Football is back and so is Jamie Nye with his crystal ball. With the season kicking off Thursday, Nye predicts what 2017 will look like for every CFL team.

BC LIONS | GREY CUP CHAMPS

The BC Lions won 12 games last season with a first-year starter. Jonathon Jennings’ second season as a starter will put the Lions back at the top of the mountain in the Canadian Football League, allowing Wally Buono to potentially walk away as a champion like it appeared he did in 2011.

The Lions have lost some big pieces like Jovan Olafioye, Adam Bighill and Alex Bazzie, but Buono has never had a problem finding young talent to replace pieces along the way. The Lions haven’t missed the playoffs since Buono joined the team 14 years ago.

Jennings will learn from his mistakes from 2016 and as much as is being written about the Stampeders’ motivation for losing the Grey Cup, the Lions will be equally motivated to erase their Western Final disappointment from last year.

CALGARY STAMPEDERS | THE DOMINATION ENDS

The Calgary Stampeders haven’t lost more than four games in four straight seasons. That run comes to an end this year. The West Division will just be too tough to fight off for the Stampeders. A 15-2-1 record last year nearly tied a record for best season ever in the CFL but the dynasty that seems to be building in Calgary won’t go on forever.

Now, I’m not predicting a major collapse for the Stampeders, but winning 11-13 games this season will be a bit of a set back with the dominance they’ve displayed during the regular season.

It’ll be interesting to see the team deal with a little more adversity.

EDMONTON ESKIMOS | JAMES FRANKLIN BECOMES A HOT COMMODITY

The talk of the next rising star quarterback in the CFL will get louder and louder as this season continues. We’ve been able to see Franklin play over the last few years as he got Matt Nichols sent to Winnipeg and has become the consensus ‘next starting QB’ among the backups in the CFL.

What will newly minted Brock Sunderland do? This may not be resolved until next off-season before Franklin is due to become a free agent so there are a few options: Deal Franklin earlier and potentially land some top picks; wait until the deadline; hold on until after the season; or lose him for nothing come February.

The latter seems like the most unlikely. There are a few teams around the league that are searching for ‘the next one’ at the quarterback spot so Sunderland has some bargaining power. When to pull the trigger on a deal is the toughest decision he’ll have to make.

WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS | FALL BACK TO THE PACK

After four years of below-.500 records and out of the playoffs, the Bombers finally changed their fortunes and it all started when they made the move to Matt Nichols at quarterback. Nichols ran a very efficient offence.

But you can’t ignore what the defence was doing last season. That unit allowed a bunch of yards but also turned over the ball at an extremely high rate. A plus-29 in the giveaway/takeaway category was by far the best in the CFL. I don’t see that repeating and with fewer takeaways, the defence that was able to fend off points with timely turnovers will give up more than the 25 per game allowed last season.

With a drop in defensive output will also become a drop in victories as the Bombers fall back to .500 or below in 2017.

SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS | WILLIE JEFFERSON

Willie Jefferson leads the CFL in sacks in 2017. One per game for a total of 18 is where I’ll predict the defensive end, who has had an outstanding training camp from all reports and became a tough man to block when he arrived late last season to help stabilize that defensive line in Saskatchewan.

There are a bunch of great pass rushers in the Canadian Football League but here is a player that will join that list this season.

HAMILTON TIGER-CATS | A HEALTHY COLLAROS HITS 5,000

Since Zach Collaros became the guy in Hamilton, he has yet to play a full season. When he came back from his knee injury midway though last season, he lit it up with more than 300 yards and multiple touchdowns per game. The production, however, dropped off and Collaros and the Tiger-Cats sputtered to a loss in the Eastern Semi-Final to Edmonton.

Collaros finally stays healthy this season and becomes the East Division’s Most Outstanding Player, the first Tiger-Cat to do so since Danny McManus in 1999.

OTTAWA REDBLACKS | STANDING STILL IS MOVING BACKWARDS

The Ottawa REDBLACKS are the defending Grey Cup Champions but let’s remember, they did have a 8-9-1 record going into the playoffs that actually put them fifth in the overall standings in the CFL.

Now take away the starting quarterback and some star receivers and you see how I’m not predicting back to back titles for Ottawa. I do feel Trevor Harris will be just fine at quarterback but this is a team that is likely going to finish right where it did last season — only now, because of the improvement in Montreal and Hamilton, all of sudden Ottawa will be in a fight to make the playoffs with the crossover in play again.

MONTREAL ALOUETTES | DURANT DRIVES ALOUETTES INTO PLAYOFFS

The Montreal Alouettes will be improved from last year as they now have some stability at the quarterback position. They missed S.J. Green last season and while he’s gone for good, they did add the reigning East MOP nominee in Ernest Jackson.

But it’s not only Durant but Tyrell Sutton who will be hungry after an injury-plagued 2016 season. There will be a big rise in scoring from a team that averaged 21 points last season.

Defensively,the Als will fall back a bit but that should be offset by the offence improving and they were only one win away from the playoffs last year.

As for Durant individually, I’ll predict he gets back into the 4,000-yard range and over 20 touchdowns, production he hasn’t been able to hit since the 2013 season due to injury.

TORONTO ARGONAUTS | POPP, TRESTMAN TAKE LONGER TO FIND THE MAGIC

There are high expectations for the Toronto Argonauts after hiring Jim Popp and Marc Trestman to lead the franchise out of the basement in the CFL. However, I see a much steeper hill to climb for the duo that made it to three Grey Cup Championships, winning two in Trestman’s first three season in Montreal from 2008-2010.

Here is the difference: Jim Popp had a successful team already in place in Montreal, the Als just needed a better leader in the locker room. Popp and Trestman are starting at a lower point than they did in Montreal and like Chris Jones in Saskatchewan last year, there will be more hurt than there is gain in year one.