Per 3downnation, these are our free agents ... basically everyone but Zach, Vaval, Peterson, Clercius, Randolph, Wallace, Pokey Wilson, MCI, Allen, T. Jones, and Leroux the longsnapper.  

Quarterback

Chris Streveler (A)

Running back

Brady Oliveira (N)

Receiver

Kody Case (A)
Nic Demski (N)
Dillon Mitchell (A)
Dalton Schoen (A)
Jerreth Sterns (A)
Keric Wheatfall (A)

OL

Stanley Bryant (A)
Tui Eli (N)
Chris Kolankowski (N)
Eric Lofton (A)
Patrick Neufeld (N)

Defensive line

Willie Jefferson (A)
Cameron Lawson (N)
Tanner Schmekel (N)
Jake Thomas (N)
James Vaughters (A)
Jamal Woods (A)

Linebacker

Tanner Cadwallader (N)
Shayne Gauthier (N)
Kyrie Wilson (A)

Defensive back

Terrell Bonds (A)
Michael Griffin II (A)
Nick Hallett (N)
Evan Holm (A)
Demerio Houston (A)
Redha Kramdi (N)
Enock Makonzo (N)
Deatrick Nichols (A)
Jamal Parker (A)

Specialist

Sergio Castillo (A)
Jamieson Sheahan (G)

Edited November 12, 2025Nov 12 by johnzo

First off, what other QB's were available is a red herring. What other QB's are available only matters if another team was willing to pay Collaros more than we did. We could have offered less and still signed him, IMO.

For yucks though... Let's say we decided to go younger with Maier or Powell. Then we'd have $300K extra to upgrade other parts of the team. You can debate if $300K with a lesser QB is better or worse for our playoff chances if you want.

1 hour ago, TBURGESS said:

First off, what other QB's were available is a red herring. What other QB's are available only matters if another team was willing to pay Collaros more than we did. We could have offered less and still signed him, IMO.

For yucks though... Let's say we decided to go younger with Maier or Powell. Then we'd have $300K extra to upgrade other parts of the team. You can debate if $300K with a lesser QB is better or worse for our playoff chances if you want.

And probably not win. Maier was dreadful as a starter in Calgary. He hasn't shown he'd do any better as a starter. Powell hasn't played much. No one knows what he can do. Powell has sat for 4 seasons. You want to gamble the future on those 2 to save some money? I don't.

Edited 15 hours ago15 hr by SpeedFlex27

16 hours ago, BBlink said:

We will learn a lot by how well he performs this year. No excuses as I think he has the tools now. I believe he will have a huge bounce back year.

Let’s tag this coming season as ‘All in’.

2 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

There are no starting qbs on the horizon anywhere. The backup qb situation sucks.

With all respect to ZC and others, could also argue current CFL starting qb’s need a significant upgrade. We get nine elite QB’s across the league we help enhance our league.

1 hour ago, HardCoreBlue said:

With all respect to ZC and others, could also argue current CFL starting qb’s need a significant upgrade. We get nine elite QB’s across the league we help enhance our league.

Where are these upgrades going to come from? No one answers because they have none yet the bitching never stops. We just have a bunch of spoiled whiners here complaining about his salary whether Collaros takes a paycut or not. Like they're paying him themselves.

Edited 12 hours ago12 hr by SpeedFlex27

4 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Where are these upgrades going to come from? No one answers because they have none yet the bitching never stops. We just have a bunch of spoiled whiners here complaining about his salary whether Collaros takes a paycut or not. Like they're paying him themselves.

Scouting? Combing the earth to uncover prospects? Enticing the NFL fringe QB’s to play here with creative compensation structures?

49 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

Scouting? Combing the earth to uncover prospects? Enticing the NFL fringe QB’s to play here with creative compensation structures?

Sure. Scouting guarantees us the next HOF qb. Lol. If only it was that easy. Try again.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by SpeedFlex27

56 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Sure. Scouting guarantees us the next HOF qb. Lol. If only it was that easy. Try again.

4 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

And probably not win. Maier was dreadful as a starter in Calgary. He hasn't shown he'd do any better as a starter. Powell hasn't played much. No one knows what he can do. Powell has sat for 4 seasons. You want to gamble the future on those 2 to save some money? I don't.

Missing the point as always.
We didn't have to pay Collaros what we did unless there was another bidder willing to pay more. If you think there was, show your work.

Maier was terrible, but the comparison isn't Maier vs Collaros at the same price. It's Maier + $300k or more to spend on other players vs Collaros and his salary. $300K would go a long way to fix our O and D lines for example.

No one is talking about gambling the future on any QB.

4 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

And probably not win. Maier was dreadful as a starter in Calgary. He hasn't shown he'd do any better as a starter. Powell hasn't played much. No one knows what he can do. Powell has sat for 4 seasons. You want to gamble the future on those 2 to save some money? I don't.

And currently isn’t Maier the highest paid CFL QB? Good gracious.

1 hour ago, TBURGESS said:

Missing the point as always.
We didn't have to pay Collaros what we did unless there was another bidder willing to pay more. If you think there was, show your work.

Maier was terrible, but the comparison isn't Maier vs Collaros at the same price. It's Maier + $300k or more to spend on other players vs Collaros and his salary. $300K would go a long way to fix our O and D lines for example.

No one is talking about gambling the future on any QB.

What kind of twisted logic is that? You make no sense. With your argument, every player is overpaid. And there's no market for any player to ask for money. You realize that Rourke will be making $700,000 in 2027 & $800,000 in 2029? Is he worth it? Has he got the Lions to the Grey Cup? What's he won??

there's no doubt that we overpaid for Collaros for this year based on his performance over the past two years

The problem was that there isn't a lot of alternatives. Walters needed to show some backbone knowing that no one else would pay more than 500k. However if it had dragged on, it certainly would have made it harder to attract free agents without a legitimate qb under contract. Unfortunately, this was a year where there was no other starting qbs available. The other factor is that we were able to resign our own free agents to have one more crack with this core at the cup

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by Pete

6 hours ago, Pete said:

there's no doubt that we overpaid for Collaros for this year based on his performance over the past two years

The problem was that there isn't a lot of alternatives. Walters needed to show some backbone knowing that no one else would pay more than 500k. However if it had dragged on, it certainly would have made it harder to attract free agents without a legitimate qb under contract. Unfortunately, this was a year where there was no other starting qbs available. The other factor is that we were able to resign our own free agents to have one more crack with this core at the cup

There were qbs available like Powell. Whether he can win as an eventual starter is debatable. The problem with the Bombers is that they're stuck waiting on Egersma to come up here at the expense of everything else. Walters won't sign anyone until he knows if the Canadian kid is coming here. The logic to which I don't understand because no CFL contract is guaranteed. In other words, they could have signed Powell had they wanted to because if they chose to they could release him later if Elgersma has a change of heart. If not Powell, then a couple of the depth qbs they have now on the roster like Artoepus & Wilson. We shouldn't be keeping a backup qb seat open for a rookie. I have a feeling that Elgersma doesn't want to play here anyway & we'll eventually have to trade his rights to a team in Southern Ontario.