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

I haven't been to camp but here's my best representation of what I can gather of the lineup from reports and other sources. Of course we will get the official pre-season game 1 depth chart tomorrow morning.

1 hour ago, Atomic said:

I haven't been to camp but here's my best representation of what I can gather of the lineup from reports and other sources. Of course we will get the official pre-season game 1 depth chart tomorrow morning.

Looks right to me. could be one or two spots like major might start at the other corner, but this is as good a guess as it gets.

10 hours ago, Jesse said:

No one is throwing Elgersma to the wolves though. Zach is the undisputed starter. We're talking about who is the SY yardage guy and who is the most capable of coming in incase of injury.

Against a bunch of other rookies and Terry Wilson, Elgersma has a decent shot of finishing ahead of the pack.

I didn't say they were but to think Zach should play behind Elgersma because he can throw with his arm & Zacjwith his whole body is ridiculous.

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I didn't say they were but to think Zach should play behind Elgersma because he can throw with his arm & Zacjwith his whole body is ridiculous.

Nobody has said that but reality with Zach is he’s just about cooked so better hope Elgersma can play cuz the other 2 can’t. Why you so anti Elgersma. What did he do to you or your son? Honestly. I don’t know why ppl find it hard to believe the dude who looked good in nfl pre season could possibly look good here also. Reality is if it was a true open competition, talks would need to take place cuz Zach hasn’t looked good. Ppl talk about practice is different. Sure but if you can’t do it in practice how can you in game. Reality with Zach is his best years are likely behind him.

Is Zach gonna all of a sudden not be terrible at accuracy and putting the ball where his receiver can get it, will he hit dudes in stride? No. They wait for his throws and have for 2 years.

Edited 16 hours ago16 hr by Goalie

2 hours ago, Atomic said:

I haven't been to camp but here's my best representation of what I can gather of the lineup from reports and other sources. Of course we will get the official pre-season game 1 depth chart tomorrow morning.

Got out to a few days of camp - was mostly rookie watching - but the list looks pretty locked in. Only noticeable tweak might be Stuart who seemed to be taking reps exclusively at halfback.

@Atomic Clercius behind both Cobb and Corcoran?

Clercius. Something happened there. While I don’t think he’s a starter, Cobb and Corcoran aren’t either but guess there was some truth to the rumours about Clercius and Zach getting into it a bit last year. If that’s the case they should trade Keven’s for a pick b4 releasing him.

2 hours ago, Goalie said:

Nobody has said that but reality with Zach is he’s just about cooked so better hope Elgersma can play cuz the other 2 can’t. Why you so anti Elgersma. What did he do to you or your son? Honestly. I don’t know why ppl find it hard to believe the dude who looked good in nfl pre season could possibly look good here also. Reality is if it was a true open competition, talks would need to take place cuz Zach hasn’t looked good. Ppl talk about practice is different. Sure but if you can’t do it in practice how can you in game. Reality with Zach is his best years are likely behind him.

Is Zach gonna all of a sudden not be terrible at accuracy and putting the ball where his receiver can get it, will he hit dudes in stride? No. They wait for his throws and have for 2 years.

NFL preseason is not quality football once the 3rd and 4th stringers get into the game. A lot of the guys we release at first cuts are the same guys taking those NFL TCF reps too.

2 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

@Atomic Clercius behind both Cobb and Corcoran?cH

Depth chart means nothing in preseason. However there were some rumors flying around about Clercius last year that weren't very favorable.

Edited 14 hours ago14 hr by GCn20

4 hours ago, Goalie said:

Nobody has said that but reality with Zach is he’s just about cooked so better hope Elgersma can play cuz the other 2 can’t. Why you so anti Elgersma. What did he do to you or your son? Honestly. I don’t know why ppl find it hard to believe the dude who looked good in nfl pre season could possibly look good here also. Reality is if it was a true open competition, talks would need to take place cuz Zach hasn’t looked good. Ppl talk about practice is different. Sure but if you can’t do it in practice how can you in game. Reality with Zach is his best years are likely behind him.

Is Zach gonna all of a sudden not be terrible at accuracy and putting the ball where his receiver can get it, will he hit dudes in stride? No. They wait for his throws and have for 2 years.

The kid's a rookie. You're already saying Zach's cooked so you've handed him the starting spot already. The kid needs time. You don't throw him in without experience.

8 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

@Atomic Clercius behind both Cobb and Corcoran?

Cobb is practicing in Demski's spot and Corcoran is filling in for Cobb at field WR. Clercius is at SB on the second team. We'll see how that shakes out when camp is over.

1 hour ago, Atomic said:

Cobb is practicing in Demski's spot and Corcoran is filling in for Cobb at field WR. Clercius is at SB on the second team. We'll see how that shakes out when camp is over.

To me it looks like the, "we want to try him at a different position to try and develop more versatility" thing we do every TC with a couple guys.

It makes sense to me, Clercius has great athleticism, we have a bunch of guys like Corcoran who can fill the roll of the blocking and playing field, but can't do much else. From the slot, Clercius can also pinch the edge with a block and release after on some plays. Plus he plays even bigger than his listed size, so if we want to make TE a thing long term, he would be a prime candidate to pass catch out of a TE alignment.

14 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

To me it looks like the, "we want to try him at a different position to try and develop more versatility" thing we do every TC with a couple guys.

It makes sense to me, Clercius has great athleticism, we have a bunch of guys like Corcoran who can fill the roll of the blocking and playing field, but can't do much else. From the slot, Clercius can also pinch the edge with a block and release after on some plays. Plus he plays even bigger than his listed size, so if we want to make TE a thing long term, he would be a prime candidate to pass catch out of a TE alignment.

yeah we woefully misused him the last few yrs....I think Condell will get most of him...Dude is a beast and can be very effective for us.

1 hour ago, Booch said:

yeah we woefully misused him the last few yrs....I think Condell will get most of him...Dude is a beast and can be very effective for us.

That right there. Totally forgot last years O was a total crap show. It’s almost like you gotta go back 2 seasons to really remember. I think anything that happened last year is maybe irrelevant. Speaking of which I never noticed the former OC the other day. Saw the RBs but didn’t notice him.

Edited 4 hours ago4 hr by Goalie

46 minutes ago, Goalie said:

That right there. Totally forgot last years O was a total crap show. It’s almost like you gotta go back 2 seasons to really remember. I think anything that happened last year is maybe irrelevant. Speaking of which I never noticed the former OC the other day. Saw the RBs but didn’t notice him.

I haven't either, but I wasn't looking for him either.

But something I did notice is that everyone is talking about the great improvement with Condell in how strong a communicator he is. Also, his great attitude. In the past years, I saw considerable frustration and angst between Zach and both Hogan and Buck. At first, I thought it was a looking too hard at it thing. But so many others in the organization and media have echoed the same things about Condell.

I don't think Zach was taking shots, nor was anyone else. But I think the interpersonal issues with Hogan are not understated.

Having a normal TC, and not throwing out the playbook come the regular season is going to be a massive boon to our offence.

5 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

I haven't either, but I wasn't looking for him either.

But something I did notice is that everyone is talking about the great improvement with Condell in how strong a communicator he is. Also, his great attitude. In the past years, I saw considerable frustration and angst between Zach and both Hogan and Buck. At first, I thought it was a looking too hard at it thing. But so many others in the organization and media have echoed the same things about Condell.

I don't think Zach was taking shots, nor was anyone else. But I think the interpersonal issues with Hogan are not understated.

Having a normal TC, and not throwing out the playbook come the regular season is going to be a massive boon to our offence.

Yeah there is a marked difference for sure...and several comments..and some somewhat cryptic by several different players last yr speaks volumes to how much a clusterfuck last yr was...especially when a lot of it was said too just after breaking camp.

The baffling part is Osh kept OC guy around in a reduced capacity..serves zero purpose and really nothing he can really teach BO or any back really to up their ganes

The fact we see MCI being integrated in as rb..full back and out in a pass catching role...Clercius being used differently and with more versatility tells you Condell see's potential and use in certain players others ignored..or just couldnt see. Be interesting how we deploy guys and what are offence looks like.

I'm thinking this may be the best thing to happen to ZC since..well he first arrived here.

Starting lineup for preseason week 1. I'm gonna try real hard not to look too hard into some of these Canadian TCF starting... or why you would start them but not Shay/Smith.

De WJ Jenkins

DT Korny (lol) Lawson

Wlb Jones, Mlb Wilson

Sam Griffin

CB Texada, Burrell

HB Holm, Nichols

S Kramdi

QB Zach, RB Brady TE Daniels

LT Bryant RT Broxton

LG Wallace C Eli RG Neuf

WR Corcoran, Fredericksen

SB White, Nield, Cobb

Edited 2 hours ago2 hr by wbbfan

I HOPE, that this is a case of we need to know what we have in Korny and see if a roster move to fill the back up is needed now. (It is)

And that we want to run Corcoran, Cobb and fredericksen against each other for the last wr spot.

It would make sense since we are doing the same with Texada and Burrell.

I hope Clercius gets lots of reps at Slot. I will be sick if we cut him for the also-rans who can't run.

3 hours ago, wbbfan said:

To me it looks like the, "we want to try him at a different position to try and develop more versatility" thing we do every TC with a couple guys.

It makes sense to me, Clercius has great athleticism, we have a bunch of guys like Corcoran who can fill the roll of the blocking and playing field, but can't do much else. From the slot, Clercius can also pinch the edge with a block and release after on some plays. Plus he plays even bigger than his listed size, so if we want to make TE a thing long term, he would be a prime candidate to pass catch out of a TE alignment.

I've been asking for this TE alignment for a while now being the armchair QB that I am. Would warm my heart. Throw in to this alignment having a true full back in I formation making room for BO and I've entered into football heaven.

1 minute ago, HardCoreBlue said:

I've been asking for this TE alignment for a while now being the armchair QB that I am. Would warm my heart. Throw in to this alignment having a true full back in I formation making room for BO and I've entered into football heaven.

Same here. I think the potential for running modern cluster/flex-spread/bunch style TE offences between 11 and 22 formation is tremendous. Especially if you get some big athletic Tes involved. The CFL lacks diversity in system and game plans to the point a mediocre job of running a modern style TE would take multiple years for the majority of teams to counter it.

A lot of those athletic tweeners want to stay at TE now, and not move over to DE. (Like wj did.) And the NFL only keeps a couple TEs around, while so many college teams are running outliers there. The available talent pool has more quality at TE then we have at WR or DL.

The motion up here also would make athletic big TEs deadly. Line up tight, flex to a spread but the TE gets to use the waggle as well. You could drag them in back field motion and have massive disruption in the tackle box defenders. You could Iso them and give CBs nightmares. If they play off and you screen now they have to solo tackle a giant, if they play tight 1 cut timing route and you not only have to close but you have to out reach said giant.

They don't even need to be $h!t kicking blockers, if they can beat up on smaller wils, sams and other DBs that alone goes a long long way.

yEAH....I hoping we seeing an offensive strategy shift. With some of the bodies we have that are athletic we could really exploit a lot of defenses who aren't accustomed to it

The athletic TE too who automatically will widen out the defensive front...allow likley more inside gap control, and with a back like BO that be a huge plus for us

And a big athletic TE who can basically just do a nice chop block/edge seal and then release into the flats or an out and up taking away a defender from the box would be another plus....especially as a true threat to catch the ball and do something with it

There is not a doubt in my mind that we're going to be running a NI DT (Lawson) and they want to have a NI back up. That WOULD have been Shmeck, and with him down, Korny is taking the spot. I have absolutely no doubts this is how we start the season because it's ALWAYS how they've built their roster.

I'm not saying Right or Wrong... Just saying they've always done this. Some combination of Jake, Lawson, Shmeck and Korny ... Always been a thing and likely always will be. Ceresna just replaced the turnstile of US DTs like Sayles, etc that have taken that spot over the years.

I, too, would like to see more reps for last year's LB draft picks. It's time to see if they can be starters.

This whole we love guys due to undefined intangibles BS needs to stop.

31 minutes ago, rebusrankin said:

This whole we love guys due to undefined intangibles BS needs to stop.

You have to have those glue guys. They make a difference. It can be argued we may have too many but if you have none you are the Craig Dickenson Riders...lots of talent half arsing it.

23 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

You have to have those glue guys. They make a difference. It can be argued we may have too many but if you have none you are the Craig Dickenson Riders...lots of talent half arsing it.

I'd argue glue guys are different than the undefined intangibles guys. Hallett in his prime = glue guy. Undefined intangibles with no obvious skill or team benefit guy = Corcoran, Damian Jackson.