You have some great points there. I particularly agree with these two.
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This reminds me of a conversation had in the Ticats topics earlier in the off-season where people were saying that you don’t have to develop QBs in the CFL because you can just sign them in free agency. The issue is that if everyone thinks this way then no one gets developed, and the teams that do develop the QBs don’t get to reap the benefits. So there’s almost a disincentive to spending resources to develop QBs in this league.
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The most FGs ever made in a single season was 2024 (423) followed by 2025 (407).
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Whats the average? What was it 20 years ago?
And 10-7. Was that first quarter?
If he means we need a higher operations cap, then maybe. Some want it gone altogether. If it’s higher then where would you take that extra money from? I think we need to find more money before we up the OP cap by stealing it from somewhere else.
The only meaningful reps that backups get now are when the starting QB gets hurt. The league wants to eliminate QB hits so where does that leave us?
You’re correct! It’s about 40% in the NFL (71 conversions on 113 attempts out of 279 such scenarios in 2024) and about 28% in the CFL (29 conversions on 39 attempts out of 138 such scenarios in 2024).
So the CFL converts at a higher rate but attempts at a lower rate. I attribute this mostly to old-school coaching. Decision-making in the CFL tends to be suboptimal in the service of “safety”, exposing as little risk as possible even if rewards are expected to be greater from a riskier strategy.
We don’t need the rule changes to make the play-calling more risky with more 3rd down attempts since that is already the optimal strategy, it just isn’t used because a bad run of luck gets a coach fired. It hasn’t been that long in the NFL that teams actually used their 4th downs to try to get a first down and extend possessions (39 conversions on 61 attempts in 324 4th and 2s in 2015, for a similar conversion rate as in 2024 on a much lower attempt rate), it has taken a few successful data-using coaches to drag the NFL into better strategy, and this could happen in the CFL, but I don’t think the rule changes will lead to more 3rd and medium-short attempts, because if it would, then teams would already be going for it a lot.
Similar logic can be used to argue that a 2 point conversion attempt (since it was moved to the 3) should be the default choice, with the 1 point conversion only used when the score demands it, but the opposite happens in reality.
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I broke down 2025 regular season. Someone else can do 20 years ago because it’s too time consuming.
Halftime leads
1-7 pt lead winning team was 24-13
8-14 pt lead winning team was 21-3
15-21 pt lead winning team was 16-0
22-28 pt lead winning team was 2-0
2 tied at halftime
24 entertaining games (both teams scored at least 10 points and the lead was 8 or less pts) at halftime
Average score at halftime: 17.48 to 8.32
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Very good info. And I would agree the NFL has more progressive and risk tolerant coaches.
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NFL. At 55% succesful (two Point) conversion rate in 2024 it made sense to go for it. You are points ahead. At 41% conversion rate in 2025 i have to wonder what that means in 2026. Guess we’ll see just how progressive and risk tolerant they are.
CFL made fewer attempts but had a higher success rate. Small league mind you and i know that the Riders made far more attempts than they usually do. Often early in the game. In any case one team can have a big impact on the percentages here.
I suggest it is a trend thing and that coaches play to success rates. Doesn’t matter if it’s third or fouth and two or a two point conversion.
Question for some of you longer timers here: is there a thread for general on or off season discussion?
I see the CFL Discussion Non Ti-cat thread, which I take to be a discussion anyone can contribute to but is mostly Ti cat fans and related? Believe it or not I’m just trying not to offend anyone by posting in the wrong group!
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I was more curious as to how much FG attempts and conversions have changed over the past couple decades. Has it really increased significantly or is it just a case of a couple more per team over the season? Even four per team over the season is 36 more attempts. One every four games or so is peanuts and knit picking.
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I don’t think there is an official off season thread. Just ones per relevant topics as they’re made.
I’ve posted in the Ti-Cats forum before and have lived to tell about it 
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Helps when you have a Tommy Stevens.
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Thanks Mighty!
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Don’t have the stats for that but the unofficial numbers in 2016 396 field goals were made with 479 attempts (82.67%) 335 convert attempts.
2025 407 fg made 480 attempts (84.79%) 366 convert attempts.
Field goal attempts are basically the same. There were more TD’s in 2025.
However, I don’t think the CFL is concerned with the on field product despite the 60 more TD’s speech
I think they are more concerned with this.
VS
CFL regular season television ratings down six percent in 2024 on TSN - 3DownNation.
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Agreed that this is the primary force behind the changes. They are shaking things up due to perceptions that can’t be justified. One more FG per team over the season in the past ten years? Will admit that they did say they wanted to reduce FGs rather than state it was getting out of hand which is more of an audience belief.
I wouldn’t say that they can’t justify it. I would say that they aren’t willing to say that the hype around the NFL and the NFL becoming more of a passing league has created more Canadian fans. They aren’t willing to say that the marketing that they are doing can’t compete against the NFL marketing because they don’t have the funds.
Most people here are familiar with the way the CFL has fumbled the ball in the past.
- Blacking out home games on TV vs NFL being available on TV
- CFL terrible or no video game at all vs NFL Madden being played by most kids.
There are other things but I don’t want to make a long list.
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The NFL learned early on that TV is free advertising for your product.
Likewise, I’ve never followed hockey. I wanted to, but the Blackhawks were never on broadcast TV and my family couldn’t afford cable.
Guess which sport I follow now, as an adult with disposable income?
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I posted this yesterday in the NFL Talk section…
Getting on the TV and marketing the NFL as an experience is what got them to where they are now. The rules do matter but not nearly as much as creating the hype around it.
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