Notes from O'Shea/Walters and the CFL Winter Meetings

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers took some hefty swings in Canadian Football League free agency a year ago and will be wielding a heavy bat when the market opens in less than a month.

And while the organization has scored some major coups in the last 10 years in the open market — landing the likes of Andrew Harris, Nic Demski, Justin Medlock, Stanley Bryant, Adam Bighill, Willie Jefferson and many, many others — last year’s haul didn’t exactly wrap themselves in glory.

Defensive end James Vaughters finished with a team-leading six sacks and receiver Jerreth Sterns had 530 yards and four touchdowns in 14 games, but running back/returner Peyton Logan and linebacker Jonathan Jones appeared in only three games, Dillon Mitchell was a disappointment while receiver Reggie White, Jr., quarterback Shea Patterson, defensive end Brock Gowanlock, defensive back Josh Haggerty never even made the team.

Still, that won’t stop GM Kyle Walters & Co. from looking at a talent upgrade when the market opens on February 10th.

“You can’t be worried about your past results,” said Walters Monday during a media availability as CFL meetings began in Calgary. “If you’re going to be aggressive in free agency — which you’re going to have to be if you want to improve an area of your team — once that opportunity arises, once the time hits, you need to go out there and you need to be aggressive.

“We’ve certainly had meetings with the coaches and identified some players that we like at different positions. We’ve got to make sure we go get those guys or make a run at the guys we think can help improve an area on our team. But you have to be aggressive, that’s for sure.”

Walters didn’t want to get into specifics on each of the remaining pending free agents — there are 23 inching toward free agency, down from the 35 at the end of the year — but did indicate veteran left tackle and right guard Pat Neufeld both want to continue playing.

Not everyone will be offered contracts, obviously, but there are some other notable names on the list including defensive end Willie Jefferson, Vaughters and Sterns, kickers Sergio Castillo and Jamieson Sheahan and starters like receiver Keric Wheatfall, defensive tackle Jamal Woods, cornerback Demerio Houston and linebacker Kyrie Wilson.

“There’s a lot of moving parts when it comes to free agency,” Walters explained. “A lot of names on the list we are talking to and you have a general idea of what a player might cost; his agent has a vastly different idea of what that player might cost and then, to your point, it’s the juggling act of where does this slot in? If this player who would we thought would be this number is in fact substantially higher then the give and take is what’s the next plan. And then you start going down the amount of times that could happen is a very interesting task that is very fluid and constantly changing. So, it’s just a matter of prioritizing, hopefully, when an agent accepts the deal and then you can lock something in and then move on. It’s a challenge with all the different moving parts.

“… It’s the same as every year. It’s just when you hadn’t made the Grey Cup this past season for the first time in five years… so, you take a look like you do every offseason where you evaluate the players and evaluate where we need to get better and how we need to get better as a group. It’s no different this year, it’s just finishing fourth made us realize these other teams have caught up and we had a heckuva run but we didn’t make the Grey Cup this year for the first time in five years so let’s figure out how to get better.”

Some other notable items from the O’Shea/Walters media session on Monday…

Canadian QB Taylor Elgersma, the Wilfrid Laurier star drafted by the club in the second round last year who is still chasing his NFL dream after attending training camp with the Green Bay Packers last year: “His agent and I talk all the time. Nothing’s changed,” Walters said. “They’ve made it perfectly clear they’re going to go through this process. He’s had some workouts and he’s going to see it right through until the bitter end. Hopefully, if he doesn’t have a futures contract in February then they’ll turn their attention to the CFL. But they are still 100 percent focussed on getting an NFL contract. No change than we talked last.” Update on this: Elgersma was selected by the Birmingham Stallions in the UFL Quarterback Draft on Monday, after the media availability, along with Matt Corral and Jaren Hall. The remainder of the UFL Draft will take place over the next few days.

O’Shea indicated that new offensive coordinator Tommy Condell will also serve as the QB coach in 2026 and that he’s got “one or two spots to fill — one, most likely. Not pressed (to fill the role) right now. I just want to make it right.”

The rules committee was scheduled to hit on a number of topics after Monday’s media availability.

Walters: “This is the first time since these have been announced that we’ll be in a group together to talk and listen and have a discussion and kind of wrap our head around what the plan is moving forward. So it’ll be I guess of an information gathering session and how do we apply that for our training camp and make plans moving forward. So it’s going in with an open mind and listen and discuss afterwards among ourselves, I guess.”

O’Shea was outspoken about some of the new changes when they were announced last fall and said this, with a chuckle: “I think the raw emotion is gone. It might be sparked again here, momentarily in an hour and a half or two hours when we start our meetings. I think I’m certainly in the mindset to listen, and if I believe I have something valuable to add, just like any other year I’ll try and add it. I’ve got more of an open mind.”

Walters on new QB signings Bryce Perkins and Payton Thorne:

“We’re excited. Bryce has a little different pedigree than we’ve seen in our training camp for a while. He’s a little more mature, he’s been around. He was the MVP of the UFL, and we’re excited that he wants to focus on the CFL. We’ll temper expectation.

“With Thorne, again, interesting athlete, played at the big-time school. So we’re excited. But we’ll see. There’s a steep learning curve in that quarterback room. But these guys are coming in with interesting skill sets and they’re excited and ready to come in and learn the Canadian game and we’re excited to have them.”

On Trey Vaval, who has worked out with six NFL teams this offseason and has until February 10th to land a deal down south before he would return to the Blue Bombers: “Still up in the air. Was interesting, when that flurry of (CFL) guys signed early, and Trey had a bunch of workouts and now him and his agent are just kind of sifting through. We’re kind of giving them their spac. There hasn’t been a formal offer put to us asking for his release to sign. Obviously, we’d be happy for Trey and his family if he gets an NFL offer. But boy we would be excited if he was back in Winnipeg as well.”

On the release of centre Chris Kolankowski: “Chris, first of all, has been a good, loyal Bomber and a great young man and I do anticipate he’ll get picked up. Once the decision was made, his agent asked to be released so he can get a jump-start. Organizationally, just the status quo after last season we didn’t think was going to be good enough moving forward. So unfortunately, some changes needed to be made. And it was a difficult one. But we’re looking forward to moving forward and thank Chris for his time here. I’m sure he’ll catch on and do just fine next year as well with a new team.”

Get breaking Bomber news and more straight to your inbox by signing up to be a Bomber Insider!

Click here to read article