The

Edmonton Elks The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Commo ...

season was the 63rd season for the team in the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

and their 72nd overall. This was the first season that the team competed under a new name, as the "Eskimos" moniker was retired in 2020, and the new name "Elks" was announced on June 1, 2021. The team failed to qualify for the playoffs for the first time since

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

following a week 14 loss to the

Saskatchewan Roughriders The Saskatchewan Roughriders are a professional Canadian football team based in Regina, Saskatchewan. The Roughriders compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West Division. The Roughriders were founded in 1 ...

on November 5, 2021. The team also finished the season without a home win for the first time in the team's 72–year history following that same home loss to the Roughriders. This was the fourth season under

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all of ...

Brock Sunderland Brock Sunderland (born November 11, 1979) was the General Manager of the Edmonton Elks (formerly known as the Edmonton Eskimos) in the Canadian Football League from 2017 until 2021. He won the Grey Cup as the Assistant General Manager of the Ottaw ...

. This would have been the first season under

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

Scott Milanovich Scott Stewart Milanovich (born January 25, 1973) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the quarterbacks coach for the Indianapolis Colts of the National Football League (NFL). He previously served as the head coach of the ...

, but he resigned from his position on January 25, 2021. Instead,

Jaime Elizondo Jaime Elizondo is an American football and a Canadian football coach. Elizondo has had 25 years of coaching experience in both collegiate and professional levels, most recently serving as the head coach, offensive coordinator, and quarterbacks co ...

was named as the 23rd head coach in the team's history on February 1, 2021. An 18-game season schedule was originally released on November 20, 2020, but it was announced on April 21, 2021 that the start of the season would likely be delayed until August and feature a 14-game schedule. On June 15, 2021, the league released the revised 14-game schedule with regular season play beginning on August 5, 2021.

Offseason

CFL Global Draft

The

2021 CFL Global Draft The 2021 CFL Global Draft took place on April 15, 2021 and was the first CFL Draft that pooled all of the global players together after previously having separate drafts for Mexican players and European players in 2019. 36 players were chosen fr ...

took place on April 15, 2021. With the format being a snake draft, Edmonton selected second in the odd-numbered rounds and eighth in the even-numbered rounds.

CFL National Draft

The

2021 CFL Draft The 2021 CFL National Draft was a selection of National players by Canadian Football League teams that took place at May 4, 2021 at 7:00 pm ET and was broadcast on TSN and RDS. 54 players were chosen from among eligible players from Canadia ...

took place on May 4, 2021. The team had six selections in the six-round snake draft and had the fifth pick in each of the rounds.

Preseason

Due to the shortening of the season, the CFL confirmed that pre-season games would not be played in 2021.

Planned schedule

Regular season

Season standings

Season schedule

The Elks initially had a schedule that featured 18 regular season games beginning on June 12 and ending on October 30. However, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Canada The COVID-19 pandemic in Canada is part of the ongoing worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (). It is caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). Most cases over the course of the pandemic have been in Ontario, Que ...

, the

delayed the start of the regular season to August 5, 2021 and the Elks began their 14-game season on August 7, 2021. On August 22, 2021, it was announced that the Elks had several players test positive for

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, so the August 26, 2021 game was postponed with the re-scheduled date to be declared once the Elks pass health and safety protocols. The CFL announced on September 2, 2021 that the game was re-scheduled for Tuesday, November 16, 2021, meaning that the Elks will play three games in just a seven-day span.

Team

Roster

Coaching staff

References

External links

* {{Edmonton Elks seasons Edmonton Elks seasons 2021 Canadian Football League season by team 2021 in Alberta