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

[17to85]

2 hours ago, GCn20 said:

Willie J is still a very good DE in a limited, rotational role

FTFY

11 minutes ago, Mark H. said:

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

I am only aware that there was some bruhahaha about nazis and blue Jean commercials...

[Atomic]

Quote

 

Mike O’Shea, Bombers relying on veteran leadership for 2026

https://www.cfl.ca/2026/01/22/mike-oshea-bombers-relying-on-veteran-leadership-for-2026/

 

 

Haven't we tried this already?

[Tracker]

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

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

Kinda  hard to not fall into that category when many young ladies are displaying their naughty bits all over the internet.

[GCn20]

8 minutes ago, Atomic said:

 

Haven't we tried this already?

Yep and it worked for many years.

[SpeedFlex27]

5 hours 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

Competition is better as well. Much better. And high schools as well as colleges play more games. Likely at least double. So. a kid that plays in Grades 10, 11 & 12 in Calgary plays 6 games tops. (Unless they have a good team & go on a provincial championship run). The HS season here starts after the LD weekend & ends by or just after Thanksgiving. Short season, Wham, Bam Thank You Ma'am. Most Calgary High Schools have QB Coaches but they can't teach the fundamentals of the new way of throwing the ball.

Why is the football season in calgary for example, so short? So football players can play other high school sports like basketball which just so happens to start right after Thanksgiving. Sometimes, if a high school goes on a run in the football playoffs tghen these basketball coaches have to wait & do they ever complain. I've listened to some disckhead basketball coach complain out loud in the phys ed office about the football season being too long because that entitled basketball coach has to wait for a couple of players to finish their gridiron season.

The kids in the US play 12 game seasons over 4 years. Americans over 8 years of high school & NCAA football also means from 30-50 more games played combined.  Fifty more games of better coaching & competition.

Elgersma is a product of that short Canadian high school & U Sport seasons. My son coaches in Seattle. High schools there start practicing in early August & the State Championships are played at Husky Stadium early to mid December. Kinda tough when the American competion plays dozens of more games at the high school & college level. The seasons for both is months longer which is a disadvantage when you're trying to crack an NFL team. And yet, other American qbs that have this advantage still can't make it either. Never having played in the American system save for a few series in the East West Shrine Game & a few in the NFL exhibition sea season last summer. If you were an NFL head coach looking to develop a qb who would you go with? Who would you trust? Ten were fired this past season.

Tremendous pressure for NFL head coaches to produce & win. So, having trust in a young player is huge. 

Edited yesterday at 10:00 PM by SpeedFlex27

[Booch]

35 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Yep and it worked for many years.

we just over did it and kept some long in the tooth guys too long, as we let some 2..3..4 yr guys walk instead....we should have been doing some transitioning each yr....hopefully we learned something

[GCn20]

32 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Competition is better as well. Much better. And high schools as well as colleges play more games. Likely at least double. So. a kid that plays in Grades 10, 11 & 12 in Calgary plays 6 games tops. (Unless they have a good team & go on a provincial championship run). The HS season here starts after the LD weekend & ends by or just after Thanksgiving. Short season, Wham, Bam Thank You Ma'am. Most Calgary High Schools have QB Coaches but they can't teach the fundamentals of the new way of throwing the ball.

Why is the football season in calgary for example, so short? So football players can play other high school sports like basketball which just so happens to start right after Thanksgiving. Sometimes, if a high school goes on a run in the football playoffs tghen these basketball coaches have to wait & do they ever complain. I've listened to some disckhead basketball coach complain out loud in the phys ed office about the football season being too long because that entitled basketball coach has to wait for a couple of players to finish their gridiron season.

The kids in the US play 12 game seasons over 4 years. Americans over 8 years of high school & NCAA football also means from 30-50 more games played combined.  Fifty more games of better coaching & competition.

Elgersma is a product of that short Canadian high school & U Sport seasons. My son coaches in Seattle. High schools there start practicing in early August & the State Championships are played at Husky Stadium early to mid December. Kinda tough when the American competion plays dozens of more games at the high school & college level. The seasons for both is months longer which is a disadvantage when you're trying to crack an NFL team. And yet, other American qbs that have this advantage still can't make it either. Never having played in the American system save for a few series in the East West Shrine Game & a few in the NFL exhibition sea season last summer. If you were an NFL head coach looking to develop a qb who would you go with? Who would you trust? Ten were fired this past season.

Tremendous pressure for NFL head coaches to produce & win. So, having trust in a young player is huge. 

Yep. just about all these kids are insanely good athletes so you go with the ones who you trust to have the experience handling the situations. Unfortunately that kind of blacklists CDN developed players. The only reason Elgersma even got an NFL camp is because he has a huge arm and being a one trick pony is probably why the NFL will never look at him seriously again.

[Atomic]

55 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Yep and it worked for many years.

Sure, to a certain degree. But when the Bombers were at their best in 19-21 it was the result of several years of big game hunting in free agency for studs like Andrew Harris, Bighill, WJ, Winston Rose, and Stanley Bryant, at the time those guys weren't just veteran leadership, they were the most talented players on the team. I look at the current roster and there isn't any position where we have the most talented player in the league. Maybe Brady. But the veteran leadership for the most part is washed up. It sure looks like they are bringing back 80-90% of the same players (unless MOS cuts them in camp LOL). It's hard for vets to be leaders when they can't bring it on the field anymore. If the Bombers aren't active in free agency and bring in a top name or two AND some impact rookies, it's just going to be even worse than last season. 

[HardCoreBlue]

2 hours ago, Atomic said:

 

Haven't we tried this already?

1 hour ago, Booch said:

we just over did it and kept some long in the tooth guys too long, as we let some 2..3..4 yr guys walk instead....we should have been doing some transitioning each yr....hopefully we learned something

Usually, but not always, your best leaders are also the ones who can also demonstrate their prowess on the playing field. 

I'm not going to name names because my therapist told me to move on.

[WinnipegGordo]

couple of new dudes

 

 

[Goalie]

I’m meh on Willie. I personally think he’s the laziest football player I’ve ever seen play football in my life. Dude literally gives up on plays and does nothing the past couple of years, now that could be a result of scheme or who he has been playing beside but nah, it’s not. I’m ok with one of Willie or Vaughters and guess they decided Willie. If both are brought back then I’m gonna prob think they didn’t learn anything. Seems like maybe kolo and Jake getting the blame for last year and they were only 2 of the problems. Willie was another. Willie at 130 150k I could live with. Willie close to 200 I’d be concerned. 

4 minutes ago, WinnipegGordo said:

couple of new dudes

 

 

Battle eh. Any relation to Greg?  Doesn’t appear to be but good last name. 

Edited 21 hours ago by Goalie

[SpeedFlex27]

44 minutes ago, Goalie said:

I’m meh on Willie. I personally think he’s the laziest football player I’ve ever seen play football in my life. Dude literally gives up on plays and does nothing the past couple of years, now that could be a result of scheme or who he has been playing beside but nah, it’s not. I’m ok with one of Willie or Vaughters and guess they decided Willie. If both are brought back then I’m gonna prob think they didn’t learn anything. Seems like maybe kolo and Jake getting the blame for last year and they were only 2 of the problems. Willie was another. Willie at 130 150k I could live with. Willie close to 200 I’d be concerned. 

Battle eh. Any relation to Greg?  Doesn’t appear to be but good last name. 

You're concerned with any Blue Bomber that doesn't play for free. 

[Goalie]

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

You're concerned with any Blue Bomber that doesn't play for free. 

No. I’m really not. It’s not my money. I just don’t think paying guys who are old is the answer. I mean it’s pro sports not an office job. Willie hasn’t been good for 2 seasons. He’s a liability and ppl can pretend they will rotate him but for 2 years they haven’t. 
 

nothing wrong with having some veterans around. That’s common in all sports. I’m not convinced Willie is a veteran leader tho I’d want the young guys following after. Because there’s no accountability for Willie. Dude literally gives up on plays, that’s not good veteran leadership 

Edited 20 hours ago by Goalie

[SpeedFlex27]

9 hours ago, Goalie said:

No. I’m really not. It’s not my money. I just don’t think paying guys who are old is the answer. I mean it’s pro sports not an office job. Willie hasn’t been good for 2 seasons. He’s a liability and ppl can pretend they will rotate him but for 2 years they haven’t. 
 

nothing wrong with having some veterans around. That’s common in all sports. I’m not convinced Willie is a veteran leader tho I’d want the young guys following after. Because there’s no accountability for Willie. Dude literally gives up on plays, that’s not good veteran leadership 

Look who he played with on the worst DL in the CFL. Jake Effing Thomas. You can't judge Willie fairly when he had a linemate who couldn't hold his head up without using his hand to mount any kind of pass rush inside. And Thomas had one move, A bullrush. One. That's it. And that bull rush wasn't even any good as he was constantly being pushed around. To make it worse, Younger played Thomas with Willie & Vaughters in a ******* 3 man front. How stupid is that? Judge Jefferson should be judged with decent talent around him this season (if they actually sign anyone) & not with that shitbag tackle he was paired with. 

Edited 10 hours ago by SpeedFlex27

[Mark H.]

Pretty polarized opinions on WJ. It'll be interesting to see how he does.

[GCn20]

16 hours ago, Atomic said:

Sure, to a certain degree. But when the Bombers were at their best in 19-21 it was the result of several years of big game hunting in free agency for studs like Andrew Harris, Bighill, WJ, Winston Rose, and Stanley Bryant, at the time those guys weren't just veteran leadership, they were the most talented players on the team. I look at the current roster and there isn't any position where we have the most talented player in the league. Maybe Brady. But the veteran leadership for the most part is washed up. It sure looks like they are bringing back 80-90% of the same players (unless MOS cuts them in camp LOL). It's hard for vets to be leaders when they can't bring it on the field anymore. If the Bombers aren't active in free agency and bring in a top name or two AND some impact rookies, it's just going to be even worse than last season. 

I certainly agree that we need to do some big game hunting in FA.

[Brandon]

5 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Pretty polarized opinions on WJ. It'll be interesting to see how he does.

I think if the salary was disclosed this would clear a lot of those opinions up.    

If they are paying him top dollar -  Vast majority of people on here would be unhappy. 

If they are paying him the same - Most folks would think it's an over pay because he's not in his prime.  Some folks wouldn't mind it and would assume that his reduction of sacks is a result of the system. 

If he is taking a pay cut -  Most folks would be happy with a few who think he should be outright cut.  

 

The ideal situation is him taking a bit of a pay cut and his play time reduced with the team bringing in fresh blood to rotate him.    

 

 

[Pete Catan's Ghost]

On 2026-01-22 at 10:11 AM, GCn20 said:

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

If the system changes to allow him to play more of a traditional role and he flourishes, there should be hell to pay for the last 2 years. 

[3rdand1.5]

My 2 cents....

 

I am OK with brining back Willie, I also would have understood if we moved on.....Like many here I feel is not an every down player...but we shall see.....

I believe getting rid of the Jackson/Hogan offence is a really big upgrade, nothing against either guy, but everyone who follows the team saw something was not cohesive within our offence......

I have been very happy with our signings, and happy to see a few of our older and possibly lower end talent guys being moved on from....

I am actually not incredibly concerned with our O-line....Hopefully a bit of focus in this and the next couple drafts, fill our cupboards again...

Receiver and D-line are our biggest needs.....We need one good import and one good CDN receiver, not sure who will be left in FA but we need IMO at least one of each....DL, Vaughters was fine, but we don't need fine, we need better, again not sure who makes it to FA, but I would like to see a CDN rotational piece and at least one at minimum semi proven import to compete outta FA....

 

 

 

[rebusrankin]

Gittens Jr would be a nice add in free agency.

[Booch]

2 hours ago, 3rdand1.5 said:

My 2 cents....

 

I am OK with brining back Willie, I also would have understood if we moved on.....Like many here I feel is not an every down player...but we shall see.....

I believe getting rid of the Jackson/Hogan offence is a really big upgrade, nothing against either guy, but everyone who follows the team saw something was not cohesive within our offence......

I have been very happy with our signings, and happy to see a few of our older and possibly lower end talent guys being moved on from....

I am actually not incredibly concerned with our O-line....Hopefully a bit of focus in this and the next couple drafts, fill our cupboards again...

Receiver and D-line are our biggest needs.....We need one good import and one good CDN receiver, not sure who will be left in FA but we need IMO at least one of each....DL, Vaughters was fine, but we don't need fine, we need better, again not sure who makes it to FA, but I would like to see a CDN rotational piece and at least one at minimum semi proven import to compete outta FA....

 

 

 

I agree....reciever and dline are huge priorities and we should do all we can to get the best available at each spot....National or Import and work the ratio accordingly....lose the rigid mindset

I as well am not too concerned with the oline and the expunging of Kolo alone will havea huge effect and ripple it's way right out to each tackle

I fully expect Bryant back as his farewell season and a Bryant/Wallace/Eli/Neuf/Randolph group as starters breaking camp with Vibert as the 6th alone is more than just fine 

We also have Vanterpool who could factor into the mix, and a couple nice prospects coming to camp...Thats not even counting FA and the Draft where maybe we strike gold...if so even better and pretty sure a real OC this yr will rectify most of if ot all the confusion and turnstile looking things we saw last yr

 

Edited 1 hour ago by Booch

[HardCoreBlue]

1 hour ago, Pete Catan's Ghost said:

If the system changes to allow him to play more of a traditional role and he flourishes, there should be hell to pay for the last 2 years. 

Exactly.

[SpeedFlex27]

2 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

Gittens Jr would be a nice add in free agency.

We need more than nice. We need impact. 

[BBlink]

16 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

We need more than nice. We need impact. 

Agree. I'm looking for guys that are taking the next step. I think Brissett is one of those