Photo courtesy: Edmonton Elks

It’s a new salary cap era in the Canadian Football League, and nobody is reaping the benefits more than the Edmonton Elks’ offensive line.

As it currently stands, the team’s top seven blockers are slated to earn more than $1.4 million in hard money in 2026 and could account for over one-fifth of their salary expenditure cap, depending on which players earn their incentives.

However, general manager Ed Hervey recently indicated he doesn’t intend to trim any fat from that group ahead of opening day.

“Our cap situation, with the players that we have, is going to fit,” he insisted from the CFL Combine in Edmonton.

“Maybe there’s a couple of conversations that we had as far as changing the roles on our football team. Our situation at centre, we’re going to have a very stiff competition there. But as far as moving on from guys, no, I think we’re in a good place. We want to go into year two (of our regime) with as much experience as possible.”

The Elks touted significant improvements to their offensive line following CFL free agency, when the team went out and acquired three key pieces from a Hamilton Tiger-Cats unit that many considered the best in the league last season. Hervey shelled out $300,000 in hard money to make Coulter Woodmansey the highest-paid offensive lineman in the salary cap era, then lured over American tackles Brendan Bordner and Jordan Murray at no small cost.

Given the Canadian veterans that Edmonton already had in-house, it was speculated that Bordner and Murray might be forced to live out a Groundhog Day-type scenario and battle for the same left tackle job in training camp, just as they had all last season with the Ticats. It would now seem that isn’t the case, as the Green and Gold have explicitly stated their intention to start both American bookends — for now, at least.

“We’ve discussed it as left and right: Bordner on the left, Murray on the right,” Hervey revealed. “The fact that they have the ability to play both sides, there’s going to be an opportunity for a young offensive lineman to come in here and compete. Brett Boyko’s still in the mix there as well. There are opportunities for guys. We’re going to have a competitive camp.”

Right tackle has been a ratio spot for the Elks since 2023 with the 33-year-old Boyko holding down the fort at that position. After his quality of play dipped precipitously last season, it’s hardly surprising that the team would look for alternatives. However, theories abounded that Carter O’Donnell, who returned north from the NFL midway through last season, could kick outside and keep the spot Canadian.

Hervey firmly dismissed that as a possibility in all but emergency circumstances, preferring to deploy O’Donnell as an elite guard rather than test him out as a mid-tier tackle.

“We feel Carter is one of our best interior linemen, probably our best o-lineman. We’ve discussed at length: is he best-served to play one position for us?” Hervey explained. “We know he has the ability to be a swing tackle for us if we needed him to be in-game, but as far as the competition is concerned, we made a concerted effort to address the tackle positions with full-time guys there. We want Carter to get used to it. This will be his first full season in the CFL, so we want to get him comfortable at a position as well.”

With the two Americans pencilled-in at tackle and O’Donnell cemented in at one guard spot, that creates considerable intrigue for the remaining two starting jobs. Given his high price tag, Woodmansey would presumably occupy one of them. He played centre in 2025 in Hamilton, but may be best-suited at guard due to his inconsistent snapping. That leaves Mark Korte and David Beard battling it out for the final position.

Remarkably, it was just two years ago that both players were named CFL all-stars at centre, with Beard representing the East Division and Korte as the West Division selection. After struggling to protect the quarterback together for much of last season, neither player can take their starting job for granted any longer.

“First and foremost, we need to be more consistent up front. I think Ed and his crew did a great job of addressing areas that we wanted to improve. We wanted to try to make it more competitive in training camp, and we accomplished that. Good offensive play starts up front, and that’s what we tried to address,” head coach Mark Kilam shared.

“It’s been communicated to all the players. They need to show up mentally and physically ready to compete, and that’s across the football team. I think you bring in as many good players as you can, and you make every position group as competitive as you can, and you let the players sort it out. That’s an exciting position to be in.”

Beard earned the All-CFL title in 2024 and is slightly more affordable than Korte, being owed $197,000 in hard money compared to $220,000. Neither player has any playtime incentives in their contract, however, which means there are no cost savings unless the Elks are planning to cut one of the two, which Hervey indicated is not the case.

Adding in Boyko’s veteran deal at $162,000 in hard money, and Edmonton’s projected sixth and seventh offensive linemen could be paid as much as some top-tier CFL starters. The team did save some money through the release of incumbent left tackle Martez Ivey in February, but they’ve more than replaced that expenditure.

While it may be a unique deployment of resources, the Elks are willing to spend whatever it takes to make their trenches a strength again.

“We had concerns there. We addressed them. Our investment is to ensure that the offensive line gets resolved before we go any further,” Hervey said. “That’s the commitment that’s being made, and those players understand that. They know that you can’t win if you can’t protect the quarterback and run the football, and you’ve got to control the line of scrimmage. I don’t look at that as we’re over-spent there. I see it as an investment to see the future of this football team get better. Until that is resolved, we’ll continue to pump money there until we find a solution.”

The Elks hold the third overall pick in the 2026 CFL Draft, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 28 at 7:00 p.m. EDT. All CFL training camps are scheduled to open on May 10. Edmonton will play its first preseason game against the B.C. Lions on Saturday, May 23 and their first regular-season game against the Ottawa Redblacks on Saturday, June 6.

In 2025, Edmonton finished fifth in the West Division standings with a 7-11 record, missing the playoffs for the fifth straight season.

J.C. Abbott is a University of British Columbia graduate and high school football coach. He covers the CFL, B.C. Lions, CFL Draft and the three-down league’s Global initiative.