Former Cal standout Kenny Lawler has been one of the best receivers in the Canadian Football League for several years, but he may be having his best season in 2025.
Lawler had just three receptions for 66 yards for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in their 30-15 victory over Ottawa on Sunday, and those are mediocre numbers by Lawler’s standards. But one of those catches was a 41-yard touchdown reception that gave Hamilton a 10-0 lead and gave Lawler his league-leading eighth touchdown catch of the season. And this is after just six games.
KENNY LAWLER HAS EIGHT TD'S THIS SEASON
— TSN (@TSN_Sports) July 20, 2025
Bo Levi Mitchell has also cracked the top 10 for passing yards in CFL history passing Tracy Ham. #CFL pic.twitter.com/JP7HsBCA37
For the 2025 season, Lawler has 33 catches for 644 yards and those eight touchdowns, and he leads the CFL in receiving yards, receiving yards per game (107.3), yards per reception for players with at least 15 catches (19.5) and touchdown catches.
And Hamilton is just one-third of the way through its 18-game season, so Lawler may be putting together a historic year in his sixth CFL season.
Lawler’s best CFL season was 2021, when he had 64 catches for 1,014 yards and six touchdowns, and he already has a single-season career high in touchdown catches this year.
Lawler might have a shot at the CFL single-season record for touchdown catches, which is 23, or the league record for receiving yardage in a season, which is 2,036.
The only drawback for Lawler’s pursuit of records is that opposing defenses are starting to double team him often.
Lawler played three seasons at Cal from 2013 to 2015, with nearly all of his 143 receptions and 27 touchdown catches being thrown by Jared Goff, who was the Golden Bears’ starting quarterback those same three seasons.
A slower than expected 40-yard dash time in pre-draft workouts caused Lawler to fall to the seventh round of the 2016 NFL draft. He was drafted by Seattle, but he never played in a regular-season NFL game. So he moved north of the border, where he has become a star.
Some of his catches have become legendary, such as this TD catch against the Redblacks last week:
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