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As mentioned, Neufeld and Harris were sitting out today. The first-team offence was : Matthews-Washington-Adams-Demski-Wolitarsky Bryant-Desjarlais-Couture-Gray-Hardrick Nichols at QB, Augustine at RB. I had a tougher time nailing down the second team offence, but it definitely had OIiveira at RB, Streveler at QB, Simonise and Petermann as receivers. Looked like the other receiver spots were Rasheed Bailey, Kenny Lawler, and Tim Wilson but I'm not 100% sure on those ones... I think they might have switched it up a couple times. The OL looked like Speller at centre, Koczwara at guard, and Briggs/Baker on at the tackle spots... couldn't see who else was at guard. I can't give you the defence at the moment, I was locked in on the offence most of the time. Derek Jones was definitely the #1 safety and he is looking slim, trim and healthy. Great to see. One thing I can say for certain is that we are going to be absolutely deadly in the redzone with both Darvin Adams and Chris Matthews. Already some chemistry developing between Nichols and Matthews. Wolitarsky looked great as well, Bauming tweeted out his huge catch to start off the practice. Hardrick grabbed the ball right after and tried to punt it into the crowd but it went straight up instead... that got a big laugh from everyone. Love that guy. I'm interested to see if we can find room for one of Larry Rose III or John Santiago... both looked really quick but they were not getting reps in the first two offence units. Rose III in particular I thought looked pretty dangerous. As expected, Bennett was running with the third team offence but surrendered some reps to McGuire as well. Sawyer Buettner actually got one rep which I was surprised to see. It was an overthrow that almost got picked but good for the kid getting some action in. Should be lots of good competition at returner and the hands team gets a boost with the additions of Chris Matthews and Willie Jefferson... yes Willie Jefferson. 6'6" with receiver experence and he was getting some reps in on specials. The returner competition looked like it involves Charles Nelson, Lucky Whitehead, and John Santiago.... definitely a few other guys back there too but it was hard to see exactly who. Nic Demski is still involved as well. Overall it was very much a "day 1" outing... hard to get a good read on anyone and it's wise not to jump to any conclusions. The starters looked best.... Wolitarsky, Nichols, Matthews, Adams. Augustine looked comfortable at RB and Oliveira is going to have to win that backup job from him... don't see Augustine letting go without a fight. If I had to pick one new receiver who showed well it would be Kenny Lawler... looks like he has pretty good hands and I like his build as well... looks like a pro receiver to me. Nice day for some football. Noticed they have ripped all the seats out in the northeast and southeast corners in the lower bowl. Not sure what that's all about.

Booch has done more reporting this morning than all the paid reporters have done in 3 days combined. Thanks, Booch

Lol, Tburg with his daily reminder that everything is the worst.

Is anyone paying Booch's expenses??

Way better to sign Matthews than old broken down Manny Arceneaux.

Congratulations to another great Bomber character. Unfortunately, he was unable to complete the wall climbing portion at NU...

I for one am upset that I have one less thing to criticize Walters about. 😀

One of the absolute all time greats. For me, he's on the Mount Rushmore of CFL QBs....

I would say Simonise agrees..

Every year we can keep O'Shea from heading back to Southern Ontario is a win. No reason to get rid of any of that core group of President, GM, Head Coach. None of them are on the hot seat. The team is always ready to play and has been since 2014. The continuity has and will continue to allow the team to build talented rosters. We literally haven't been able to attract the level of free agent we've attracted yearly from 2016 on since the early 90's.

Standouts at receiver today for me were Rasheed Bailey and Corey Washington. Fast, sharp route-runners with excellent hands who get the waggle. Wolitarski caught everything I saw thrown his way - and so did Petermann. Simonise is smooth and very, very quick, he looks like his head is in it. He dropped one short out pattern that was right in his mitts but then Darvin Adams dropped x3. Darvin then redeemed himself with a contested TD catch that he snatched away violently (I did not catch the number of the defender who got hornswoggled on that one). Marcus Sayles can really motor and, as others said, Winston Rose and Derek Jones close unbelievably fast on the ball. Gaitor and Fenner both looked good. Sayles might have got a bit of an ouch but it doesn't look like anything an ice bath won't fix. Agree with what others said about Oliveira and Augustine. Both hit the hole really fast, straight downhill. Oliviera got around the end on one play though, running free and clear, on a sweep of all things - you can do that if you're an Oak Park Raider but it doesn't happen often at this level because the defenders are so quick. I heard some grumbling about Nichols from fans behind me in the stands after he missed a couple of 15 yd outs - but he does look to be in the best physical shape I've seen him in since he arrived in Winnipeg. He was rolling out and running a bit more than I've seen in the past. Could that be a new wrinkle in the playbook to accommodate .... Streveler, who missed one or two tosses as well - overthrows where, who knows, it could have been the receiver who messed up. Both QB1 and QB2 were sharp with the short pass, and like others have said the playbook looks to be almost fully installed. The new QB #12 Sean McGuire looks still to be adjusting to the passing lanes on the wider field. He hit the shorter passes but the long balls were way off the mark. It's still early but he doesn't look to be ready to unseat Bennett at the #3 QB at this stage. Lucky Whitehead can catch the football - he made a couple of nice catches in the receiver spot - but what caught my eye was on the returns - he is lightning quick - wow. Honest to God there were a whole lot of bodies out there in uniform. I think we are going to win the Grey Cup.

Can you get a job with the Free Press?

Ed Tait‏ @EdTaitWFC Watching OL vs DL at #Bombers rookie camp and was impressed with the club’s draft picks - DT Connor Griffiths has a good motor, OL Drew Desjarlais is solid and C Asotui Eli flattened a rusher on one play Me Like

BC needs veteran leadership at punter.

Looks like we signed Chris Matthews

Lmao Hodge tweeted “if the Tiger-Cats don’t pick Jesse Gibbon they will regret it for the next 10 years” ... he had them taking Lenius-Dickey in his mock. he is so insufferable. Lmao

Ungerer. I’d pick him based on name alone.

Every year I say I want to see them go 0-18 and that would STILL be too good for that babbling rabble in the Gap...

I'd love to see them go 3-15 with numerous crushing losses including a 77-0 loss in the Banjo Bowl.

I had some time on my hands so I put together a tentative depth chart including team's recent draft picks. It hard to know which rookie DB's and WR's will compete for which spots but I did the best I could here.

I'd prefer we didn't stand tried and true to this impeccable character thing..no issues past or present and actually employed some guys who walked on the edge or at times can be viewed as for a lack of a better term an assclown...because when you look at all championship teams they all have guys who are pricks..have issues...are dirty and stradle the line of common sense at times....the 5 years of having choir boys all throughout the club has won us nothing

I would be happy if Andrew Harris spends the entire camp in his civvies and rides the pine for both preseason games. There is zero gain in him doing anything until the games start to count.

Yeah I skipped outta work today..hahaha

Is there a virtual garbage can to put it in?

Terrence Edwards mentored Chris Matthews. TE Wr Academy - The torch has officially been passed to @TheRealCMaTT13. I did the same for him, now it’s his turn to do it for another rookie who’s trying to learn our game! Now.. “Chris Matthews was the last player off the field today, spending nearly thirty minutes working with rookie receivers post practice.” Darren Cameron

Can't remember when I have been this optimistic about the training camp talent. But then again, I often forget why I went into the kitchen.

Today is the day football is back. Hopefully a few guys stick out over the next couple days.

i like that the season is starting earlier. May is a great time for football to start

That's just leaves Kongbo. Well done Kyle!

That Eli signing is absolutely huge. Not sure why more aren’t talking about it.

Good for Ray and his health, unfortunate for the league.

Whether you like him or dislike him you can’t deny how good Kyle Walters is at assessing Canadian talent. Another solid draft overall for the Bombers.

I'm re-watching the playoff game vs the Riders, and it got me thinking about certain guys I'm really looking forward to seeing because I think they'll take a "next step" this season.... -Marcus Sayles -- By the end of the season he'd become a bona fide starter. Had all kinds of potential to be elite this year. -Kyrie Wilson -- Love his size and motor. I really think he's going to flourish as a starter, especially next to Bighill. -Streveler -- With an offseason where he knew what his role was going into the next season, so he could fully train and prepare..... Could be something even more special this year.

I'm impressed:

Nichols became the starter in 2016, went 10-3 and got us into the playoffs. Went 11-6 his next year as our starter, and in his “bad” year went 9-5. It’s time people got off his back, he has enough of a load to shoulder trying to carry the offence with Harris without these negative fan rankings about how our back up QB is always better. Everyone loved Streveler until he actually had to carry the team for an extended period in the Banjo Bowl, and we saw that he wasn’t really the saviour he was anointed as based on spot duty. Love Streveler’s game, but our best hope is that he has lots of mop up duty and the odd sequence to shake things up. A healthy Nichols is our best option, IMO.

The Riders would have beaten the Bombers with Collaros. Who was trash every time he played the Bombers. Yeah, ok.

He woke up, and found a slowly leaking football, in his bed

again...who cares for the yards and the big stats if it doesn't translate into points and ultimately wins....

Excited about this Eli kid. I mean it sucks to lose Chungh and Goossen but to replace them with three seemingly high level prospect in Eli, Gray and Desjarlais is exciting.

https://www.bluebombers.com/2019/05/16/asotui-eli-rekindling-fire-football/ Looks to have the weight up just needs to get into football shape. Kind of looks like a Chung clone.

Meh, you gotta think beyond more than just your own entertainment to see why this is a smart decision for them.

Just like to confirm how excited I am that we didn't sign Manny Arceneaux...

I am giddy with excitement today....so help me, those idiots in the board room better not mess up the start of mini-camp on Wednesday!!

and for all the chicken littles and naysayers who yammer on about how free agency was a fail and we didnt address the biggest need..you just don't know the behind the scene and outside the media eyes discussions going on..Walters could have had all along a somewhat verbal commitment that if the NFL didn't pan out he wanted to sign back here...so when the bidding for the others got too crazy...smartly he backed out and sat on the cash....I do know one thing tho, last year Matthews would have preferred and wanted to resign back here...but dollar wise we couldn't make it happen

Such a fantastic story, person and football player. Hes such a corner stone of the team. I hope his career ends with the HOF and a couple of blue, grey cup rings.

"Waking up this morning, being a Winnipeg Blue Bomber... it's like a dream come true." -Brady Oliveira

What this draft means to me: THE END OF OFF SEASON AND THE START OF A NEW CFL SEASON!!! 🏈 🏈

I didn't realize how badly I wanted Mike Sellers as a Bombers assistant coach until just now....