It does not appear that a coaching change will be on the docket for the Ottawa Redblacks during their bye week.
In an appearance on TSN 1200 on Tuesday, general manager Shawn Burke endorsed embattled head coach Bob Dyce and indicated that his job is not in immediate jeopardy.
“I know who Bob is as a leader. I know how he gets our team prepared. I think no one can question the effort of our team each and every week,” Burke said.
“There are some things we’ve had to work on since the start of the year, and we’ve trended in better directions in terms of penalty totals and other outcomes. There’s other areas where we have to get better. We have to be a better football club in the big moments where the game is on the line. We have to score on short fields and score touchdowns and not kick field goals, and we have to create big, explosive plays and prevent them. Bob leading the team gives us a direction each and every week. He leads his staff, and he’ll continue to be our leader.”
Dyce signed a contract extension with the Redblacks this offseason to keep him with the team through 2026, a commitment he earned by leading the team back to the playoffs for the first time since 2018. However, the franchise has since taken a step back and has struggled to a 1-6 start to the 2025 campaign.
“We’re not where we want to be. Not the team, from front office to coaching staff to player-wise what I think we have here, that record indicates,” Burke acknowledged. “We’ve dug ourselves this hole, and it’s our jobs collectively, everyone rowing in the same direction, to get out of this.”
“It’s always a combination of things. Some are controllable, some are uncontrollable, but the reality is, we just have to be a more consistent football club. It’s what we talked about at the end of last year, and we haven’t seen that translate this year into that down-to-down consistency, and it’s not for lack of effort.”
Dyce arrived in the nation’s capital in 2016 as the team’s special teams coordinator and won a Grey Cup that season. He was promoted to the role of head coach on an interim basis in 2022 before taking over on a full-time basis in 2023. In total, his record as the bench boss in Ottawa is 15-31-1.
The Winnipeg, Man. native hired Rick Campbell, the franchise’s first head coach and the man who led Ottawa to a Grey Cup victory in 2016, as his special teams coordinator this offseason. That has only fueled speculation that the team could move on from Dyce if he continues to falter.
That’s not in the cards yet, but Burke was frank about the reality for everyone on the team, himself included.
“At the end of the day, we come in to work each and every day focusing on going 1-0 each week. And right now, we’re not doing that, and it’s not acceptable,” he said. “We all know the business we’re in. We know what expectations are, and we know what our own internal expectations are.”
“We can’t take away where we’ve gotten to; that’s not going to change. All we can control is what’s ahead, and we’ve got a lot of work to do. We would be being dishonest with ourselves and dishonest with everyone else if we didn’t openly say that.”
The Redblacks (1-6) don’t return to action until Thursday, July 31, when they’ll host the Calgary Stampeders. The team will continue to face questions around the health of quarterback Dru Brown going into that week, but their coaching staff will remain intact for now.
“I think the bye week came in at an opportune time. When you go through these types of stretches, sometimes getting away from each other is what you need,” Burke said. “I think it gives time for everyone to reflect as well. I know no one’s going to work harder than our coaching staff to find what we’re doing right and wrong and try to correct it.”
