Yet another week early in the Canadian Football League season has come and gone, and it has complicated the power rankings, once again. It’s still early, so we don’t exactly know who the top teams are entirely, but we are starting to see who they might be. What was thought last week has changed in a lot of cases, and there’s a lot of movement in this week’s rankings. Here’s how our team of writers sees things after the third week of the CFL season.

9. Edmonton Elks (0-3)

There’s good news and there’s bad news for the Edmonton Elks. Starting with the good news, they certainly aren’t as bad as everyone feared they would be after the beatdown at the hands of the Lions in week one. The bad news, however? They still aren’t very good. The Elks are far improved from what they were in 2021, where they lost every home game and only won three games all season, but they don’t inspire much confidence to win more than a handful of games this season. Elks fans have been urged to be patient, and while there might not be too many wins or a playoff appearance this season (it could still come, you never know), they should, at the very least, be competitive.

8. Hamilton Tiger-Cats (0-3)

The current situation for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats isn’t a great one, and that’s quite obvious. Sitting at 0-3 is far from what the back-to-back East Division champions had envisioned. Letting Jeremiah Masoli and Brandon Banks leave in the offseason showed plenty of confidence in their young core of players, but it hasn’t worked out as they would have hoped to start the season. Dane Evans threw two more interceptions in Winnipeg in week three, although both of them hit receivers right in the hands, so there wasn’t much he really could have done. Early in the season, everything that could go wrong for Hamilton has gone wrong, but the positive note for them is they aren’t out of things, thanks to an underwhelming start by the rest of the East. It’s not time to panic, but if this continues, it’s going to get late quickly.

7. Toronto Argonauts (1-1)

The Toronto Argonauts might not be in the worst spot ever in the standings, but they are one shanked field goal away from being 0-2 this season. This seems like a team that could be spinning their wheels for the majority of the season already, with question marks at the quarterback spot and a defence that has been burned deep a handful of times. If McLeod Bethel-Thompson and the Argonauts’ offence can’t soon find a way to move the ball, there won’t be a lot of winning done by the boatmen. There’s plenty of time to figure things out, but with the Blue Bombers coming up in week four, they are in for one hell of a fight.

6. Ottawa Redblacks (0-2)

Sometimes a bye week this early in the season is a blessing, and sometimes, it can be a curse. For the Ottawa Redblacks, it certainly can’t be a bad thing. After starting the season 0-2 in back-to-back losses against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers where they beat themselves in new and creative ways, the bye week offered the still unfamiliar squad a chance to come together once again. There have been growing pains, but pundits around the league still think Ottawa is a good football team. The biggest thing to fix is obvious, and it’s their inability to finish drives in the red zone. They have the defence, they have the special teams (although they have underperformed in the first two games), and they have an offence that can move the ball up and down the field with regularity, so if they can find the endzone two or three times on any given night, they will be just fine.

5. Montreal Alouettes (1-2)

The Montreal Alouettes were the common pick to the be the wild card in the East Division, and it made a lot of sense. There was a bit of a quarterback controversy, their defence lost a lot of pieces in the backfield, but on paper, they still looked like they had a relatively competitive team, especially with William Stanback leading the running game. Flash forward three weeks, and a lot has changed in the bird’s nest. Trevor Harris has taken over the starting quarterback job, that defence is playing well and putting a lot of pressure on the quarterback, and they are doing it all without Stanback. In week three against Saskatchewan, a team that many thought should be number one in our rankings, the Alouettes put on a clinic, absolutely dominating the melon heads in every aspect of the game. The key now is finding a way to be consistent, but this team still has wildcard written all over them.

4. Saskatchewan Roughriders (2-1)

If you clicked this expecting the Saskatchewan Roughriders to get dunked on, you came to the wrong place. To keep things simple, the Riders weren’t good enough against the Alouettes, and frankly, they weren’t good enough against the Elks when they played in week two, either. It’s hard not to be concerned about their offensive line after losing Dan Clark, and it was evident that they have some work to do as the Alouettes sacked Riders’ quarterbacks eight times on the night. All of that being said, it is not time to push the panic button in Regina. There are things to fix, but with a 2-1 record to start the season, the Riders are still competitive, and they are hanging in there with the top of the division. That’s not to say there shouldn’t be any concern, because there should be, but it’s not time to talk about benching Cody Fajardo.

3. Calgary Stampeders (3-0)

The Calgary Stampeders are clearly the best version of themselves when Bo Levi Mitchell is playing like his old self. In the past two weeks, that’s what they have gotten, and they are off to a perfect start to the season. Going forward, however, they probably want to make their own lives a little bit easier and hold a lead going into halftime, but in the second half, they have been a great football team this season. In the second half of games, the Stampeders are outscoring their opponents 63-19, leading to a great deal of their success in the young campaign. It shows that they know how to win, and we have come to expect nothing else from this franchise.

2. BC Lions (2-0)

The concerns about the BC Lions that many had during the offseason were clearly wrong, and they have shown everyone that in a massive way. Through their first two games of the season, the Lions have outscored their opponents 103-18, a number that is almost completely unfathomable in the CFL. Their wins have come against the Edmonton Elks, who proved once again that they are far better than they were last season, and the Toronto Argonauts, who on paper, aren’t a bad football team by any stretch of the imagination. They came exceptionally close to snagging the top spot of the Bombers this week, but if they continue to play like this, it’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

1. Winnipeg Blue Bombers (3-0)

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have won all three of their games to start the season, but it wasn’t until week three against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats that they really looked like the better of the two teams. Offensively, there are concerns for the Blue Bombers. It really does seem like losing Andrew Harris has stalled out their running game, and not having Kenny Lawler around has forced them to look elsewhere when throwing the ball. Greg Ellingson has been a great addition, but with Nic Demski leaving the game with an ankle injury, the Bombers really have to hope that it’s nothing serious. The Bombers only scored one offensive touchdown, and their defence did the same. If there’s one glimmering beacon of positivity for the Blue Bombers, it’s that their defence has only allowed 43 points in three games.

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