Photo courtesy: Ottawa Redblacks
If another disappointing four-win season that resulted in head coach Bob Dyce being fired was rock bottom, R-Nation has to be hoping the Ottawa Redblacks are on the way up.
That faith will be fuelled by the franchise’s aggressive pursuit and addition of former Argonaut head coach Ryan Dinwiddie. Dinwiddie arrives in the nation’s capital with a winning pedigree and a history of offensive production, becoming the fourth head coach — and third general manager — in team history.
While the 45-year-old’s hiring resolves a number of issues, plenty of questions continue to swirl around the franchise. Here are five things I’ll be paying close attention to this offseason.
Is Dru Brown Dinwiddie’s guy?
On the surface, the question of whether quarterback Dru Brown will return as the Redblacks’ starter in 2026 seems straightforward. He’s signed through next season on a deal that, per our own Justin Dunk, pays $462,500 in hard money, with a maximum value of $471,500. That’s absolutely not the kind of cash a team would pay someone to hold a clipboard.
Furthermore, although he missed half the season with an assortment of injuries, when healthy, Brown completed 71.5 percent of his passes for 2,389 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. In his nine starts, he had four games with 300+ passing yards. At times when he’s been on the field, Browns has looked like part of the upper echelon of CFL quarterbacks.
And yet, the question isn’t straightforward. To begin with, the team will need to decide if Brown’s frequent absences can simply be chalked up to bad luck or if he’s perhaps injury-prone. There’s also the issue of Brown’s tendency to throw off his back foot and seemingly float passes into high danger areas that result in turnovers. Moreover, there was a distinct lack of willingness to stretch the field on Brown’s part, as he rarely took deep shots in 2025, although he may have been constrained by the system he was forced to operate within.
During his time in Toronto, Dinwiddie did a masterful job of squeezing production out of anyone he put under centre. Hell, he won a Grey Cup with Nick Arbuckle and had him looking like an MOP for much of last season. Given that he’ll be calling plays next season, what Brown’s future boils down to is, does Dinwiddie believe he can help the 28-year-old Brown take his game to the next level? Would he prefer to work with someone he’s more familiar with — aka someone from his time in Toronto? Or is there a pending free agent passer he’s eyeing?
It stands to reason that if the Redblacks choose to move on from Brown, they’d do so before the start of free agency in order to maximize the return.
How will Dinwiddie fill out his staff?
Tommy Condell is out as offensive coordinator, and Will Fields is set to return as defensive coordinator. Although some in R-Nation might not be overly keen to see more of Fields, given how mediocre his unit was in 2025, he won two Grey Cups while part of Dinwiddie’s staff in Toronto, so it makes sense that he would return.
What I really want to know is, how many more familiar faces from Toronto will follow Dinwiddie up the 401 to Ottawa?
Names like Pete Costanza, Kevin Eiben and Mike Miller are all potential candidates for the Argos’ now-vacant head coach position, but if none ultimately get the job, could we see one — or all three — trading their double blue for red and black?
Costanza is an elite offensive mind and has six Grey Cups to his name. In addition to his 11 years of playing experience, Eiben has spent eight years with the Argos, occupying roles from special teams coordinator to defensive coordinator to linebacker coach. As for Miller, he’s been Toronto’s quarterback coach since 2022.
An extra benefit for the Redblacks would be that the more Dinwiddie strengthens his staff by luring former Argos to Ottawa, the more he weakens a division rival.
Which pending FAs are worth bringing back?
Last offseason, fresh off the team’s first postseason appearance since 2018, the theme for general manager Shawn Burke seemed to be ‘run it back and bolster’. Faced with 31 pending free agents, Burke moved quickly to prioritize those he felt could still make meaningful contributions, eventually bringing back 22 players, while shoring up positions of weakness by adding impact players like three-time All-CFL receiver Eugene Lewis, two-time All-CFL running back William Stanback, Canadian centre Peter Godber, and totally overhauling the secondary.
Unfortunately, the 2025 season was what it was. For the fifth time in six seasons, the Redblacks finished with four (or fewer) wins. That could mean that this offseason, faced with 36 potential free agents, Ottawa opts for full-scale change.
Dinwiddie is the new general manager but will continue to work with Burke following his shift to vice president of football operations. Dinwiddie will no doubt want to put his stamp on the team, and even if ushering in a culture change is in the cards, there are still a number of impact players the Redblacks should look to retain.
Topping that list is strong-side linebacker Adarius Pickett. Not only is he one of the league’s best at the position, but he’s also a valuable special teamer. Despite tearing his Achilles mid-season in 2024, the 29-year-old was ready to go at the start of the 2025 campaign and started all 18 games as Ottawa’s biggest contributor on defence. Pickett finished with 84 defensive tackles (a team-high), 14 special teams tackles, two sacks, a forced fumble, four pass knockdowns, and two fumble recoveries.
Another name that should garner strong consideration is Justin Hardy. Even if he’ll be 34 years old at the start of next season, the Washington, N.C., native has shown no signs of slowing down. Not only did he score a career-high eight touchdowns last season, but he also became the first Redblacks receiver since The Buds to post three consecutive 1,000-yard seasons. Hardy made more catches than anyone else in Ottawa’s receiving corps, and he had the most 100+ yard games with four and the most yards after catch.
Quarterback Dustin Crum, running back Daniel Adeboboye, offensive lineman Jacob Ruby, defensive linemen Aidan Johnm and linebackers Lucas Cormier and Frankie Griffin are others who could be worth bringing back.
Will the crowds come back?
As ugly as the results were on the field in 2025, things weren’t much better for the Redblacks franchise off of it. As the season progressed and losses piled up, it became clear that R-Nation was showing its frustration by staying away. Instead of building off of 2024’s return to the playoffs, quite the opposite happened with attendance decreasing 4.2 percent.
In fact, the Redblacks’ average of 18,136 fans per game only finished ahead of the Argos’ 15,054. For an organization that regularly sold out its 24,000 seats and frequently another 1,000 standing room tickets as recently as 2019, it’s been quite the fall from grace.
Not only did the team record its smallest home crowd ever in 2025 — just 15,054 against the Ticats in July — but only two of nine home games crossed the 20,000 mark. Going 2-7 at Lansdowne surely didn’t help, but the issue is deeper than just losses. As the franchise’s early success of playoff wins, Grey Cup trips, and a championship fades a little more from memory each year, the norm has become the team being an annual cellar-dweller. To make things worse, for much of those underwhelming seasons, Ottawa played a boring and uninspiring brand of football.
Just three seasons with an above .500 record in 11 years have tested R-Nation’s patience, especially when you consider that track record is stacked upon decades of futility from the Rough Rider and Renegade eras.
The good thing is that OSEG has clearly realized that their fan base needs a shot in the arm, which the hiring of Dinwiddie is. But to truly get the franchise back where it needs to be, much remains to be done. The two instances of on-site tailgating in 2025 were a solid initiative, and if tailgating on the Great Lawn at Lansdowne becomes a permanent game-day feature — something that members of R-Nation, such as the Southsiders fan group, have been clamouring for for years — a new Ottawa tradition could be born. All that said, the Lansdowne 2.0 construction, which is already underway, could limit or even make it impossible to tailgate onsite.
Continued aggressive marketing will also help, but you can’t blame those who are in a wait-and-see mode. The talent Ottawa adds this offseason will go a long way towards generating hype and belief heading into the 2026 season opener.
Does Dinwiddie have too much on his plate?
On one hand, Dinwiddie’s addition to the franchise checks a lot of boxes. On the other hand, there are only so many hours in a day, and given that he’ll be filling three different roles — general manager, head coach and offensive coordinator — it’s fair to wonder how he’ll manage to simultaneously be effective at three extremely demanding jobs. Other times we’ve seen a coach attempt to pull off the GM/HC/coordinator trifecta, it didn’t take long for things to go off the rails (see Chris Jones in Edmonton).
What will help is that although Burke’s title is different, he’ll still be an ever-present and experienced voice in Dinwiddie’s ear. As the duo made clear in an interview with TSN1200 earlier this month, Dinwiddie will have final say on roster decisions, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be a collaborative process.
Something else that could ensure Dinwiddie succeeds where Chris Jones failed is a strong coaching staff. Even if he’s the one calling plays on game day, if Dinwiddie has someone he trusts implicitly as his right-hand man to be QB coach or pass game coordinator, he won’t have to spend as much of his time directly installing weekly game plans.
Since the implementation of the CFL operations cap, it’s been commonplace for front office staff to hold multiple roles, and Dinwiddie has stated that a large part of the reason he came to the Redblacks was that he wanted the challenge of building the roster he’d be coaching. Still, three jobs for one person is ambitious by any standard.
