On Saturday, at 4:00 the CFL’s Ottawa Redblacks will host the Toronto Argonauts at TD Place for what will be the Redblacks’ final home game of the 2021 CFL season. The game will also mark quarterback Devlin “Duck” Hodges’ first start of his CFL career. At 2-10, the Ottawa Redblacks have been eliminated from any playoff contention and are focused on the future of the organization.
Last week, OSEG’s Mark Goudie announced the parting ways of the Redblacks and long time general manager Marcel Desjardins, moving on to the future with both Jeremy Snyder and Jean-Marc Edmé now at the head of the front office. Since then, the front office have extended the contracts of fan favourite special teams stars DeVonte Dedmon, Richie Leone and Lewis Ward, beginning the long off-season ahead of them, but it isn’t quite the off-season yet. There are two games remaining on the Ottawa Redblacks’ 2021 CFL schedule, tomorrow’s against the Argonauts and one in Montreal on November 19th. The expectation from the two games is that the Redblacks begin to look at the young talent and the players they have signed for the 2022 CFL season, therefore they have the understanding of who the Ottawa Redblacks may look like come next season, and that will start against the Argonauts on Saturday. In the final home game of the 2021 CFL season, the Ottawa Redblacks plan to start quarterback Devlin Hodges, a 25 year old former Pittsburgh Steeler who is locked up for an additional two seasons in Ottawa. 23 year old rookie receiver Ryan Davis will stay in the lineup, with 50 catches for 546 yards and two scores this season he is a player to watch moving forward, as is Canadian receiver Nate Behar who has 422 yards to his name this year. On the defensive side of the ball, Redblacks fans should hear a lot about Brandin Dandridge, a 25 year old defensive back. He was in Ottawa in 2019 and made some plays later in the season, but this year, with a turnover in 4 of the 6 games played he has made quite the impact and should only continue on that route. 26 year old defensive back Ranthony Texada is to make his second start of the season alonsgide Dandridge on Saturday while other rookies and young CFL players Frankie Griffin, Tyron Vrede, Adam Auclair, Dan Basambombo, Treshaun Abrahams-Webster and Shaheed Salmon also find their way into the lineup on Saturday.
Coming back from injury, DeVonte Dedmon is expected to return kicks once again for the Ottawa Redblacks against the Toronto Argonauts, and with 1,648 return yards going into the weekend he looks to get in the endzone in front of the home crowd, to potentially solidify his spot as the CFL’s special teams player of the year.
Watch the Redblacks live at TD Place on Saturday or on television on TSN as they continue to improve for the future of the franchise.
JZ MEDIA 