Division place 1st, East | Record 8–9−1 | |
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The 2016 Ottawa Redblacks season was the third season for the team in the Canadian Football League. The Redblacks finished in 1st place in the East Division with a 8–9–1 record. This was the first time in CFL history that a team with a losing record finished first in their division.
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The club failed to match their 12–6 record from the previous season, nevertheless, with their week 19 win in Winnipeg against the Blue Bombers the Redblacks repeated as regular season East Division champions, earning a bye to and the right to host the 2016 East Final in the process.
The Redblacks' season featured the first-ever Grey Cup rematch to take place in an earlier round of the playoffs as the 2015 champion Edmonton Eskimos qualified as a crossover team for the East Division playoffs and advanced to the Eastern Final. The Redblacks avenged their 2015 Grey Cup loss with a 35-23 victory over Edmonton to earn the right to play in the 104th Grey Cup. At BMO Field Toronto, the Redblacks won the first championship for an Ottawa CFL team since the Rough Riders did it in 1976.
Open Tryout Sessions
On February 2, 2016, the Redblacks announced they would be holding open tryouts across North America during the spring. The dates and locations are listed in the table below:
Free-Agency
Prior to the start of free-agency at 12:00pm ET on February 9, 2016,the RedBlacks extended the contracts of some significant players. They brought back defensive lineman Zack Evans, wide-receiver Chris Williams and linebacker Damaso Munoz.
Additions
Losses
CFL Draft
The 2016 CFL Draft took place on May 10, 2016. The Redblacks had nine selections in the eight-round draft after acquiring Saskatchewan's sixth and seventh-round picks in exchange for Maurice Price and their own sixth-round pick.
Training Camp
Non-mandatory spring mini-camp was held on April 24–26 at TD Place stadium. The sessions were open for the public to view. Mandatory training camp took place between May 29 and through June 19. First-year CFL players had three practices prior to the official training camp (May 25 through 27). The majority of practices took place at TD Place Stadium, with two at Carleton University and one at Stade Mont-Bleu in Gatineau, Quebec. The team conducted a "mock-game" as part of their training camp on June 5. This was the first training camp season in which the Redblacks had priority at TD Place, as the stadium was under construction in 2014 and hosting the 2015 FIFA Women's World Cup last year.
# Games played with white uniforms. # Games played with colour uniforms. # Games played with white uniforms. # Games played with colour uniforms.Over 40,000 fans attended the Grey Cup parade at Lansdowne Park two days following the game.