The debate after Week 8 in the CFL is now whether Montreal or Edmonton is the best team in the league.
After the Elks brought down the defending champs on an emotional night in Regina, they are tied with Montreal at the top of the standings.
Of course, the Elks beat Montreal earlier in the season, which is the Alouettes’ only loss of the year, but the Elks also lost more recently to the 1-5 BC Lions.
But first, Week 9 has some interesting matchups as the Riders and Elks tangle in a rematch. The Stampeders will try to string wins together as they visit Hamilton, who looked like a real threat to the Alouettes until the wheels fell off in the final moments.
We’ll also potentially see the debut of another quarterback in the CFL as the Lions make a change heading into Winnipeg. And Montreal will try to avoid the dreaded trap game against Ottawa with the Elks on the horizon next week.
Will that impact my pick? Probably not.
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BC AT WINNIPEG
Thursday, July 30
8:30 p.m. ET
TSN/RDS/CFL+
Who is Kaidon Salter? We’re about to find out on Thursday night for the BC Lions. It appears it’ll be Salter at quarterback for the Lions as the team moves off Chase Brice and awaits the return of Nathan Rourke from his shoulder injury.
Salter’s main CFL tie is having Kent Austin as his quarterbacks coach at Liberty University for his first two years there. He then more famously replaced Shedeur Sanders as the starting quarterback at the University of Colorado, although it wasn’t the best season for the Buffaloes in 2025.
Salter gets no favours for this potential start as the Lions are on an extremely short week after Saturday’s game and have to turn around and play in Winnipeg in the loudest stadium in the CFL.
However, the Bombers have some issues. Dru Brown struggled in his third start, the offensive line has some issues and the defensive side of the ball couldn’t come up with stops as it tried to push back against the constant turnovers happening on offence.
Still, a raw rookie quarterback, eight weeks into his CFL career, making a start in the loud and boisterous Princess Auto Stadium?
Yeah.
PICK: WINNIPEG
MONTREAL AT OTTAWA
Friday, July 31
7:30 p.m. ET
TSN/RDS/CBSSN/CFL+
I said trap game earlier, and if there is a definition of a trap game, this is it for Montreal. The Alouettes, who are 6-1, are taking on the 0-6 REDBLACKS, who are coming off a bye week. The Alouettes are on a short week, having just played Sunday before playing again Friday. AND they flip the page to next week and see the 6-1 Elks are coming to town.
This has the potential to be a trap game.
The good news for Montreal is they were almost beaten by Ottawa a few weeks ago, so they know the REDBLACKS can’t be taken lightly.
My curiosity lies in which REDBLACKS team we see after the bye week. How deeply did Ryan Dinwiddie dig into the roster to assemble his team and potentially put players in a better position to win? That’s what great coaches do during bye weeks after a bad start to the year.
The Elks made some changes after entering their Week 7 bye in 2025 at 1-4, and the wins started to pile up. They still weren’t perfect, but they were better.
Dinwiddie has traditionally put together a successful record after bye weeks during his time in Toronto, but this is a different situation. I feel like Ottawa is close, but I don’t feel like taking the risk with how drastically different these two teams have played up to this point, trap game or no trap game.
PICK: MONTREAL
CALGARY AT HAMILTON
Saturday, August 1
3:00 p.m. ET
TSN/CTV/CFL+
These two teams are both 3-4 in the standings, but I think they are very different football teams. And I don’t know why because their four losses have come to the exact same opponents. Both teams have lost to Saskatchewan, Winnipeg and Montreal twice.
The obvious reason is quarterback, as Vernon Adams Jr. is having the best statistical start of any quarterback in CFL history, aside from the win-loss column. The Tiger-Cats are now riding with the wild card that is Tre Ford at quarterback, who has flashes of brilliance and then makes a dangerous decision like the one late against Montreal that sealed the game.
The Tiger-Cats’ defence is again a threat to be reckoned with. They held on as best they could until the final moments against Montreal and shut down the Argonauts for a big win in Tre Ford’s first start.
The issue for the Tiger-Cats is they just gave up some big yards to Travis Theis, and in comes Dedrick Mills, who leads the league in rushing.
And now Calgary appears to be looking to deploy game-breaker Tyreik McAllister in more situations as he returns to Hamilton, where he started his CFL journey in 2023.
I have the Stampeders as the No. 4 team in my power rankings, and I’ll ride with them on the road this week.
PICK: CALGARY
SASKATCHEWAN AT EDMONTON
Saturday, August 1
7:00 p.m. ET
TSN/CBSSN/CFL+
And the event we’ll have to wait all week for is the rematch of last week’s epic 36-34 rivalry game.
Vincent Blanchard was the hero as he crushed a 57-yard field goal to win the game, and Cody Fajardo became the first quarterback to throw for 500 yards in a single game since Ricky Ray had 506 in 2017.
I’m curious what these two teams have for an encore at Commonwealth Stadium on Saturday night.
I will guarantee one thing. The Riders will not allow nearly 600 yards of offence again this week.
Consider that the Elks needed all of that to win by a walk-off field goal.
The Elks’ defence will also have some pride on the line as Trevor Harris threw for four touchdowns and nearly a fifth in a losing effort.
These two coaching staffs know a lot about each other as they’ve crossed paths as colleagues and now as rivals, so the chess match is going to be very interesting.
I doubt we’ll get nearly as much drama as we saw last Thursday in Regina, but at the same time, I think the win will be just as hard-fought.
I thought these two teams were going to split the series with the home side winning, but I guess I’ll keep that prediction, only with the road teams taking the ‘W’.
PICK: SASKATCHEWAN
