The Ottawa Redblacks hold the first overall pick in the 2026 CFL Draft and the team is willing to trading the selection if they receive the right offer.
“We’re going to be open to listening to anything — you always do until you make that final decision and we obviously want to make that the night before the draft,” head coach and general manager Ryan Dinwiddie told the media via videoconference on Wednesday.
“I think anything you look at as far as value — is it going to help our football club this year and in the future — and if that’s an opportunity for us to get better and get any type of value at it, we’ll look at that.”
“The draft talk always heats up as you get closer (to draft day),” vice-president of football operations Shawn Burke added.
“Teams go through the process down here with the (CFL Combine) and pro days and I think in the last week to two, we’ve maybe got some clarity on some guys on their pro days, developments and whatnot. You’re always going to have conversations through the offseason, but I think it does heat up as you get closer to the draft.”
This year’s draft class is chock-full of NCAA players, some of whom transferred to U.S. schools after beginning their collegiate careers in U Sports. Others had unusually long NCAA careers after garnering extra eligibility amid the COVID-19 pandemic, which delayed their respective draft years.
Though he doesn’t believe NCAA talent is arbitrarily better than that coming out of U Sports, Dinwiddie suggested it might be easier to evaluate given that the level of competition is more standardized.
“You look at the level of talent that they played against, so as far as evaluating the film (from the NCAA), that’s a little bit easier to evaluate, so that’s exciting about it, but I don’t hang our hat on the fact that the kid went to a U.S. school,” said Dinwiddie.
“You look over the draft, a lot of the players that have turned out over the last five, six years have been (U Sports) players, so I don’t put any pedigree in, ‘This guy played in the MAC Conference (so put him) over a kid that played at Laurier.’ They’re all good football players, we’re gonna evaluate them the same.”
Things didn’t work out when Ottawa made the first overall pick in the draft three years ago, though that was a relatively weak class. This time around, things are much different.
“It’s a very strong draft,” said Burke. “The (CFL) draft’s probably one of the toughest drafts in the world because you’re not necessarily selecting the best player at No. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 — you’ve gotta wait for the dominoes to fall from where they end up in the NFL — but the talent level, if you looked at every Canadian available right now, it’s very high.”
If you delve further back into Redblacks draft history, the team had success trading the No. 1 pick away in 2014. The selection was shipped to the Calgary Stampeders in exchange for veteran offensive lineman Jon Gott, who served as an anchor at centre for the next five seasons, earning two All-CFL selections and helping the team win the 104th Grey Cup.
When asked if they would consider trading the pick away in exchange for a proven player, Ottawa didn’t shut the idea down.
“I think if you would look at a proven veteran, what’s his age? There’s a lot of things that you’re going to look at. What’s his contract? Is that going to be too much for us to take with the salary cap?” said Dinwiddie.
“There’s all kinds of stuff that goes into it, but we’re looking to get a player that’s going to be in camp this year and help us get better for the season with that No. 1 pick.”
Dinwiddie politely declined to identity which positions he considers the strongest in the draft, saying Ottawa “likes them all.” For what it’s worth, as discussed on the most recent episode of the 3DownNation Podcast, the positions most scouts have identified as strengths are fullback/tight end, offensive line, and linebacker.
The 2026 CFL Combine will take place from March 27 to 29 in Edmonton, Alta., while the 2026 CFL Draft is scheduled for Tuesday, April 28 at 7:00 p.m. EDT.
