2024 CFL Season Preview: Who Can Dethrone Toronto?

The CFL preseason is underway, and we’re mere weeks away from the start of the regular season. 

We’ve already gotten massive updates about certain rosters that have impacted CFL odds, and that’s been reflected here in the BetMGM online sportsbook. 

Below, we’ll preview the season, looking at each team and providing a table of football odds for the 2024 Grey Cup. 

2024 CFL Season Preview

BC Lions

The Lions enter 2024 after a 12-6 year and a loss in the CFL Division Finals to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. 

However, the Lions will spend this upcoming season without the CFL’s Most Outstanding Defensive Player, Mathieu Betts. 

Betts signed a one-year deal with the Detroit Lions. Thus, they’ll be without a player who generated 18 sacks in 2023. 

The Lions are +650 to win the Grey Cup. These are the fourth-best odds. 

Calgary Stampeders

The Stampeders head into 2024 with many new faces after going 6-12 last season. 

All eyes are on Jake Maier to see if he can be the franchise quarterback, but if he struggles, the Stampeders picked up Matthew Shiltz. Shiltz has played in 78 CFL games and has 19 touchdowns and 18 interceptions. 

Additionally, there have been changes in the backfield with Dedrick Mills coming in, and the secondary will be without two key cogs, Jonathan Moxey and Nick Taylor. In their place, they picked up Demerio Houston, a top-tier defensive back from Winnipeg. 

The Stampeders are +1050 to win the Grey Cup. 

Edmonton Elks

The Elks have some of the worst odds to win the Grey Cup in 2024 at +1600, and rightfully so — they were 4-14 last season. 

That said, they did acquire Kurleigh Gittens Jr., a new No. 1 wide receiver for McLeod Bethel-Thompson. 

Gittens Jr. comes in from Toronto, where he had 35 receptions for 416 yards and one touchdown. 

In addition to Gittens, the Elks brought in Eugene Lewis, who spent last season with Edmonton. He had 48 receptions for 844 yards and three scores. 

The Elks have the offence to improve from four wins last year. 

Hamilton Tiger-Cats

The Tiger-Cats are +1100 to win the Grey Cup as they look to improve on their 8-10 record last year. 

However, the season is already off to a rocky start with quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell taking a pay cut and showing up to camp in a walking boot. 

On top of that, the Tiger-Cats have a new head coach, Scott Milanovich, who is taking over after previously serving as the senior assistant coach last season.

He has previous NFL experience, serving as a quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts and Jacksonville Jaguars. 

Milanovich’s quarterback coaching background should help improve Mitchell’s performance in 2024. In 2023, he completed 78 of 132 passes for 1,031 yards, six touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. 

Montreal Alouettes

Here we go: The defending Grey Cup champions. 

After going 11-7 last season, the Alouettes finished the year with a 28-24 win over the Blue Bombers in the 2023 Grey Cup. 

The Alouettes are +500 to repeat which is among the top odds, but they’ll have to replace Austin Mack who signed a two-year deal with the Atlanta Falcons. He had 78 receptions for 1,154 yards, and four touchdowns, so the Alouettes will have to replace a lot of production. 

Ottawa Redblacks

The Redblacks had an equally as disappointing season to the Elks last season, also going 4-14. They ended the year losing four straight games. 

Now, they head into 2024 without their leading rusher, Devonte Williams. He tore his Achilles during the offseason. 

However, the defence will look to take a step forward. They retained a lot of potential free agents like Bryce Carter and Lorenzo Mauldin IV and added former Argonauts SAM Adarius Pickett, the East nominee for the Most Outstanding Defensive Player award.

Saskatchewan Roughriders

Another bottom-rung CFL squad, the Roughriders, mustered up just six wins in 2023. 

Now, they look ahead to another season of quarterback Trevor Harris and will be without four-time All-Star Larry Dean. 

Dean is still with the organization, but no longer as a player. He’s a player personnel coordinator. 

Harris completed 104 of 155 passes for 1,274 yards, six touchdowns, and four interceptions. He won three of his first four games but suffered a tibial plateau fracture on his right knee. 

At 37 years old, it’s normal to wonder if he’ll rebound. 

Behind him are Mason Fine and Shea Patterson. 

Toronto Argonauts

When the odds opened for the 2024 Grey Cup, the Argonauts were favoured, but now they’re +550 and have the third-best odds. 

What changed?

Quarterback Chad Kelly was suspended for the first nine games after an investigation of allegations made against him by a former Argo’s strength and conditioning coach. 

QB Chad Kelly, who faces minimum suspension of nine games, withdraws from Toronto Argonauts training camp. https://t.co/xQBbhayMdk

— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) May 16, 2024

Kelly has now withdrawn from camp, and the team has brought back Nick Arbuckle. He last played for the Argonauts in 2021 and started four games. He threw for 1,158 yards and five touchdowns before he was traded to Edmonton. 

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

The Blue Bombers were the Grey Cup runner-up last season, and now they have a lot of work to do heading into 2024. 

Jackson Jeffcoat and Mike Miller retired, and players like Greg McCrae, Dakota Prukop, Janarion Grant, Winston Rose, Demerio Houston, and Jermarcus Hardrick are no longer with the team. 

The Blue Bombers do have Chris Streveler back on the roster after spending four years in the NFL with the Arizona Cardinals, Baltimore Ravens, Miami Dolphins, and New York Jets. 

Odds to Win the 2024 Grey Cup