EDMONTON — The Edmonton Elks have released veteran kicker Boris Bede, the club announced Tuesday.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.cfl.ca/2025/01/28/elks-release-veteran-kicker-boris-bede
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.cfl.ca/2025/01/28/elks-release-veteran-kicker-boris-bede
They’ll never make me hate you Boris Bede 
The Kickoff King! All he needs is a chance + I’m sure he’ll bounce back to 2023 form.
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I am sure Glad Rene Parades is committed to the Stamps for at least another year. Bede was OK but certainly would never be a Parades replacement. Maybe Sask or Winnipeg will pick him up
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You never know. The Riders let Lauther figure it out last year no reason Boris can’t.
Commonwealth is in no way the easiest place to kick the football. Even Julien learned about not kicking toward the west sidelines in a west wind. There’s a vortex there that will push the ball OB on that side of the field unless you kick it low.
Good luck in your future Mr. Bede.
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In my opinion, the only team looking to shore up the kicking room is going to be Saskatchewan, and that heavily depends on if they think the first half of Lauther’s season is a fluke or not. He did finish the regular season going 28/29 (97%) with his only miss coming from 60 yards out.
I don’t think Winnipeg is looking to move on from Castillo after his multi-record-breaking season.
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Winnipeg won’t take him just for punting and kickoffs. They already have the best placekicker in the league.
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B B did not have a good year kicking. But Elks don’t have proven kickers under contract. Is it a contract dump? The loss of punter J J is huge, really huge. GM Ed has a big job to get replacements, and not a lot of readily available talent.
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Replacements are already under contract:
When the EE signed Fair the dye was cast. Fair will be the FG Kicker and Blanchard will be the punter.
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You’re closer to the Elks than I am. I’m beginning to wonder why Morgan hasn’t been signed yet. IMO he’s one of the top MLB’s in the league & obviously his ranking on this site @ #3 on the top 40 FA Defensive players, #2 LB behind McManus, confirms that.
I still think they have to sign him BUT the Elks are LOADED with young talent at that position. They dropped Jones because Anderson was so good. They drafted Dublanko @ #1 who some have mentioned in the same breath as Singleton. MIchael Brodrique was drafted #2 in 2023 - a consensus first round pick. Is it possible that Nyles Morgan, still just 28, won’t be in Edmonton this year. New coaching staff, the DC is a former VG LB himself - do they save the $$ & are using it elsewhere? Any thoughts??
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Yesterday on the radio I heard his name prononced “bidet”. 
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I have no clue what the Elks have been doing. They dumped MBT, Bede, haven’t resigned Lewis, have reupped Ford (additional $100k, Leake (not sure what they added to his paycheck) and the long snapper Burton-Krahn.
It would seem to me we have guys who are top rated drat picks havent really played much. Both Broderique and Dublanko havent played in the regular season besides on Teams.
Which scares me when it comes to Morgan. Add to that it’s really likely Moncrief is gone. Replacing 2 of 3 linebackers with rookies scares me. It’s too easy for OC’s to throw wrinkles at them that make life difficult. Where I think teaming Dublanko and Morgan for a season would help a whole lot.
Add to that they want to make changes on the back end - so new linebackers, safety and DB’s could be scary - and with a rookie DC.
Sherrit will have his hands full and won’t be able to spend a ton of time in game coaching the linebackers up so having a veteran MLB would be useful.
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It would be nice to have Morgan and Moncrief back this year. Oh well, looks like we’re starting over from scratch yet again.
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Agree. IMO it makes perfect sense to have Dublanko learn behind Morgan for another year & then make a decision. I thought Morgan would be one of the 1st guys to lock up - with him still not signed it makes me wonder.
From the outside looking in, IMO the young DB’s played pretty well down the stretch - especially Bynum, when he settled, & Jackson. If they signed, say, Tyrell, with Gray, Bratton, Bynum & Jackson I kinda like that core. Jackson played some safety last year. The DL needs some help. Having Maxie back IMO will help there.
But, yeah, overall I don’t think anyone in Edmonton wants to see what looks like a massive rebuild again.
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I don’t think I can sit through another one😡
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I think Als can’t keep Maltos and Cote. Maltos will win the job and Cote will end up with Edm.
The advantage of Morgan, is he has been in Edm for 4 years already and soon could be a Naturalized. At the right price, for the Elks, he is a big positive.
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I think it’s more likely that Cote will stick around on the Montreal PS. They know first hand how important it is to have a semi-reliable kicker around if your guy goes down with an injury.
If you’re replacing Bede because of how inconsistent he is, I’m not sure replacing him with Cote is the right way to go.
Far more likely that Campbell Fair will finally get his chance at being a CFL kicker. Kilam drafted him when he was the ST Coach in Calgary all those years ago and brought him back as one of his first roster moves as the Elks HC. He’s been perfect in the 2 preseason’s that he has played in (8/8 on FG and 4/4 on Converts) and deserves a chance imo.
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Thanks for your insight. I guess Fair will battle it out with Faithfull. Not going to lie that is a scary scenario. Another option is bring in Ty Long for a tryout. He can do double duty if Julien sticks with the Bucs.
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Faithfull is actually already off the roster if my notes are correct. He ended the season on the PS and did not re-sign with the team.
As of right now, the Elks have Campbell Fair and Vincent Blanchard on the roster. In my opinion, they should reach out to Michael Domagala and bring him in to compete.
As for the punter, I think there is a strong possibility that Cody Grace does not re-sign with Calgary and ends up following his old ST coach to Edmonton to punt for the Elks.
I think Ty Long has fully switched over to coaching at this point in his career, however, every so often he shows up in some specialist showcase, so I wouldn’t rule him out. Speaking of specialist showcases, the CFL Special Showcase held by NFL kicker Nick Novak is happening on Feb 9th with 25 Canadian/Global kickers and punters playing in front of CFL scouts so there is always a possibility to find a diamond in the rough.
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Can’t see SK picking him up – least I hope not. Lauther’s been a Rider 6 years and has 2 years remaining on a 3-year deal. Can’t recall a season where he didn’t have a 1 or 2 game slump, but he’s always gotten back on track. Plus he’s pretty active in the community.
I doubt SK wants him constantly looking over his shoulder.
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