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Wolitarsky signing a one-day contract to retire as a Bomber. Winnipeg Blue BombersDrew Wolitarsky Retires as a Blue Bomber - Winnipeg Blue...The Winnipeg Blue Bombers today announce the signing of Drew Wolitarsky to a one-day contract so he can officially retire as a member of the football club. Wolitarsky, 30, spent seven of his eight Can.

I actually heard, he specifically dislikes SpeedFlex27 and that's why he's not in the CFL.

To me it looked like Walters got passive and did not challenge O'Shea on his player utilization, likely because O'Shea had accumulated an aura of infallibility, or maybe Walters just trusted him and gave him carte blanche. In his recent presser, Walters had a completely different tone to his statements than in previous pressers, and maybe he had a fireside chat with Miller. Its difficult to understand Walters' thinking in not going all-out for a Grey Cup game at home. Many fans and players will not have a second chance to see their team win The Game at home. It would have been legendary.

In my day, we used to work for a nickel, which had a picture of a bee on it. Give me five bees for a quarter, we'd say....

3DownNationEdmonton Elks, Winnipeg Blue Bombers awarded extra picks...The Edmonton Elks and Winnipeg Blue Bombers have been awarded extra picks in the 2026 CFL Draft, the league office has confirmed to 3DownNation. Each year,Bombers get an extra pick at 20. Not sure if any other picks have moved but that would put the Bombers at 4, 13, 20, 24 for the first three rounds.

I talked to Neufeld, Sheahan and Cadwallader at Festival du Voyageur this weekend. Neufeld had an interesting comment--said the team looks a lot better than last year. He mentioned playing against Ceresna and lobbying hard to get him here.

He must have used ChatGPT to see the projected depth chart where he was listed behind Darian Durant. Chase saw the writing on the wall and decided to hang them up.

Qb, Zach. Back up, TBD. Guy to watch, Perkins. He could go anywhere from qb2 to cut early in camp. Step up or step out, guys, Chase and Wilson. Need level is High for a vet backup, and a young guy who progresses. Rb, Brady. Back up Peterson/MCI. MCI is pretty locked in for his versatility, but this is the time we need to see him step forward as a ball carrier. Sleeper, JJ Taylor. Legit NFL guy in a very deep backs room, with the wrong passport. The need level is very low. Wouldn't be against drafting an interesting back in the late rounds to keep guys being pushed. Don't expect more than that. Wr, imps. White and Wilson as starters. Guys to watch, Banks (another legit NFL guy with great measurables) Need level, medium. We are likely flipping the ratio, but we at least need guys who push both NI and Imps for their spots. Wr Nis. Demski, Nield, and Clercius as starters. Clericius at that group needs to solidify his spot more than he should have to as well. Guys who need to step up and will likely be pushed by a draft pick(s), Corcoran, and Cobb. Need level, Medium-High. We have a lot of meh; we need more quality and athleticism. T, Starters, Broxton, Bryant, Randolph. More guys than spots can be a good thing. In this group, Bryant and Randolph should be fighting for the 2nd spot. One might slide in side—chances we DI an OL after that are pretty low. Back-ups, Stewart, and Poncius are league guys with upside. New guys to watch, Dooley, and the returning Elsbury, who has a ton of potential. Need level: Very low. G, Starters, Neufeld, Wallace, Vanterpool, and Randolph. Way more bodies than spots here. Wallace should be a lock to at least be the 6th OL, as he has snapped and worked some C in camp here. Vanterpool has been much better at G than Rando, but Rando has more upside, and long-term is an RT here. We've got some young guys, but for Imps, the chance of jumping up to the top 2-3 on that list is basically impossible. Need level: Low. You always need to be developing Canadian OL, but that's really its own thing as well. PR spot is fine, we still likely draft an OL high at G for that spot. C, Starter, Eli. Back up, Vibert. Our thinnest position on the OL. But there is a chance we actually flip the ratio at C, not G. Vanterpool could be a candidate for that, as could rookies like Bucky Williams, Zovon, and Mazzucca. Need level, medium-high. Need someone to step up and take that spot. We have lots of guys who could do it; we just need one to actually follow through in camp. DE, starters WJ. Fringe, Jenkins, and Jaworski. Guys to watch: Bailey, Bogle, and Dixon. Fletcher and Jaworski also have some ability to play 3t, and do more in 30 fronts with their size and builds. Especially Fletcher. Need, very strong. We have some guy, but we need more. And we need all the ends to step up this year. DT, Starters, Lawson, and Ceresna. Back-ups Schmekel and Kornelson. Schemekel brings a lot of versatility and motor, a career overachiever who probably doesn't have another step up in terms of quality in him. Kornelson is a warm body at best. The rest of the depth so far is really tied up in guys like Fletcher, who are tweeners. Need level, Medium. We need guys to step up and provide depth, and we need to bring in some true inside DL to push in camp. Lbers, starters, Jones, JSK, Kyrie. Needs to step up to stick around, Kyrie, Ayers, and Jones should be close to that list too. Young guys to watch: Smith, Shay, and Novak. Those 3 are basically locks to make the roster, but a 2nd year step forward would have them more than ready to steal jobs. Sleeper list, Bouyer-Randle (legit NFL guy) Aaron smith (versatile big play guy), Micah Cretsinger (play maker 5 defensive tds, 2FR, 7 FF, 10PKDs, 10 picks, 7.5 sacks, 32.5 TFL, 271 tackles in 44 games) Johnny Hodges (he played 16 games at NAVY... you know hes making this damn roster.) Need level: extremely low. But this draft has a bunch of teams' guys who roster as lbers, and you can bet we will draft at least 1. DBs, starters, Nichols, Holm, Kramdi, and Moxey. Vets who started and will be battling to keep/win a primary role, Griffin, Allen, and Woodbey internally, plus outside the team league guys in Lamont, McGhee, and Javier. We also have Mccuthcheon who was on NFL PRs for a couple of years, and Javaris Davis, who was signed to play last year but didn't report, and was extended late last year. He played a couple of years in the NFL and some time in the XFL. He looks to have been out of football for a couple of years and is 29 years old. Which you just don't see up here or with us in DBs. K, Sergio is excellent. An extra leg in camp is always a good idea. P, Sheahan was much more reliable last year. We should still look to bring in competition. I'd be happy to bring back James Evans from last year. KR, Vaval is coming in with a ton of expectation. We could use a contingency plan for him if he struggles in year 2 after such an insane rookie year. Overall, we still have needs at Imp WR, DE/DT, C, and backup QB. Draft-wise, we need Canadians who can step into starting roles in the future. We have solid back-end of the roster depth, and lots of teams guys.

This offseason feels way too long..🏈

It's funny to be the NFL got so upset at the NFLPA for their member body grading the teams, but the NFL doesn't have any issue trotting out independent people grading players performance on a play by play basis (PFF) and having their broadcast partners blast it all over their coverage. I don't think its reasonable to expect anyone to be able to parlay a career in the CFL to 7 or 8 million dollars... once he is off his ELC he'd be 27... so it would take 10 years @ 700K AAV to get him to 7 million... and that is if one of a million different things that could go wrong to derail a career doesn't go wrong. To project someone who spent 4 years in CIS ball and had one half decent NFL preseason game to end up the highest paid CFL player ever post US-Expansion seems... pie in the sky at best.

Congrats and THANK YOU to the great Dom Wooganowski.... We're lucky to have had him during our era of greatness.

Low pay, and aiming at that will get you there. The thing is, most rookies are on pretty low contracts once they pay taxes and convert, not to mention living expenses being up here. After all that, even if you come in at 100k, what are you sending home? 25-30 maybe? For anyone with a family, it isn't a living wage being a rookie QB up here. Id say they have good talent. Skill levels, I mean, you always end up picking a tool kit that balances one of arm strength, and accuracy/touch. That's really all throwing sports. And part of the struggle in developing QBs. No different than MLB teams developing pitchers. The throwing talent is completely separate from throwing athleticism, and extraordinarily nuanced. You usually hope to end up with a guy who throws just hard enough and has the ability to put the ball where it needs to go, or a guy with a cannon and athleticism who is as much playing spray and pray in the pass game. Intangibles can be tough to quantify, beyond what you'd expect as well. Because basically all the QBs coming up are at best 2-year starters, it is very hard to tell what is a product of an intangible and what is a fluke or other factors. Back in the day, when every QB going pro was a 3-4 year starter, and a 3-4 year HS starter, you could get a much better evaluation of the guy. Yeah, I mean, teams and players don't want to wait. But at the same time, you only learn so much on the bench. I think young prospects need more seasoning in the first year and a half or so, then after that point. You really have to stress test them. Practice isn't a source of that at all anymore. So we see young guys who have sat for a year or two, know the system, understand most of the nuances of the game, but haven't been battle-hardened enough to be able to make use of those assets. If I were running a team, this is what I would do. Break down the QB prospects into 2 lists. Long list guys, and short list. Long list guys are ones that you've scouted extensively and are ready to keep around for 2 years, almost no matter what. Like how we waited out dru browns early struggles. The short list is guys who have the raw tools you like and may or may not be available. These range from flyers to guys you would watch for a few months to a season to get a better read on while they are on the team. Bring in 4-5 max of these guys. Assuming you have no real QB2, but a starter. You do install with your starter and give heavy, heavy rep time to the prospects. You likely would be lucky to have more than 1 long list guy at a time. So 3-4 short list guys, and as you see critical red flags, you replace them with other short list guys. Mainly, a lack of mental toughness, mental ability to read/progress/improvise, or a lack of the balance of touch/accuracy/release/strength required. You break camp with 3 on the ar, but any time you get one, you should take a vet for QB2. So you end up sitting with 2-3 developmental guys. Any long list guy, or a short list overachiever, goes on the 6-game out of camp. You test the mettle of the remaining kids, cycling them through pr, scout team, heavy drill use, and short yardage stuff on the ar. As they break, you replace them. At 6 games, if any are left standing, you switch them for the first group and sit them on the ir for 6, giving the first group a chance. So you sit a max of 2 QBs on the IR, with a starter/backup, and 2 guys going from pr to ir fighting for a spot. Repeat that grinder until you have 2-3 guys who are at least ready to be between qb2/3. Guys, you can't expect to easily replace them with free agents. Then, you run the blender again with them. You do this and hope to go into the next camp able to move on from QB2 or not being crippled if you lose qb 1. To run this blender, you need to be airlifting and cycling DBs and WRs as well. You can't really practice with QBs facing a real rush, but you can run a ton of Skelly. And you force them to run it on double time to create that friction to struggle against. You call snap, get the QB the ball, and he has to rely on post-snap read and reaction. Shorter than 5-second routes till whistle and next QB up. You'd also need more offensive coaches than D to facilitate running this. You'd each scout to dedicate more time to QBs than the rest, or maybe 1-2 almost full-time on QBs. You probably need to have 2 years to get to the point you want to be at. But most teams' QB plan amounts to either, Hope you hit the lotto, Hope your guy doesn't get hurt/diminish/retire/leave in FA, or Hope someone else can develop a guy who goes to FA that you can poach. Which is how you end up with 40 year old qbs with injury records longer than all the pages Stephen King has written. We are on the cusp of losing BLM, Zach, and Harris in this league. MBT and Masoli are basically done in all but paperwork. Vaj and Fajardo are 33-34 with a ton of wear. The pest hasn't played well outside of or been healthy-ish since 23. As bad as the coming rule changes are, the biggest crisis that the league faces is QBing. If that ship isn't righted with a new group of younger talent, the rest of the stuff will just be the straw that breaks the camels back.

I hate this AI ****.

I think the possibility is there for Zach to have a rennaissance season with Tommy Condell. We all thought Trevor Harris was finished but he was elite last season. The question is at age 40/41 can he keep doing it? Zach is 37. Turning 38 this season, can he do the same? Yes, it'll be interesting.

You think you had it rough? This was my first career job working with my hands. My boss was tough. He was a slave driver. I'm so old I had a Jesus Starter jacket.

This definitely feels true. I still believe that Collaros is capable of great things, BUT...based on recent seasons..... This feels like too high. Part of the problem is there's such a dearth of QBs in the league so anyone with any ability can pretty much ask whatever they want.

Please just let something else interesting happen so this board can move on from this topic

Why are you knocking a future hall of famer?

So I checked NFL.com for a list of the invitees to their combine. As expected Elgersma isn’t even listed. I hate to use the term but his throwing for WRs is a real Hail Mary. Just wish he’d acknowledge reality and get his CFL career started.

As far as quarterbacking talent goes, I have a bit of experience there being the father of a D2 qb at SFU before the purge 4 years ago where the university deep sixed football as a sport. I firmly believe that there are some kids born to play the position. You either have it or you don't. The kids that don't, struggle. Some work hard & make the rise to the top. But it's not easy when someone doesn't have a strong arm. Offenses have to be adjusted. shorter routes, more timing routes, spreading the ball around & not pressing the ball downfield. Then outof nowhere some guy shows up who can throw the ball 60 yards with ease & the kid who worked hard to be a starter with a so so or average arm is benched. I've seen it many times. My son Tyler at age 10 could throw a football 35 yards with no effort. Anything he picked that was throwable he did. He was a pitcher & outfielder in baseball. At 12, he could drill the ball across the plate with accuracy & strike out his opponents. He was one of those kids who magically was born with a super strong arm who figured out how to use it.. Throwing just came naturally. He could out skip me throwing stones on water when he was a kid & I was in my early 40's. Then the intangibles took over for Tyler as he went up thru the ranks playing football at all levels here in Calgary, Winnipeg, California & Burnaby. As he got older & physically stronger, Tyler played with confidence & became a leader. His teammates believed in him when he was on the field. Knowing my son the way I do just seeing the transformation from this happy go lucky guy away from football to a qb who hated losing was amazing. His leadership was his play on the field. His time with the Winnipeg Rifles hit a dead end. He was sharing starting qb duties with another player & both hated it. Tyler had a stronger arm but the other qb also had intangibles that made him successful. Their different styles of play complimented one another. Tyler went in to talk to his head coach at the end of his second season in Winnipeg. The coach indicated that changes would be coming at the qb position next season. As in, they'd pick one guy & stick with him. Tyler being from Calgary got the sense that they'd choose the other qb as he played all of his football in Winnipeg. he also had the advanyage of being coached by some of the guys on the Rifles staff. The other qb would be favoured over him. So, he informed the HC he wasn't coming back. The Head Coach said, "Fine. Good luck to you." So, it turned out he was right after all. Tyler spoke to his qb coach & mentor in Portland, Oregon, Greg Barton as it looked like his football career was over. Barton was a former qb with the Argos who had a lot of connections all down the West Coast. Greg made a phone call to a JUCO in California called The College Of The Siskiyous. The HC called Tyler & invited him down to see the campus. He went down & agreed to play for them. He redshirted his first year but started in his second season & he led the Eagles to a California JUCO Championship in 2012. From there, he was offered a walk on opportunity with the University of Oregon by Chip Kelly. Tyler showed me the letter from OSU. I tried calling Kelly but his ******* secretary refused to put me through to him so we never connected & Tyler never went. He was also being recruited by Texas Tech. The QB Coach came to an Eagles practice to talk to him but that was the last time any coaches from TT spoke with him. Just ghosted him suddenly so they obviously changed their minds. The University of Akron told him he was their guy & wanted him to play in the MAC Conference but... then the entire coaching staff was fired. So, that fell through. The University of California at Pennylvania, then called Cal Penn & now Pennwest also recruited him. Tyler went down for a visit & loved it. At the time, Cal Penn was the top D2 school in the US with a number of players in the past who went on to play in both the CFL & NFL. The coaches wanted him & they offered him an athletic scholarship. He accepted but the coach had to clear one thing first before it became an official written offer. The $40,000 International fee we'd have to pay that was not included in the scholarship offer. The HC said he spoke to the Chancellor of Cal Pen earlier who had agreed to waive the fee. However, when he went to verify that to make sure, he found out the Chancellor changed his mind & said we'd have to pay. My wife & I didn't have a spare $40,000 US lying around so that all fell through. That was so disappointing. I remember Tyler being crushed. What might have been... The only program left that recruited Tyler was Simon Fraser. They knew they were way down the list so they never thought they had any chance of getting Tyler to play at SFU. So, they brought in a qb from the transfer portal who played at Arizona State & NDSU. SFU was his third school in 3 years. When I called HC Dave Johnson checking to see if SFU was still interested, he nearly fell off his chair exclaiming, "I never thought we'd get him!!" However, they already offered a full ride scholarship to the transfer qb & could only offer a half scholarship which Tyler accepted. However, SFU sweetened the deal & by the time he graduated he only had to pay 25% of his tuition & was able to get a student loan. I think they even helped him out with dorm fees as well. He & the kid from Arizona shared qb duties & they battled it out every week for 2 years. A torn hamstring while training in the off season really set Tyler back. He played with the injury his senior year & it really set him back. His senior year was hard dealing with that injury & not being able to run anymore or evading the rush. When he'd go in, he'd get sacked so his playing time was drastically reduced. After he graduated from SFU, he knew his playing days were over. Tyler went into coaching which is what he still does in Seattle today. That's my son's story. His strong arm & athleticism carried him to places where other kids wouldn't have been able to go. You either have it or you don't.

Dayum, can't even have a still anymore.

It's still way too much money.

Lol people complained that he didnt/wouldn't restructure...now we're complaining that he did restructure?

Yeah but what do people think he should be doing with his life? We should fill a 3rd thread with comments about him just to be sure

We have last year's UFL MVP coming to camp, that's how much lighting it up in the UFL is worth.

It would take a lot of injuries. There are a crap load of former 2nd, 3rd, and PR QBs currently out of work that would get the call ahead of him. Heck last year the NFL even pulled Rivers out of retirement before they would look down their depth charts and FA's. Injuries is not a viable way into the NFL for Elgersma.

Yep. I love what jy and hall, but that is pretty much the only stretch of time we had that consistent disruption/pressure. Haven’t had great personnel on the dl over that time, but we also haven’t developed or made use of guys in that time. I hope hall and thomas focus on the dl and disruption while jy runs coverage. we’ve seen hall run some brilliant front concepts when he’s had the horses.

That's a tough loss, but you have got to be able to score on a 5 on 3 with all that offensive talent - it shouldn't matter who's in net.

3 on 3 arcade hockey for an Olympic gold is the dumbest thing ever

I’d bring the house on every second play hence why i call plays from my couch and not on the sidelines.

I think you can count on the Bombers not running a smurf at boundary corner this year. They've got Allen plus 5 other guys 6'1 plus, two with CFL experience, coming into camp at DB. No more watching a 5'9 guy with no ability to play the ball eat **** on 50-50 balls vs 6'3-6'4 receivers.

Good for him going out on his own terms. Respect.

So which game is Woli doing the half time at this year?

I'd prefer we go only 2 national receivers....The drop off from the 3rd Canadian spot and depth behind all 3 to a import receiver is far greater and makes us a weaker offense as a whole when you consider Corcoran or possibly some Rookie is having to take reps White..Pokey and whomever...with Demski and Neild/Clercius/Cobb is by far better than White...Pokey...Demski...Neild...Clercius/Cobb/Corcoran or some other rookie draft pick....and not even a debate about it really...And with the 3 Canadian starters...you have zipp for depth...at least with just Demski and one of Clercius/Neild u still have Cobb and the other of Clercius and Neild We could still go 3 import Oline guys if we choose and meet ratio as Eli/Neuf/BO/Demski/Neild or Clercius gives us 5 on offence, and any combo of 2 of Lawson/Kramdi/Bailey/Shay/Smith/ allows us to hit ratio...and here's a thought...actually use a Nationalized American on defence for 29 snaps as well and only have to have 1 true Canadian take a snap....far better option overall so hope Osh doesn't get this gotta have 3 Canadian receivers' going, cause we all know if he allowed to he will over use marginal Canadian over a more talented option ....ZC needs the best options available to him and guys who can make an impact and garner attention....We didn't land a Gittens...Brisset...Philpot to actually make that legit There are several import guys still out there who would make us way more dynamic, and a grimy guy like Rhymes too would give our group some edge and attitude...as from what I see right now...we dont have that...We flourished when we had an Adams...a Bailey...guys who got under the skin of teams and played with edge

Tonight

Gotta say, I listened to the Collaros presser and I think Hodge took a partial quote and turned it into way more than it was. Collaros was asked if he ever thinks about retirement and he said he does. He was asked "so you think there's a chance this might be your last season?" And he said "sure there's a chance" but he also said that he feels great and that as long as he feels he can perform and help the team win, he's going to keep playing. He also said he likes the 1 year deals and just playing it by ear. So I wouldn't get too hung up on any potential ZC8 retirement announcements...

Lamont is a player that gives us options, hed played safety corner and halfback If we decide to move Allen to corner Lamont could step in at safety. If we pr him.he could back up several positions. At only 27 it should raise the competition level as well. Really a low risk signing

i think we could be a very good pressure defense with four & five man fronts stopping the run & sacking the qb. I think we expose our defense to big plays if Jordan Younger runs a 3 man front & blitzes. We saw it with Detroit with four man fronts in the NFL playoffs 2 years ago. They ate the other team's OL & spit them out. We saw it in the Super Bowl with Seattle vs the left side of the Pats OL. Pressure & intimidation wins all the time. We had a pressure front 4/5 in 2019 & 21. We were physically scary & dominated to the point the overhyped Ti Cats just quit in 2019. They were beaten & broken team. Oh & look, we also won two championships those years. Then we changed Defensive Coordinators & went to a 3 man front with no pressure from the DL. Wbbfan called it a Cheetah front. i called it Cheetos. Yeah, we didn't give up a lot of points as the back 8 or 9 played well. No coincidence we also didn't win & lost 3 straight Grey Cups. If the Bombers had signed another interior DL in free agency, I'd have said they're invested in creating havoc up front like in 2019 & 21. I don't think Younger is that kind of DC. He wants to beat you through trickery & disguises on the back end. I'm not a big fan of that type of defense. I want smash mouth football where we own both sides of the LOS. Havoc & intimidation. It's more than proven to work.

Late comeback sends the men to the Gold Medal game. First team in Olympic history to come from behind in both the quarterfinal & semifinal games & advance to the finals.

And Rourke was able to weasel out of the pathetic rookie deal setup too after his failed attempt...Elgersma's camp should be talking to them That being said he also has proven absolutely nothing...at this point is all hype and assumptions and only way to get away from that is realistically get to Canada where he will be given every chance possible...get some film and show that yeah..he's legit

Very nice article in the Free Press on Woli today.

I have a feeling he is thinking it’s something it isn’t. I can’t think of any qbs who served as the camp arm to get signed out of that for camp, little on make a team. I could be wrong but it’s a pretty big hail mary. It’s a strange move for him. It’s not bad by any means, I expect him to be ufl bound.

Rhymes would fit the need for sure. ZC could use a big guy to go get jump balls on the outside.

Id be very happy to have him here. So true. Thats what I would think. He isnt a top tier guy, but hes among the best of the 2nd tier guys. And his fit here would be extremely good. lol the DBs would LOVE him in camp. Imagine if we have 2 NI wrs down in one game? Yikes.

Gotta be $. Although, and I know this isn't a popular opinion, I think he is pretty over rated.

Not sure if that's how they want to go ratiowise but Rhymes would be a nice add to our group, bigger guy who can push off, I mean go up and get contested passes.

It would have been real enjoyable to be around here if his answer was ‘Oh no I feel real good, I was chatting with Jake Thomas and I’m thinking I have a good five or so quality years left in me’.

That's not what Booch is saying... He is saying he doesn't know how to maximize the talent he already has. That he's played favourites with guys for many years who had no business being on the roster anymore. Like Koala & Thomas to name a few.

Our biggest problem last year IMO was that we lost both lines of scrimmage. And it was especially bad on offense because we had virtually zero game breaking receivers. How that came to be can be debated. But, I am glad they spent on both lines this off-season.