With Rookie Camp getting underway Wednesday morning, it's officially time to talk about the 2026 Winnipeg Blue Bombers!

1 hour ago, 5for6 said:

My first post so go easy on responses:) I have to agree about draft pick Stuart (#7 - on D) - frankly surprised he hasn’t gotten more mentions from his camp - disagree with early comments he’s just a ST body. My nephew played with him at Mac so I’ve seen many of his college games and he’s a legitimate top tier stud - elite in coverage, in the box and he tackles like a beast.

Here’s a theory - because he’s a non counter - wonder if JY is hiding him with the 3’s until roster trimming is done. Apparently JY talks to him regularly - would be surprised if he isn’t rostered as he’s been taking reps with the 1’s on punt, and regular D reps with the 2’s and done well. With his size (220+) and movement he presents a ton of options - Boundary Safety, Half, SAM or WSLB. My nephew sent a great cut up of Stuart’s camp performance (pretty impressive: multiple picks/PBU’s and dominant in battle drills) - I’d post it but I don’t know how to upload video attachments?

Stuart has soo much upside, sam/lber body with the athleticism and raw tools to run with wrs and cover. I’d love to have him on the ar early to play teams and develop as an actual db. He was a great sleeper pick.

Idk if we’d have to hide him. teams don’t usually poach rookie drafted canadians if you pr em. idr the last pr poach at all.

Pressure should be on both hallett and kelly. Ball really over achieved last year and had some flashes. Kid plays his heart out.

2 hours ago, wbbfan said:

jsk done for the year. soo much for the 2nd time around . I hope it wasn’t a signing bonuses front end loaded deal

Brilliant strategy to avoid playing against him this year - sign him knowing if he's playing for us this year, he would immediately get hurt.

My first time I’ve paid much attention to preseason camp - figured Stuart would atleast generated some local attention but the Daniels thing seems to have dominated the media circuit - been crickets on Stuart - nothing from Tait or other local media? TSN and 3down both had him as a top 25 prospect in a NCAA dominated draft class. (Not trying to over hype him but he obviously needs some help in the publicity department!! lol)

Some good audio from 3down on the first few minutes of in his YouTube film for anyone looking for tidbits on the talent pool at camp.

Prospect film

34 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Probably the best example of a guy who flew under the radar of posters but turned into a ******* good player is Clarence Denmark.

A real champ over achiever. I loved that guy, soo much heart and just played his ass off.

44 minutes ago, Blue28 said:

I like that he can play any of the Line Backer positions and Safety.

You can really see that trend in our D too. Smith, shay, ayers, and woodbey for starters. We have some other big dbs who are sam tweeners too.

The secondary and second level have soo many guys that are modular and can play many roles from many alignments.

The athleticism of our canadian defensive back ups is really tremendous too. We’ve gone from those guys being the outliers and massive luxuries to that being the barrier for entry.

Most all the those candian D subs are not just athletic outliers, but they are tough nasty hard nosed football players. Not just pile of cross over athletes trying to make a go of it.

That versatile athletic canadian defensive back up core, is going to be a major back bone to our defensive success this year and going forward.

20 minutes ago, 5for6 said:

My first time I’ve paid much attention to preseason camp - figured Stuart would atleast generated some local attention but the Daniels thing seems to have dominated the media circuit - been crickets on Stuart - nothing from Tait or other local media? TSN and 3down both had him as a top 25 prospect in a NCAA dominated draft class. (Not trying to over hype him but he obviously needs some help in the publicity department!! lol)

Some good audio from 3down on the first few minutes of in his YouTube film for anyone looking for tidbits on the talent pool at camp.

Prospect film

I've boarded the hype train

25 minutes ago, 5for6 said:

My first time I’ve paid much attention to preseason camp - figured Stuart would atleast generated some local attention but the Daniels thing seems to have dominated the media circuit - been crickets on Stuart - nothing from Tait or other local media? TSN and 3down both had him as a top 25 prospect in a NCAA dominated draft class. (Not trying to over hype him but he obviously needs some help in the publicity department!! lol)

Some good audio from 3down on the first few minutes of in his YouTube film for anyone looking for tidbits on the talent pool at camp.

Prospect film

The coverage for training camp has gotten to embarrassingly terrible levels. Just a few fluff pieces, and some individual mentions of nice plays. It would be nice to actually see some actual write ups of what is going on.

The camp coverage has been bad for years, media coverage is even worse. The only guy who asks tough questions is the one guy who shouldn’t (Friesen) and the rest of them just lob softballs.

Looking forward to seeing some preseason action to see who stands out but not going to read much into it either. I’d like to see Burrell, Fletcher, Fredericksen, Pace, Addison as newcomers who seem like they could at least be something. Curious to see Nuer and Daniels in game situations too, they don’t strike me as the types to pop in practice. Overall, just excited to have football back.

12 minutes ago, Mike said:

The camp coverage has been bad for years, media coverage is even worse. The only guy who asks tough questions is the one guy who shouldn’t (Friesen) and the rest of them just lob softballs.

Looking forward to seeing some preseason action to see who stands out but not going to read much into it either. I’d like to see Burrell, Fletcher, Fredericksen, Pace, Addison as newcomers who seem like they could at least be something. Curious to see Nuer and Daniels in game situations too, they don’t strike me as the types to pop in practice. Overall, just excited to have football back.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Blue Bombers Training Camp | Day 9 - Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Day after day after day during Winnipeg Blue Bombers training camp one scene has repeated over and over again: receiver Christian Frederickson making at least one ‘Oh, wow’ reception. “He’s done extre

Definitely intrigued now about Fredrickson... At that size, generally, if he was any good he'd be in The League... But I'm definitely cheering for him.

That’s exactly the kind of consistency every player in camp craves and every coaching staff and scouting personnel covets. And for Frederickson, a big target at 6-3, 309 pounds, it’s exactly the same thing he did through a solid collegiate career at Idaho State.

Madden Create-A-Players are leaking into the real world.

24 minutes ago, Noeller said:

Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Blue Bombers Training Camp | Day 9 - Winnipeg Blue Bombers

Day after day after day during Winnipeg Blue Bombers training camp one scene has repeated over and over again: receiver Christian Frederickson making at least one ‘Oh, wow’ reception. “He’s done extre

Definitely intrigued now about Fredrickson... At that size, generally, if he was any good he'd be in The League... But I'm definitely cheering for him.

We really need a 50/50 guy. Hopefully he's a guy that continues to impress since the highly touted other big man couldn't make the grade.

5 hours ago, wbbfan said:

jsk done for the year. soo much for the 2nd time around . I hope it wasn’t a signing bonuses front end loaded deal

Achilles, perhaps? JSK played in the CFL for over a decade. Why can't we go after younger free agents? We ran into the same problem when we signed thirty plus receivers. Most of them were busts here because of injuries. What a waste of free agent resources.

2 minutes ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Achilles, perhaps? JSK played in the CFL for over a decade. Why can't we go after younger free agents? We ran into the same problem when we signed thirty plus receivers. Most of them were busts here because of injuries. What a waste of free agent resources.

very good chance. Maybe acl, or some critical hammy tear, but probably achilles.

I kinda of get it with jsk. flyer on a guy we know well at a position that isn’t a need. High upside, fairly low risk. So long as we didn’t give him a massive upfront bonus.

It would be nice to dive in on the younger guys that’s never been our mo.

Just now, wbbfan said:

very good chance. Maybe acl, or some critical hammy tear, but probably achilles.

I kinda of get it with jsk. flyer on a guy we know well at a position that isn’t a need. High upside, fairly low risk. So long as we didn’t give him a massive upfront bonus.

It would be nice to dive in on the younger guys that’s never been our mo.

We never learn from past mistakes. From playing up to 10 Canadian starters for no reason other than to get an extra second round pick to signing older veteran free agent players, these were the criticisms of Walters & Osh before. Nothing's really changed other than someone setting Walter's alarm this season so he didn't sleep thru free agency on Day 1 . Of course, we knew these criticisms last year when their contracts were expiring.

Not sure if it was mentioned but Schmekel was added to the 6 game list today.

42 minutes ago, bigg jay said:

Not sure if it was mentioned but Schmekel was added to the 6 game list today.

Faaaaaack... People ***** but he was a more than adequate back up at NI DT. Who's next up.... Time for Fatboi to strap em back on? :)

I'm actually not totally convinced Lawson will even start at DT... I could see a scenario where it's all-import on the DL with Lawson, Gatkuoth, and KMB in rotation. Maybe.

So Kornelson takes Schmekel's spot?

2 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

So Kornelson takes Schmekel's spot?

Looks like it right now.

Korn and Schmek both get cut on other teams.

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by Goalie

Do they take a look at Covington now?

10 hours ago, bigg jay said:

Not sure if it was mentioned but Schmekel was added to the 6 game list today.

boy that sucks. We don’t have a lot of ni dt depth.

1 hour ago, rebusrankin said:

So Kornelson takes Schmekel's spot?

I wonder what zach davis the riffles kid from last year is doing. is he with the bisons now?

1 hour ago, Bigblue204 said:

Do they take a look at Covington now?

sure should.

3 hours ago, Atomic said:

I'm actually not totally convinced Lawson will even start at DT... I could see a scenario where it's all-import on the DL with Lawson, Gatkuoth, and KMB in rotation. Maybe.

I’d bet that doesn’t happen. For one lawson is the only guy on the roster who is a real nose. One of our rookie imp dts would have to be an absolute monster to steal that job, even then i wouldn’t bet on it happening.

would’ve been nice to have kept adams, but he didn’t take any steps forward while here.

1 hour ago, Goalie said:

Korn and Schmek both get cut on other teams.

schmek has made him self into a legit end of the roster ni. He was brutal as a rookie, but he improved a lot. Plus he diversified his skill set with blocking in heavy set /kick team. With his hustle, foot work, hand use, and intangibles, I think most teams would’ve converted him to a guard or C. If he picked up snapping reasonably well (which snapping to the pistol is not nearly as difficult as deep shot gun) he would be an excellent C.

Edited 1 hour ago1 hr by wbbfan

His lack of any sort of stat line outside of 1 game tho means he gets cut by other teams. Korn is just a joke. With that said Ticats picked up Kolo so maybe someone does give schmek a shot. Korn tho is cut.

As for Covington, he was cut early so tells me he’s not good. I think he’s washed up. Never lived up to the hype really. Don’t think it changes at his age

Edited 56 minutes ago56 min by Goalie

6 minutes ago, Goalie said:

His lack of any sort of stat line outside of 1 game tho means he gets cut by other teams. Korn is just a joke. With that said Ticats picked up Kolo so maybe someone does give schmek a shot. Korn tho is cut.

As for Covington, he was cut early so tells me he’s not good. I think he’s washed up. Never lived up to the hype really. Don’t think it changes at his age

Being cut is not always a result of not being good. Salary, and in Covington's case he was compensated well, vs performance can seal a player's fate. Covington, on the right contract, is a CFL calibre player still. He's not going to light the world on fire or anything but he would represent a big upgrade in depth to us. Question is whether he would come here for a contract that would fit his role.

4 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Being cut is not always a result of not being good. Salary, and in Covington's case he was compensated well, vs performance can seal a player's fate. Covington, on the right contract, is a CFL calibre player still. He's not going to light the world on fire or anything but he would represent a big upgrade in depth to us. Question is whether he would come here for a contract that would fit his role.

Yeah. I don’t think so. I think he’s washed. Dude played in the nfl for a while, 32 years old now, I dunno. Seems like injury related tho. I’m not sure if it’s washed or injured. Was 6 gamed last year so to be an early cut likely suggests he’s not healthy. 32 and prob has a few bucks saved up means the motivation likely wasn’t there anymore. If not for the local team then likely not for anyone else either. I’d rather the rifles kid get a shot.

Edited 39 minutes ago39 min by Goalie