Tyson Philpot is a pending free agent, and while the budding star enjoys playing for the Montreal Alouettes, the team will have to make a financially competitive offer if they hope to retain his services in 2026 and beyond.
“What I've learned from veterans who come in as new guys is, 'Make sure you're worthy.' The football match doesn't last long. I'm coming into my prime – snap my fingers and I'm already in my fourth year – it's surreal for me. (The status of my contract), to be honest, I'm not the focus right now. This whole year, me and (general manager) Danny (Macchiocia) have been really good, like, 'Let's put this aside.' We knew where we would be at the end of the year, and we knew that everything would work itself out. I’d like to establish myself as an elite receiver and get paid like that, but at the end of the day, we’ll win this weekend and then we’ll figure it out,” Philpot said. 3DownNation.
“I love what this city brings, the way they've accepted me the last four years. I really feel like I'm from Montreal, like all the fans know me. I can ride the subway and they know who I am. It's something that growing up in British Columbia, I never really (experienced). Obviously, Hero (Simon) and those big guys (were well known), but I never got to experience anything like that, so to see it is like, 'Why would I ever want to leave a place like this? “My heart belongs to Montreal, but (their financial proposal) has to make sense.”
The 25-year-old Delta, British Columbia native has caught 61 passes for 804 yards and five touchdowns this season, the first two of which were career highs. Philpot has yet to have a 1,000-yard season, although he has only played 21 regular-season games the past two years due to injury. Based on his per-game stats since 2024, he has just over 1,350 yards per season.
Philpot lit up the Roughriders in September, catching nine passes for 238 yards and two touchdowns, leading the Alouettes to a 48-31 upset win at Mosaic Stadium. Saskatchewan was without both starting defensemen in that game, although both have since returned to the lineup and will start in the Gray Cup.
“After the game (against Saskatchewan), all I heard was, 'You went against their backups,'” Philpot said. “I can’t wait to take on this challenge, going head-to-head with Tevon Campbell and Marcus Sayles (on Sunday).”
The five-foot-eleven, 190-pound target saw most experts pick the Roughriders to win the Gray Cup on Sunday, a similar story when the Alouettes lost to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in 2023. Philpot caught the game-winning touchdown in that contest, earning Canada's most valuable Gray Cup award.
Even after finishing first in 2024 and back-to-back playoff victories over the Blue Bombers and Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the last two weeks, Philpot is still not surprised his team is being ignored by fans and the media.
“People just sleep on us. They see all the shiny toys out there in Saskatchewan, the big names and stuff like that, that's what gets the attention, but our mindset as a team is that we want everything to be a challenge,” Philpot said.
“We perform weekly tasks under the guidance of Coach Maas, and every time we find some difficulties, our motto is “good.” Are you challenging us? Fine. Did you all pick Saskatchewan to win? Fine. This is what we strive for as a team and we want it to be challenging, so honestly when we saw it (the experts picked Roughriders) we loved it. We got together and said we love this team.”
“We understand that nothing will be given to you, nothing will be easy, so you want to make it difficult. We will accept this challenge.”
Philpot's twin brother, Jalen, remains under contract with the Calgary Stampeders through 2026, which could lead to speculation that they will try to play together in Cowtown. The brothers played together at the University of Calgary, and other prominent CFL twins Tre and Tyrell Ford reunited with the Edmonton Elks earlier this year.
While Tyson is more open to playing with his brother than ever before, it seems like he'd rather bring Jalen to Montreal than the other way around.
“I wouldn't say it's a top priority for us (to play together). Our first motto was, 'No, we don't want to play together, we want to be as far away from each other as possible and we want to make a name for each other.' Now we're heading into our fourth year — and I'm saying this, not him — I haven't seen him win a playoff game yet. I haven't seen him make it to the big game, and I want that for him so bad,” Philpot said.
“I want him to have the experience (of getting to the Gray Cup), so I'll do everything I can to recruit him here while I'm here too. I still wouldn't say it's a priority, but I'd love to play with him, I'd love to have him in the big game and I'd love for him to lift that trophy with me.”
The Saskatchewan Roughriders (13-6) and Montreal Alouettes (12-8) will meet in the 112th Gray Cup at Princess Auto Stadium in Winnipeg on Sunday, November 16, with kickoff scheduled for 6:00 pm EST.
The Alouettes defeated the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in the Eastern final by a score of 19-16.Bye The Roughriders came back to defeat the BC Lions in the Western final, 24-21.. The teams split their two regular-season meetings, although Montreal quarterback Davis Alexander missed both games with a hamstring injury.
The weather forecast for Winnipeg calls for a high of two degrees, sun and clouds. The game will be broadcast on TSN, CTV and RDS in Canada, CBS Sports Network in the US and CFL+ worldwide.
This is the fifth time the Gray Cup will be held in Winnipeg and the second time it will be held at Princess Auto Stadium. The stadium's first Gray Cup was held in 2015, when the Edmonton football team defeated the Ottawa Redblacks 26–20 and Michael Reilly was named the game's MVP.
