Dave Dickenson not ready to assess ‘weird year’ before Calgary Stampeders’ playoff fate decided

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The 2026 Calgary Stampeders are Schrödinger’s football team, and head coach Dave Dickenson is not ready to deliver a verdict on their season until the proverbial playoff box is opened next week.

“Can’t really go there, because I don’t know where the year’s at,” Dickenson told the media after Saturday’s regular-season finale. “I know for a fact this year is different, and we did feel like we left some games out there. What it does show me is that a win in Week 2 is just as important as a win in Week 18. As a coach, as a player, each week has to really matter, and you gotta be sharp.”

The Stamps were sharp in Week 20, delivering a 32-13 victory over the B.C. Lions. The result pushed the team to 9-9 on the season and kept them alive in the playoff race for at least another week, though they don’t control their own destiny.

Through an unfortunate quirk of the CFL schedule, the Stampeders will spend the final week of the season on a bye. Players will return to town for a light practice session next Friday, before watching their postseason fate get decided for them that night when Winnipeg visits B.C. The result of that game will determine whether they’ll be lacing up the cleats on Saturday or clearing out their lockers.

Dickenson knew going into the year that a Week 21 bye would present unique challenges, but he never imagined this scenario.

“I knew about the schedule. I thought about this. You always think if we can win the West, we’ll have three weeks off, which, in my mind, would not be ideal,” he said. “Didn’t really necessarily think we’d be waiting to see if we make the playoffs or not.”

The Stampeders may need help to stay alive, but they have no one to blame but themselves for their precarious situation. After starting the year with consecutive losses, they spent much of the season taking one step forward and two steps back, clawing their way back to .500, only to quickly drop two or three games behind the pace.

There were a bevy of missed opportunities as well, with seven of the club’s nine defeats coming by one-score margins. That included a five-point loss to Winnipeg in Week 19 in a game where Calgary had a chance to clinch a postseason berth. That marked the only blemish during a 4-1 run to end the regular season.

“This year’s been a weird year. I think we have a good team; I really do. I think we’re getting better too; I think we’re improving. It’d be nice to play more, but at least we gave ourselves a chance,” Dickenson said. “The way it’s kind of finished, if it’s not in the cards, it’s not in the cards. But at least we came out, we kept competing. It looked bleak. Our team continued to work and get better. I do think we can get in. We can make some noise. We’ll see what happens.”

The math for the Stampeders is simple. If B.C. defeats Winnipeg next week, they are in the dance and have a shot at playing for a Grey Cup on home turf in November. If the Bombers prevail, their year is over.

However, the odds will be weighted heavily towards Calgary’s downfall, as the Lions are expected to rest most of their key starters after getting locked into the second seed. Winnipeg will play their full contingent of stars with elimination on the line.

After benefiting from B.C. giving their top weapons a rest in the second half this week, Dickenson hopes that his colleague, Buck Pierce, remembers that rust carries risks as well.

“They rested some guys this week. I’ll be lobbying to say, ‘Hey, you don’t want to go into playoffs on a two-game losing streak.’ I don’t, and we won’t be if we get in there,” he said with a nervous grin. “That’s their business.”

If the result next week doesn’t go their way, Calgary will become just the fourth nine-win team to miss the playoffs in CFL history and the second since the creation of the crossover. Coupled with the competitive nature of their losses, you’d be tempted to attribute their possible demise to bad luck, but that may not be able to save Dickenson.

The 53-year-old has been rumoured to be on the hot seat since 2024, when the Stampeders missed the playoffs for the first time in 18 seasons. They bounced back after coaching changes in 2025, but could be on the outside looking in for the second time in three years. Calgary has had a winning record once in their last four campaigns and has not recorded a playoff win since 2018, when they last hoisted the Grey Cup.

Making matters worse, Mark Kilam, the team’s former special teams coordinator and presumed heir apparent to Dickenson, led the Edmonton Elks to a first-place finish as their head coach this year after he was fired by the Stampeders.

Dickenson did not disclose whether he has had any conversations regarding his future with the team at this stage or provide a timeline for when a decision might be made on his future. He indicated only that the team would continue to prepare for a potential playoff game against either Toronto or B.C. until forced to stop.

“I want to give our guys credit and our staff; we’ve been very singularly focused,” Dickenson said. “When we were 5-8, I thought if we could get to nine, I thought we could get in. We felt like we really just gotta stay in the moment and try to get that done, and it wasn’t easy. There was a lot of games still in doubt. Hopefully, we’ll keep working as a staff.”