The Edmonton Elks have signed American defenseman JJ Ross to a contract extension through the 2027 CFL season.
Ross was already under contract through the 2026 league season with three losses and added another year to his existing contract.
The six-foot-three, 195-pound man began the 2025 regular season on Edmonton's practice squad. He became the starter for Week 8 against the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
The 24-year-old started 13 games for the Green and Gold, registering 52 defensive tackles, three interceptions, two forced fumbles and one fumble recovery. In the final six games of last season, he committed five turnovers and recorded all seven of his passes as knockdowns during that stretch.
Ross originally joined the Elks in July 2024. He spent some time on the team's practice squad and made his CFL debut on August 25 in a Week 12 matchup against Montreal.
Prior to his time in the CFL, Ross played for Western Illinois University.
Edmonton finished fifth in the West Division standings in 2025 with a 7–11 record, missing the playoffs for the fifth straight season. Cody Fajardo started the team's final 13 regular-season games and went 6-7, throwing for 3,408 yards, 14 touchdowns and seven interceptions. Tre Ford started the top five with a 1-4 record and threw for 984 yards with five touchdowns and three interceptions.
The Moose ranked ninth in net offense, ninth in net defense and fifth with a plus-four turnover margin. The team's leading rusher was Justin Rankin with 1,013 yards, the leading receiver was Kion Julien-Grant with 820 yards, and the leading tackler was Joel Dublanco with 80 tackles. Edmonton ranked seventh in attendance with an average attendance of 19,050, down 7.1 per cent from the previous year.
