2019 Hamilton Tiger-Cats season

2019 Hamilton Tiger-Cats season
General manager	Drew Allemang and Shawn Burke
Head coach	Orlondo Steinauer
Home field	Tim Hortons Field
Results
Record	15–3
Division place	1st, East
Playoff finish	Lost Grey Cup
Team MOP	Brandon Banks
Team MOC	Brandon Revenberg
Team MOR	Jaelon Acklin
Uniform
←  2018 Tiger-Cats seasons 2020  →

The 2019 Hamilton Tiger-Cats season was the 62nd season for the team in the Canadian Football League and their 70th overall. It was the 150th year overall in the combined history of the Tiger-Cats and its predecessors the Wildcats and Tigers; the team held sesquicentennial celebrations throughout the season.

The Tiger-Cats improved upon their 8–10 record from 2018 and finished the 2019 regular season with a franchise best 15–3 record. They finished in first place for the first time since 2014 and attempted unsuccessfully to win their ninth Grey Cup championship. This is the first season under co-general managers Drew Allemang and Shawn Burke, and the first full season under head coach Orlondo Steinauer. It was announced on December 3, 2018 that Steinauer would take the reins as the Tiger-Cats' head coach, replacing June Jones in that capacity. The plan was for Jones to remain with the team as an associate head coach and offensive coordinator, but he resigned with the club and joined the Houston Roughnecks of the XFL as head coach. ^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

On October 19, 2019, the Tiger-Cats defeated the Ottawa Redblacks and recorded a franchise-record 13th win in a season. ^[5] The team finished the season with 15 wins and with a perfect home record for the first time since the CFL went to an 18-game schedule, winning all nine home games. Despite their success during the regular season, they lost to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, a team that had a dominant performance during the 107th Grey Cup game. With the Blue Bombers ending a 29-year Grey Cup drought, the Hamilton Tiger-Cats now hold the longest active Grey Cup drought dating back to the 1999 season, having won the 87th Grey Cup that season.

Offseason

Foreign drafts

For the first time in its history, the CFL held drafts for foreign players from Mexico and Europe. ^[6] Like all other CFL teams, the Tiger-Cats held three non-tradeable selections in the 2019 CFL–LFA Draft, which took place on January 14, 2019. The 2019 European CFL Draft took place on April 11, 2019 where all teams held one non-tradeable pick. ^{[7] [8] [9]}

Draft	Round	Pick	Player	Position	School/Club Team
LFA	1	5	José Noriega	WR	Artilleros de Puebla
	2	14	Omar Cojolum	RB	Mayas CDMX
	3	23	Luis López	RB	Condors CDMX
Euro	1	1	Valentin Gnahoua	DL	Berlin Rebels

CFL draft

The 2019 CFL Draft took place on May 2, 2019. ^[10] The Tiger-Cats held eight selections in the eight-round draft, including three picks within the first 11 overall selections after trading Ryan Bomben and Jamal Robinson to the Montreal Alouettes. ^[11]

Round	Pick	Player	Position	School	Hometown
1	2	Jesse Gibbon	OL	Waterloo	Hamilton, ON
2	10	Nikola Kalinic	WR	York	Toronto, ON
2	11	David Ungerer	WR	Idaho	Pullman, WA
3	22	Maleek Irons	RB	Ohio	Calgary, AB
3	24	Sheridan Lawley	DL	British Columbia	Abbotsford, BC
7	58	Derek Dufault	DL	Manitoba	Winnipeg, MB
8	65	Malcolm Campbell	DL	Toronto	Mississauga, ON
8	67	Gordon Whyte	LB	St. Francis Xavier	Toronto, ON

Preseason

Schedule

Week	Game	Date	Kickoff	Opponent	Results		TV	Venue	Attendance	Summary
					Score	Record
A	Bye
B	1	Sat, June 1	7:00 p.m. EDT	@ Ottawa Redblacks	W 25–21	1–0	TSN	TD Place Stadium	22,318	Recap
C	2	Thu, June 6	7:30 p.m. EDT	Toronto Argonauts	L 30–23	1–1	Ticats.ca	Tim Hortons Field	NA	Recap

^{[12] [13]}

Regular season

Season standings

East Division view talk edit
Team	GP	W	L	T	Pts	PF	PA	Div	Stk
Hamilton Tiger-Cats	18	15	3	0	30	551	344	7–1	W6	Details
Montreal Alouettes	18	10	8	0	20	479	485	5–3	W1	Details
Toronto Argonauts	18	4	14	0	8	373	562	3–5	L1	Details
Ottawa Redblacks	18	3	15	0	6	312	564	1–7	L11	Details

Season schedule

To accommodate for the viewership of the Toronto Raptors' 9pm EDT NBA Finals Game 6 start time on June 13, the CFL moved up the start time of the league opener that same day from 7:30pm to 7:00pm. ^[14]

Week	Game	Date	Kickoff	Opponent	Results		TV	Venue	Attendance	Summary
					Score	Record
1	1	Thu, June 13	7:00 p.m. EDT	Saskatchewan Roughriders	W 23–17	1–0	TSN/RDS	Tim Hortons Field	22,287	Recap
2	2	Sat, June 22	4:00 p.m. EDT	@ Toronto Argonauts	W 64–14	2–0	TSN/RDS	BMO Field	16,374	Recap
3	3	Fri, June 28	7:30 p.m. EDT	Montreal Alouettes	W 41–10	3–0	TSN/RDS/ESPN2	Tim Hortons Field	22,407	Recap
4	4	Thu, July 4	7:30 p.m. EDT	@ Montreal Alouettes	L 29–36	3–1	TSN/RDS	Molson Stadium	18,673	Recap
5	5	Sat, July 13	7:00 p.m. EDT	Calgary Stampeders	W 30–23	4–1	TSN/ESPN2	Tim Hortons Field	22,921	Recap
6	Bye
7	6	Fri, July 26	7:00 p.m. EDT	Winnipeg Blue Bombers	W 23–15	5–1	TSN/RDS	Tim Hortons Field	23,512	Recap
8	7	Thu, Aug 1	9:30 p.m. EDT	@ Saskatchewan Roughriders	L 19–24	5–2	TSN	Mosaic Stadium	29,516	Recap
9	8	Sat, Aug 10	7:00 p.m. EDT	BC Lions	W 35–34	6–2	TSN/RDS	Tim Hortons Field	23,308	Recap
10	9	Sat, Aug 17	4:00 p.m. EDT	@ Ottawa Redblacks	W 21–7	7–2	TSN/RDS2	TD Place Stadium	23,214	Recap
11	10	Sat, Aug 24	10:00 p.m. EDT	@ BC Lions	W 13–10	8–2	TSN	BC Place	16,751	Recap
12	11	Mon, Sept 2	1:00 p.m. EDT	Toronto Argonauts	W 38–27	9–2	TSN	Tim Hortons Field	25,093	Recap
13	Bye
14	12	Sat, Sept 14	4:00 p.m. EDT	@ Calgary Stampeders	L 18–19	9–3	TSN	McMahon Stadium	27,962	Recap
15	13	Fri, Sept 20	9:30 p.m. EDT	@ Edmonton Eskimos	W 30–27	10–3	TSN	Commonwealth Stadium	25,694	Recap
16	14	Fri, Sept 27	8:30 p.m. EDT	@ Winnipeg Blue Bombers	W 33–13	11–3	TSN/RDS2	IG Field	25,086	Recap
17	15	Fri, Oct 4	7:00 p.m. EDT	Edmonton Eskimos	W 42–12	12–3	TSN/ESPN2	Tim Hortons Field	23,411	Recap
18	Bye
19	16	Sat, Oct 19	4:00 p.m. EDT	Ottawa Redblacks	W 33–12	13–3	TSN/RDS2	Tim Hortons Field	23,692	Recap
20	17	Sat, Oct 26	1:00 p.m. EDT	@ Montreal Alouettes	W 38–26	14–3	TSN/RDS	Molson Stadium	17,264	Recap
21	18	Sat, Nov 2	7:00 p.m. EDT	Toronto Argonauts	W 21–18	15–3	TSN	Tim Hortons Field	22,804	Recap

^{[12] [15]}

Post-season

Schedule

Game	Date	Kickoff	Opponent	Results		TV	Venue	Attendance	Summary
				Score	Record
East Semi-Final	Bye
East Final	Sun, Nov 17	1:00 p.m. EST	Edmonton Eskimos	W 36–16	1–0	TSN/RDS/ESPNews	Tim Hortons Field	25,177	Recap
107th Grey Cup	Sun, Nov 24	6:00 p.m. EST	Winnipeg Blue Bombers	L 12–33	1–1	TSN/RDS/ESPN2	McMahon Stadium	35,439	Recap

^[12]

Team

Roster

Hamilton Tiger-Cats roster
Quarterbacks  9 Dane Evans  3 Hayden Moore  6 David Watford Running backs 29 Jackson Bennett 20 Maleek Irons 84 Nikola Kalinic FB 19 Tyrell Sutton Receivers 80 Jaelon Acklin 86 Bralon Addison 16 Brandon Banks WR/KR  1 Anthony Coombs SB/RB 89 Brian Jones 12 Mike Jones 17 Luke Tasker 15 Marcus Tucker Offensive linemen 60 Darius Ciraco RG 51 Mike Filer C 67 Jesse Gibbon 61 Ryker Mathews LT 59 Kay Okafor 57 Brandon Revenberg LG 54 Chris Van Zeyl RT		Defensive linemen 56 Ja'Gared Davis DE 99 David Dean 77 Valentin Gnahoua 95 Julian Howsare DE 97 Ted Laurent DT 94 Lorenzo Mauldin 93 Connor McGough 58 Brett Wade 98 Dylan Wynn DT Linebackers 28 Tyrice Beverette 30 Jay Langa 21 Simoni Lawrence 44 Curtis Newton 22 Justin Tuggle Defensive backs  2 Tunde Adeleke 24 Delvin Breaux 26 Cariel Brooks 35 Mike Daly  4 Richard Leonard  0 Rico Murray 25 Jumal Rolle 37 Frankie Williams DB/KR Special teams 52 Aaron Crawford LS 70 Lirim Hajrullahu P/K		1-game injured list 27 Cameron Marshall RB  7 Jalin Marshall WR 32 Tevin Mitchel DB 36 Jordan Moore LB 23 Nicholas Shortill LB 66 Trevon Tate OL 83 David Ungerer WR 6-game injured list 33 Chris Frey LB 69 Mathieu Girard OL  8 Jeremiah Masoli QB 31 Sean Thomas Erlington RB  5 Adrian Tracy DE 55 Jamaal Westerman DE		Practice roster 14 Gabriel Amavizca K 13 Maurice Carnell DB 34 Koron Crump LB 18 Marcus Davis WR 65 Brett Golding OL 40 Lucas Korol LB 53 Sheriden Lawley DL 41 William Likely DB/KR 85 Justin Sumpter WR 50 Joel Van Pelt OL Suspended 62 Demetrius Rhaney OL Italics indicate American player Bold indicates global player Roster updated 2019-11-23 Depth Chart • Transactions 46 Roster, 13 Injured, 10 Practice, 1 Suspended → More rosters

Coaching staff

Hamilton Tiger-Cats Staff
	Front office Caretaker – Bob Young Chief executive officer – Scott Mitchell President and chief operating officer – Matt Afinec Sr. Director of Personnel & Co-Manager of Football Operations – Drew Allemang Sr. Director of Personnel & Co-Manager of Football Operations – Shawn Burke Director of U.S. Scouting – Spencer Zimmerman Football operations consultant – Jim Barker Coordinator, U.S. Scouting – Rich Massaro Coordinator, Canadian Scouting – Spencer Boehm Video co-ordinator – Matt Allemang Head coach Head coach – Orlondo Steinauer Offensive coaches Offensive Coordinator & Wide Receivers – Tommy Condell Offensive line – Dennis McKnight Running backs – D. J. Harper Assistant Wide Receivers & Offensive Quality Control – Jarryd Baines			Defensive coaches Defensive Coordinator & Defensive Backs – Mark Washington Defensive line – Randy Melvin Linebackers – Robin Ross Defensive backs assistant – Craig Butler Special teams coaches Special teams coordinator – Jeff Reinebold Special teams assistant – Craig Butler → Coaching Staff → More CFL staffs

References

1. "Ticats officially name Orlondo Steinauer head coach - CFL.ca". CFL.ca. 2018-12-03. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
2. "Decision to step aside for Steinauer a 'pretty quick, easy' one for Jones - CFL.ca". CFL.ca. 2018-12-03. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
3. "O'Leary: No choice but to think long term with Steinauer - CFL.ca". CFL.ca. 2018-12-03. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
4. "June Jones named XFL Houston club's coach/GM". ESPN.com. May 20, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2019.
5. Zamperin, Rick. "Lucky 13 as Tiger-Cats rout Redblacks for franchise record win total". Global News. Retrieved 20 October 2019.
6. Dan Barnes (January 11, 2019). "'FUN ELEMENT': CFL set for inaugural draft of Mexican talent".
7. "Mexico's top talent selected at CFL-LFA Draft". cfl.ca. January 14, 2019.
8. "CFL to hold European lottery and draft in April". 3downnation.com. April 3, 2019.
9. "Full results from the first ever European draft". cfl.ca. April 11, 2019.
10. "Recapping the 2019 CFL Draft". cfl.ca. May 2, 2019.
11. Ticats acquire first overall pick in major trade with Als
12. 2019 Schedule
13. CFL on TSN broadcast schedule
14. "CFL moves season opener kickoff time up a half hour". June 11, 2019.
15. CFL schedule through October 2019