Blue Bombers -- 2025/26 Offseason -- Discussion Thread

[captaincanuck12]

11 minutes ago, MOBomberFan said:

https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/01/22/willie-j-will-stay/

Ed Tait rationalizing why Willie is a good signing makes me worry a bit the $ is higher than we all hope

yeah reading that article makes me shake my head.   Willie only had 3 sacks, but here's the reason why ... we only rushed 3.     The clearer picture would be that how many sacks did the team have overall last year.

Anyways, I'm still a fan of his and am happy he is sticking around.   I think he'll have a bounce back year.

[sweep the leg]

15 minutes ago, MOBomberFan said:

https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/01/22/willie-j-will-stay/

Ed Tait rationalizing why Willie is a good signing makes me worry a bit the $ is higher than we all hope

What kind of article were you expecting from Tait? He’s a team employee.

[HardCoreBlue]

5 minutes ago, captaincanuck12 said:

yeah reading that article makes me shake my head.   Willie only had 3 sacks, but here's the reason why ... we only rushed 3.     The clearer picture would be that how many sacks did the team have overall last year.

Anyways, I'm still a fan of his and am happy he is sticking around.   I think he'll have a bounce back year.

I'm not so optimistic. Love the energy he brings, how he markets the team and the City of Winnipeg and agree with the experts he's better suited for a rotational role as a true DE rushing four (please for the love of gawd get away from this three man rush while the opposing QB picks us apart) but knowing MOS's philosophy on certain players (e.g., JT) to going out on their own terms I hope it's another year of watching him drop back while watching the play go by him or playing bump belly with a couple of olineman because we rush three or watching him freelance around doing absoutely nothing all while being masked by a few knowckdowns. Oh on an unrelated note, didn't sleep well last night, mood is a bit off. 

[TBURGESS]

I was hoping we'd move on from WIlly J.

[Arnold_Palmer]

I need to see numbers before I pass judgment. 

[GCn20]

On 2026-01-20 at 6:25 PM, wbbfan said:

all true. it would also be expensive and complicated to get the rights to advertise stuff like that from other leagues. It could also come off very poorly if not done well. and the league hasn’t done a great job at any thing marketing wise in ages. 

The second the CFL starts marketing what coaches/players in the NFL are saying about the CFL is the second the NFL sends out a memo to all teams to tell all personnel to shut up about the CFL while throwing out a press release saying that the CFL is not comparable. The NFL has spent billions and billions of dollars on maintaining their elite and untouchable status. They aren't going to let another league suggest that they are even close in level of play. even if it is the truth.

On 2026-01-20 at 8:26 PM, Goalie said:

But it’s his dream. It probably is a pipe dream but it’s his pipe dream. Obviously it’s not about money since dude being paid peanuts the past year now. 

I have zero issues with any person pursuing their dream even if it is a pipe dream. At the end of the day you don't want to be 50 years old wondering if you could have made it. He will be here eventually.

[bigg jay]

7 minutes ago, Arnold_Palmer said:

I need to see numbers before I pass judgment. 

And how much of it is marketing money.  Willie does a ton off the field for the club so if they want to load guys like him up with non-cap money, I'm good with that.

[GCn20]

20 hours ago, Booch said:

People need to also realize Elgersma has proven nothing...shown nothing to make a team want him in the NFL...but  dominated somewhat a lil bit in the CIS

In all honesty big flipping deal..he could amount to basically what all cdn qbs prior to him did...zero 

The most recent cis dominant qb ...Ford has shown exactly that...he ain't good enough

Training and evaluation in the U.S is do specific and so detailed and investigated from so many avenues and by talking to so many people involved with a player it would blow your mind...I see it with the athletes I work with.

Rourke got some legit looks and some legit playtime in TC and not just against other scrubs who had no chance to make it anyway...and had success but again...nfl politics were his demise...and he had pro game film after his first go around when teams didnt even wanna give him a qb look 

Difference...u.s prep school play...u.s college career...u.s legit chance albeit with the CDN bias against him...and he got punted and that was that

Only other cdn qb i can think of...Palmer, who followed same path as Rourke had a limited existence but it also wasnt enough

Sure a guy can chase a dream...but also needs to be realistic..a big arm...the prototypical NFL qb body type isnt a garuantee...there are so many guys who possess what Elgersma has coming out of u.s college with u.s football training that teams will always put first..and thats the reality.

I also wouldn't hang my hat on him here in cfl to be this big success...why would anyone? Its a big jump to make...and if there was a legit thought he had it...he would have been PR'd all yr in the NFL.. and that didnt happen either 

And this pinning in Canada to almost force this idea thst a Canadian QB is needed and great is ludicrous too..who effing cares...find and or develop the best QB regardless...birth certificate should have no bearing on a position..best player should tho

This is going to be a thoroughly unpopular take here, but I think that Elgersma may even be lucky to be a CFL starter and that may never happen. I want to sign him, but for the life of me I don't think anyone should be thinking he's a shoe in for anything.  He will need a ton of development. When I used to coach I went to several coaching clinics down in Texas and California. I got to see the QB factories up close. The kids at these "factories" begin development at age 8. By the time they are in high school they are technically better than any QB in the CIS. They get top notch development by ex pro coaches and players and even their schooling is formatted around their QB development. It's a different world of football in the US compared to Canada. Not comparable in any way. That was just one of many 'QB factories" around the USA

Edited 3 hours ago by GCn20

[GCn20]

Willie J is still a very good DE. The system takes him out of a traditional DE role.

[Booch]

1 hour ago, Atomic said:

Willie signed

YEAH from what I knew was basically just an announcement tobe made...but the basis was done

[GCn20]

3 minutes ago, Booch said:

YEAH from what I knew was basically just an announcement tobe made...but the basis was done

Good, I'm glad he is back and I hope we use him better

[Booch]

15 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

This is going to be a thoroughly unpopular take here, but I think that Elgersma may even be lucky to be a CFL starter and that may never happen. I want to sign him, but for the life of me I don't think anyone should be thinking he's a shoe in for anything.  He will need a ton of development. When I used to coach I went to several coaching clinics down in Texas and California. I got to see the QB factories up close. The kids at these "factories" begin development at age 8. By the time they are in high school they are technically better than any QB in the CIS. They get top notch development by ex pro coaches and players and even their schooling is formatted around their QB development. It's a different world of football in the US compared to Canada. Not comparable in any way. That was just one of many 'QB factories" around the USA

i agree 100 percent

3 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Willie J is still a very good DE. The system takes him out of a traditional DE role.

and I agree here too...lets see what 2026 is scheme and personnel wise before we judge....He is far from finished and was a victim of scheme and guys he played with.

In his prime he was never a run stopping specialist and had his moments of WTF....But it was more than balanced out from the other stuff he did, and attention he took to allow others to eat.

If used in a role like he was in 2019 to 2023 but in a bit more limited amount of reps...I'm all for it as he does bring  lot

 

1 minute ago, GCn20 said:

Good, I'm glad he is back and I hope we use him better

yup....and yu can bet he wants to erase that bad taste of 2025 outta his mouth and show he still has game....and in all honesty, he's not a fool and likely knew he wouldnt get a big bag of money elsewhere in FA anyway

[wbbfan]

16 minutes ago, MOBomberFan said:

https://www.bluebombers.com/2026/01/22/willie-j-will-stay/

Ed Tait rationalizing why Willie is a good signing makes me worry a bit the $ is higher than we all hope

I love Tait, but that article is insanely disjointed from reality. WJ hasn't been that guy since JJ last played here. 

If you include his sacks, he made 1 stop per game last year. This includes not recording a stat for 4 weeks in a row and 6 weeks in total. Despite that, he still didn't put up more than 2 tackles in a game. In the last 3 seasons, he has 4 games with 3 tackles or more, and 17 games without a stat recorded. 

It's not just that he disappears in the run game; he is actively attacked and exploited by other teams in read option plays. 

He isn't a force, and hasn't been for a long time. Sacks are down, yes, but everything is in the toilet for wj outside of pkds. His "Highly Decorated" achievements are all from years ago. He hasn't been close to that level of play or accomplishment since then. He isn't that leader. That was always the other guys. Look at the continual errors and poor discipline on the DL. It's not just that he isn't correcting it in others; he is a big part of that issue himself. The entertainer? It's just clowning around when you continually underachieve as a team, unit, and player. 

We didn't use the 30 front remotely as much as we used it in 24. And front alignment is separate from pressure. The most disruptive teams in football use fronts interchangeably. They break the play down by front alignment, pressure package, and cover package. 

And teams don't sit there and double wj a lot any more. They don't have to. He is going to coast and play for the PKD. 

 

PKDs, are the only consistent direct value he brings to the field. He does it at the expense of not just his pressure but the entire line's ability to disrupt. When you line up in a 40, and 1 guy is going to play rover looking for knockdowns, you aren't going to get pressure. Nichols was 2nd in the league in PKDs, with 13. While still doing his primary job of covering as well as anyone in the league, and playing a gap in the run fits. 

Our Defence saw  574 passing attempts. 357 of those were completed. That means 217 plays where the pass was not completed; of those 217 plays, WJ had 16 knockdowns. That means 7% of our pass incompletion success came from WJ. 

Tait mentions Betts in and the drop in sack production. Lets compare impact but instead, lets compare with Hicks. And lets say Hicks only won 10% snaps than WJ, lets ignore sacks, and count PKDs but only WJs. WJ had more snaps than hicks, so lets also give him that and reduce hicks effectiveness by going by WJs 529 passing snaps. If WJ won 10% of his snaps, that would be 52 disruptions, plus 16 PKDs, for 68. If Hicks won 20%, thats 104 disruptions.

 But then, if we go back to reality, Hicks had 28 tackles with 12 sacks in 465 passing plays. On a 20% win rate he is having a significant impact on 93 plays. 

Vs 15 tackles and 3 sacks in 529 passing plays.  In reality, with PKDs we are lucky if WJ impact 10% total of all passing plays against us last year. Significantly more snaps, significantly less total impact. 

 

 

57 minutes ago, captaincanuck12 said:

yeah reading that article makes me shake my head.   Willie only had 3 sacks, but here's the reason why ... we only rushed 3.     The clearer picture would be that how many sacks did the team have overall last year.

Anyways, I'm still a fan of his and am happy he is sticking around.   I think he'll have a bounce back year.

30 alignment doesn't mean we only rushed 3. Jones and Kyrie tied WJ for sacks, plus another lber and db with a sack. 

 

[Tracker]

22 hours ago, Mark H. said:

It'll be nice to date Julia Roberts again.

You are disclosing your age. These days its Sydney Sweeny who is hot.

Edited 2 hours ago by Tracker

[wbbfan]

43 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Willie J is still a very good DE. The system takes him out of a traditional DE role.

He isnt. And its not the system. But we better hope he still can be good. 

[rebusrankin]

31 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

He isnt. And its not the system. But we better hope he still can be good. 

If they rotate him, it might be OK but right now he's overrated and living on past glory. 

[HardCoreBlue]

8 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

He isnt. And its not the system. But we better hope he still can be good. 

Sometimes i feel it’s excuse after excuse for WJ’s decrease in productivity. The system, being double teamed, the DC etc etc. Simplify his role, his responsibilities rotate him in as a rushing DE on pass plays and see what happens. I’m hoping for the best obviously.

[Stickem]

Rotating Willie is key....Let's face it, biggest part of his game is knock downs...Can he/us live on that?? He's getting long in the tooth, and if he doesn't pick up all aspects of his game, the money we just doled out is questionable for sure...

[wbbfan]

Just now, rebusrankin said:

If they rotate him, it might be OK but right now he's overrated and living on past glory. 

Wj and vaughters were 4th and 6th in the league in pass rush attempts last year. We basically need to cut WJ's snaps in half, and more so on running downs vs running teams. Then we need to replace Vaughters with someone who can play the same volume of snaps at a higher level. Meanwhile, we also need a starting 3-tech. If we are lucky, we will get one of those 2 as a rookie, but almost certainly not the full-time end. So we'd need to sign 2 of the top 5-ish DL FAs, maybe less than that now. And sign another guy to compete with a rookie we would hope wins. 

If we don't spend a lot, and extremely well, and hit a ROTY type on the dl, the dl will be more of the same. 

Bringing back WJ isn't awful if he's cheap. if hes back for that big payday again, we are basically screwed short of winning the lotto. 

[GCn20]

59 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

He isnt. And its not the system. But we better hope he still can be good. 

We will agree to disagree

[wbbfan]

11 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Sometimes i feel it’s excuse after excuse for WJ’s decrease in productivity. The system, being double teamed, the DC etc etc. Simplify his role, his responsibilities rotate him in as a rushing DE on pass plays and see what happens. I’m hoping for the best obviously.

100%. The fact is, he doesn't play smart/disciplined. And he doesn't play relentlessly. On top of that, he's lost a step, and the league knows how to block him.

You don't see anyone else play for pass knockdowns on the edge. Either in the cfl, nfl or ncaa. If it were an effective means of disruption, it would be happening elsewhere. Especially in the ncaa/nfl where they have far better athletic/size outliers. 

We gotta hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I'm not sure the team or WJ are really prepared to do what needs to be done in any circumstance. The contract size will speak volumes to that though. 

[Booch]

29 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

If they rotate him, it might be OK but right now he's overrated and living on past glory. 

sorta like our QB who os paid a bloated and unnecessary salary

23 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Sometimes i feel it’s excuse after excuse for WJ’s decrease in productivity. The system, being double teamed, the DC etc etc. Simplify his role, his responsibilities rotate him in as a rushing DE on pass plays and see what happens. I’m hoping for the best obviously.

when he is played with talent he plays well....he needs that...as do many players

Once Stove....Nevis...Jeffcoat...Sayles left and were never replaced...and we didnt have rotational guys like Kongbo and Hansen....well the high end WJ kinda morphed into what we see, and some of it was forced on him

14 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Wj and vaughters were 4th and 6th in the league in pass rush attempts last year. We basically need to cut WJ's snaps in half, and more so on running downs vs running teams. Then we need to replace Vaughters with someone who can play the same volume of snaps at a higher level. Meanwhile, we also need a starting 3-tech. If we are lucky, we will get one of those 2 as a rookie, but almost certainly not the full-time end. So we'd need to sign 2 of the top 5-ish DL FAs, maybe less than that now. And sign another guy to compete with a rookie we would hope wins. 

If we don't spend a lot, and extremely well, and hit a ROTY type on the dl, the dl will be more of the same. 

Bringing back WJ isn't awful if he's cheap. if hes back for that big payday again, we are basically screwed short of winning the lotto. 

WJ even in his best...was the best when rotated and put in situational situations to do his things he does best...why we went away with that is beyond me....but do it again....vast difference

And how many plays was he out there with one of Schmeck of Korn on the nose with JT on the other end??...1 time was too many but it was a lot....and wtf is the thiking with that scheme?....So easy to scheme him out of anything

Basically any play with Thomas on the nose had WJ and or Vaufgters having to deal with 2...3 guys plus any help by skilled position blockers

Teams would let JT engage with one guy and happily let him do his "bullrush" knowing he couldnt disengage or if he got real close to the QB not be able to finish....That or they would just wash him left....or right.....to clear a path....or simply spin him around so his back was to play and again....render that spot useless for us

No player really could find a lot of success with that interior help

And then we would also us Scmeck or Korn on that role....and have 2 of the 3 on field in same set....totally crippling us....

11 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

100%. The fact is, he doesn't play smart/disciplined. And he doesn't play relentlessly. On top of that, he's lost a step, and the league knows how to block him.

You don't see anyone else play for pass knockdowns on the edge. Either in the cfl, nfl or ncaa. If it were an effective means of disruption, it would be happening elsewhere. Especially in the ncaa/nfl where they have far better athletic/size outliers. 

We gotta hope for the best and prepare for the worst. I'm not sure the team or WJ are really prepared to do what needs to be done in any circumstance. The contract size will speak volumes to that though. 

I agree....not as he was for sure....but also can be real usefull and that on the coaches as to actually implementing it....and not handcuffing the dline with a collection of guys who basically were worst in league and likely hard pressed to make a roster anywhere else...but got elite player reps

[wbbfan]

39 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

We will agree to disagree

How about this, we know in 24 we used the 30 front more than anyone in recent history. North of 60% useage as our base.

In 24, our DTs played almost 900 fewer snaps than our Ends. Last year, this gap was 370. Our 30 front usage last year was easily under 15%, with the 4-2 back to being our base. 

We also actually blitzed more in the last two years than we normally would see. It didn't have a good impact because teams didn't have to take half of our DLs rush attempts seriously. Which is personnel, not system. 

25 minutes ago, Booch said:

sorta like our QB who os paid a bloated and unnecessary salary

when he is played with talent he plays well....he needs that...as do many players

Once Stove....Nevis...Jeffcoat...Sayles left and were never replaced...and we didnt have rotational guys like Kongbo and Hansen....well the high end WJ kinda morphed into what we see, and some of it was forced on him

WJ even in his best...was the best when rotated and put in situational situations to do his things he does best...why we went away with that is beyond me....but do it again....vast difference

And how many plays was he out there with one of Schmeck of Korn on the nose with JT on the other end??...1 time was too many but it was a lot....and wtf is the thiking with that scheme?....So easy to scheme him out of anything

Basically any play with Thomas on the nose had WJ and or Vaufgters having to deal with 2...3 guys plus any help by skilled position blockers

Teams would let JT engage with one guy and happily let him do his "bullrush" knowing he couldnt disengage or if he got real close to the QB not be able to finish....That or they would just wash him left....or right.....to clear a path....or simply spin him around so his back was to play and again....render that spot useless for us

No player really could find a lot of success with that interior help

And then we would also us Scmeck or Korn on that role....and have 2 of the 3 on field in same set....totally crippling us....

I agree....not as he was for sure....but also can be real usefull and that on the coaches as to actually implementing it....and not handcuffing the dline with a collection of guys who basically were worst in league and likely hard pressed to make a roster anywhere else...but got elite player reps

We got cute replacing the DLs, just like we did replacing the C/OL. Hopefully we are past that now.

Yeah, I mean every dl is better with rotation. Wj has always benefited significantly from rotating, and being moved around. He always thrived with the element of surprise. be it rushing from a stand up, playing the nose in cheetah sets, switching sides or taking good size rests. 

 

 

Edited 30 minutes ago by wbbfan

[Mark H.]

2 hours ago, Tracker said:

You are disclosing your age. These days its Sydney Sweeny who is hot.

No idea who that is. I guess that'd be why I'm a football fan first.

[Noeller]

5 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

No idea who that is. I guess that'd be why I'm a football fan first.

And also NOT a creepy old man... Good work, Mr H...