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

I think our roster composition and player deployment is going to get stupid and cost us a win or two (as it always does) but overall, the talent at the top is there. The scary part is it’s old.

Brady, Demski, White, Pokey is definitely enough to compete on O, the D is going to be flying around, ST should be solid. I’m not worried that we’re going to lose 12 games, I’m worried we’re going to lose the last one because we’re old, beat up and not putting our best roster on the field.

Does anyone believe that if the decision needs to be made in the playoffs, Kyrie Wilson with a torn hammy isn’t coming off the field? That’s still my concern.

13 minutes ago, Mike said:

I think our roster composition and player deployment is going to get stupid and cost us a win or two (as it always does) but overall, the talent at the top is there. The scary part is it’s old.

Brady, Demski, White, Pokey is definitely enough to compete on O, the D is going to be flying around, ST should be solid. I’m not worried that we’re going to lose 12 games, I’m worried we’re going to lose the last one because we’re old, beat up and not putting our best roster on the field.

Does anyone believe that if the decision needs to be made in the playoffs, Kyrie Wilson with a torn hammy isn’t coming off the field? That’s still my concern.

I will wait and see. I think that the riot act was read from above and we will see some different deployment this year.

9 hours ago, BBlink said:

Team looks much better on paper across the board from last year. I think there's a lot of roster nitpicking going on, which is completely fair, but preemptive. The sky is not falling.

Agreed. We haven't even played a game yet and have no idea what our roster even looks like yet. I get that we have nerves around here about what our roster/deployment might look like, but let's wait to see it before we go all doom and gloom. We have a lot more talent than we did last year.

11 hours ago, Mark H. said:

Most teams are in a similar situation at QB. Davis, Harris, Adams, Rourke - injuries to any of them could sink that team's season. And some them are known for getting hurt

Nah. Oh wait Pittsburgh just signed a 42 year old to be their QB again. It’s not just a CFL problem.

I stopped by the stadium yesterday for about half an hour and decided to watch a bit of practice. Zach really puts his whole body into the long throws, Elgersma barely puts an effort at all. From my extremely limited viewing if I didn’t know who was starting, 13 looks better than 8 by far. I’d say if Zach got hurt we probably wouldn’t miss a beat and might actually be better. Limited viewing but just the motion difference in the long throws is night and day. All body Zach vs all arm Elgersma. I spoke to a dude who said he’s been a few times and he seems to think Elgersma has been the “best QB”. Just seems to be able to make all the throws with very little effort it seems. I’m cutting Terry right now as he truly can’t throw a ball 10 yards.

Edited 27 minutes ago27 min by Goalie

50 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

Thats a good point too. The OL is gonna be really really good. Wallace looks to have taken a big stepforward so far too. It is really deep too.

100%. Unless someone hits on QBs in this league soon, the league is going to be raiding old folkes homes for QBs.

Knew going into the off season no one was gonna fix QBing problems from with in the league. Next years FA qb crop probably wont be better either.

Can confirm, sky not falling. Also, the ground is not trying to escape through by way of the air any more. All clear on the western front.

We have a lot of solid upgrades from last year, and an addition by subtraction. Last years 10 wins was a bit of smoke n mirrors, but on the field I expect us to be one of the most improved teams in the league. We will be dumspter diving for Wrs, and probably for DL both ni and imp this year, which is frustrating. But its still overall an A- off season.

We appear to be a very well rounded roster thus far. I am not willing to write off our receivers yet as it is pretty early, but we are likely looking for NAT DL. All in all though I would say that our biggest two problems from last year have been pretty solidly improved. Our OL, and our OC, should be a lot better and that is 2-3 wins right there. I think our receivers are also better overall as well, but I will have to see them in game action to know for sure. I really think putting Zac in a system he knows, understands, and loves is going to be huge for us at QB.

lol. Tanner Schmekel goes down and DL depth is now a problem. lol honestly. If it’s a problem we prob shouldn’t be starting Canadians on the DL then. Cuz we don’t really need 2.

10 minutes ago, Goalie said:

Nah. Oh wait Pittsburgh just signed a 42 year old to be their QB again. It’s not just a CFL problem.

I stopped by the stadium yesterday for about half an hour and decided to watch a bit of practice. Zach really puts his whole body into the long throws, Elgersma barely puts an effort at all. From my extremely limited viewing if I didn’t know who was starting, 13 looks better than 8 by far. I’d say if Zach got hurt we probably wouldn’t miss a beat and might actually be better. Limited viewing but just the motion difference in the long throws is night and day. All body Zach vs all arm Elgersma. I spoke to a dude who said he’s been a few times and he seems to think Elgersma has been the “best QB”. Just seems to be able to make all the throws with very little effort it seems. I’m cutting Terry right now as he truly can’t throw a ball 10 yards.

Throwing a nice ball is only about 25% of what makes a good QB. If throwing a nice ball in practice was the end all be all then Dominique Davis would be a hall of famer. I am hopeful that TE can reach the other 75% of what makes for successful QBing but we honestly have no idea what we have at this point, and it is completely unrealistic to think that Elgersma would outperform Zac at this point. Don't get hung up on arm strength, it really is a red herring with the caveat that it is difficult to overcome a weak arm. Would I like Zac to be able to zip a ball like Elgersma? Sure....but that isn't his strength as a QB.

If Elgersma can learn to read a defence, make clutch throws under pressure, extend plays and not get happy feet, inspire and motivate his O unit, then he will be someone that has a real good chance at attaining the level of career that Zac is having. Let's not put the cart before the horse tho. The difference between wearing a yellow shirt in practice playing glorified catch, and doing it with bullets flying around you cannot be understated. Game action is not the same as practice.

Edited 13 minutes ago13 min by GCn20

12 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

As of today, in my known expert opinion, the oline is better with the addition of Broxton and Kolo's departure. The defence should be really good. Brady is excellent. Wilson+White+Demski is a nice trio and I like Nield. The questions are how does Zach play? Can we stay healthy? How do we manage the ratio? Do we keep loading the roster with STers who can't/don't get reps on offense or defense?

Best case, we win the Cup. Worst case we miss the playoffs. Likely case, we're somewhere around 10 wins and don't win the Cup.

We just lost JSK for the season. This is only the second week of TC. No team stays healthy after 2 pre season, 18 regular games, playoffs & GC. It's all about attrition. Injuries seems to have a lot to do with luck, it seems. Some teams just go on a run of bad luck. If a team gets lucky & stays relatively healthy then they have a shot to win a championship.