards? That's the context.

How did Hamilton's offense perform when it mattered?