Hamilton's release of Avon Cobourne may spell the end of his CFL career.

It's unusual when the release of a team's top rusher from the previous season seems unsurprising, but the specific circumstances around the Hamilton Tiger-Cats' decision to cut Avon Cobourne Saturday make this an expected move. Yes, Cobourne had a solid year in Hamilton, collecting a team-high 737 rushing yards on 124 carries (for a 5.9 yards-per-carry average, miles better than the 4.8 he averaged in 2011) and adding 32 catches for 337 yards, but he never seemed like a fit with the Tiger-Cats going forward. Cobourne wasn't even expected to be with the team last season, and was actually cut and working in insurance in Florida before Hamilton brought him back following Martell Mallett's season-ending Achilles tendon tear in practice. With Mallett healthy again and the emergence of rookie Chevon Walker, the Tiger-Cats have plenty of options at running back, and Cobourne was the odd man out.

Jovan Olafioye, named the CFL's top lineman in 2012, is back with the B.C. Lions.

The B.C. Lions got off to a fine start in free agency Friday, and their most crucial move may have been to sign two of their own players. That would be offensive tackle Jovan Olafioye, the CFL's offensive lineman of the year in 2012, and linebacker Solomon Elimimian, the league's 2011 defensive player of the year. Both had looked likely to leave B.C. for greener pastures, in the NFL or otherwise, but keeping them around should help set the Lions up for success in 2013. B.C. also brought back veterans Korey Banks and Paris Jackson while adding former Eskimo Julius Williams. Add those moves up, and it looks like the Lions should once again be a substantial threat in the West.

Get out the beer, Chad Kackert's back in Toronto.Another one of the most notable free CFL agents out there is off the board, as the Toronto Argonauts signed 2012 Grey Cup MVP Chad Kackert to an extension Friday afternoon. Kackert was once thought to be headed to the NFL, and there was even a report Friday that he'd signed a deal with the New York Jets, but Kackert refuted that one himself on Twitter and later tweeted that he "couldn't be happier to be staying in Double Blue." Keeping him is a significant gain for the Argonauts, as is bringing in Canadian linebacker and Brampton native James Yurichuk from the B.C. Lions. Making it back to the Grey Cup is never easy, but newly-extended Toronto GM Jim Barker has kept one key piece of the puzzle that led to their triumph last year and added another player who might be an excellent fit.

Shomari Williams (seen hitting Esks' QB Kerry Joseph) is taking his talents to Hamilton.

The CFL's free agency period officially opened at noon Eastern Friday, and it's already off to an interesting start. One big move happened just minutes after the deadline, with Saskatchewan defensive end Odell Willis signing with Edmonton (so quickly that some raised the spectre of tampering), and another Roughriders' player left town shortly thereafter, as Canadian linebacker Shomari Williams (one of the five most notable free agents in this class) signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. These are significant moves for the players' new teams in particular, but they also leave Saskatchewan with some holes to fill.

Is Dwight Anderson set to move on from the Alouettes?

The CFL's free agency window officially opens at noon Eastern Friday, but it's debatable just how action-packed this year's dealings will be. Attitudes towards free agency differ dramatically from team to team, but many CFL general managers aren't huge fans of making big moves in the free agent market. Moreover, several notable names once potentially set to become free agents have already either signed new deals with their current team (Shawn Gore, Jonathan Hefney, Bryant Turner) or found new landing spots (Mike Reilly, Romby Bryant). There are still plenty of significant free agents set to hit the market Friday, though. Here's a look at five of the most interesting names out there.

Dan Hawkins will be hoping his Montreal tenure works better than his Colorado one.

Dan Hawkins (no, not this guy) might be in for the most unusual job transition in the football world this year. Herb Zurkowsky of The Montreal Gazette reported Thursday that the Alouettes have settled on Hawkins as their new head coach to replace Marc Trestman (now the Chicago Bears' head coach). What's notable is that Hawkins' previous job wasn't as a CFL assistant, an NCAA coach or an NFL coach; instead, he was working as a NCAA TV analyst with ESPN. Hawkins has notable past coaching success, particularly with his 2001-2005 run as the head coach of Boise State, but he's been working with ESPN since he was fired as Colorado's head coach in 2010. He certainly has shown impressive coaching ability in the past, but his coaching tenures have been marred with notable failures as well, and now he'll have to not only get back into a coaching mindset but do so in a completely different league that he's never played or coached in. Hiring Hawkins is a big gamble for the Alouettes, but it's one that could potentially pay off.

Shea Emry has shone on the field, but has battled depression off of it.

Mental health has been a prominent subject of discussion this week, with Bell's Let's Talk campaign raising over $4.8 million for Canadian mental health programs thanks to tweets, texts and calls Tuesday, and it's a discussion that needs to be had in the CFL as well. The life of a pro athlete may seem glamourous to some, but mental health issues and depression in particular can strike those from any walk of life. It's not easy for many to be open about it, though, so athletes like former Canadian Olympian Clara Hughes (who has prominently discussed her own struggles with depression and played a key role in the Let's Talk initiative) coming forward can play a crucial role in raising awareness of mental health issues. We've seen that in the CFL too, where perhaps the key case in point comes from Montreal Alouettes' linebacker Shea Emry. As Herb Zurkowsky wrote last November, Emry decided to take his story public to show how depression can hit even those who seemingly have it all together:

“I was bullied as a child. I had thoughts that maybe I wasn’t good enough. I wanted to be accepted, and I wasn’t,” Emry continued. “Bullying led to where I was and where I’ll continue to be. Depression doesn’t go away. It has been in my life twice. Sooner or later, it’ll probably come back, and I’ll have to make choices and decisions to get out of it.

...Emry is doing everything he can, not keeping things inside any longer, conducting open conversations with family and friends. He’s surrounded by people who love him and care, but Emry knows the battle isn’t over. The demons could materialize again, when least expected, and he won’t simply be able to apply a Band-Aid until the wound heals.

“This can affect anyone,” he said. “Someone can appear to be in a sunny place when there’s a shadowy cloud over the top of their head. It can affect anyone.”

One especially notable section of that Emry piece focuses on how his depression returned in a particularly nasty form in 2011 following a concussion he suffered. That led to him abusing drugs and alcohol, and that's a story we've seen plenty of times before; in fact, a January study of 34 former NFL players found that "former players who are depressed or cognitively impaired typically have noticeable abnormalities in a specific component of their brain known as the white matter, which is the cumulative mass of insulated nerve fibers that connect one neuron to another"; a related study set to be presented in March found "players who reported a higher number of career concussions also tended to exhibit more depressive symptoms".

Mark Maren's cancelled CFL tryout camp is drawing controversy.

There are lots of talented football players out there who might be capable of playing in the CFL, but the challenge for them is getting seen by the right people. Agent-run camps can offer the opportunity for players to get seen by multiple CFL franchises, but as they're not team- or league-organized, they carry possible perils, and Tuesday's news provided a case in point there. Drew Edwards of The Hamilton Spectator has reported that Mark Maren, whose M Sports Management company has a number of notable CFL players as clients, set up a two-day camp in Cancun, Mexico for Feb. 2 and 3, but cancelled it just the day before. That has a lot of people angry, as some players were already on their way there, and multiple players and officials are saying that Maren promised to pay their expenses but didn't do so. From Edwards:

Quarterback Micah Brown, who played at St. Mary’s University in 2010 and still lives in Halifax, was already in Atlanta when he received an email notifying him that the combine was off.

“He told me, just get down there and we’ll look after everything else,” Brown said. “But when I got stuck, I had to book hotels, buy food, rent a car... I even had to buy warm clothes because I was supposed to be in Mexico.”

Brown, an American who played for the U.S. at the World Championships of American Football in Austria in 2011, says he’s out over $2,000 and has filed a complaint with the Halifax police.

But the money is only part of what’s bothering him.

“This is was an opportunity to be seem by all of the teams at once instead of flying out for just one workout. I was looking at this as my last shot to get into the CFL,” said Brown. “Getting duped out of money is one thing but I’ve been duped out of an opportunity.”