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

Even the people we do put on the roster, are they put in positions to maximize their chances? I don't think the game plan did our QBs any favours, I don't think the defensive philosophy helps our DBS out at all... What other ideological thing a are we trying to force?

35 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

So in summary if the GM gets good players the team wins. Thanks for pointing that out. We can sit here and grouse about the coaching but at the end of the day the talent on the field is what matters most. I completely agree with you about that.

You are only as good as your weakest link. The primary limiting factor varies from team to team. But what is the most highly valued coach in all of pro sports? An offensive coordinator. Football has by far the highest value-added aspect from coaching, and a huge chunk of that comes from the HC's roster and the playbook/call of both COs.

In baseball, you can throw a great team under any manager and succeed. In hockey and basketball, coaching matters more, but still a lot less than the talent on the field. In football, it's generally very close.

Football also has the smallest talent gap between fringe league guys and starters. The primary limiting factor with players isn't often talent, athleticism, or size; it's fit and usage.

This is why we've seen big free agents flop, then produce again elsewhere in football, and why we've seen teams like the old Stamps dynasty able to run through tons of veteran players and maintain their high level of play.

4 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Even the people we do put on the roster, are they put in positions to maximize their chances? I don't think the game plan did our QBs any favours, I don't think the defensive philosophy helps our DBS out at all... What other ideological thing a are we trying to force?

Our front useage and gap scheme is not very good. We see HBs taking the inside gaps all the time while the lbers are both chasing sidelines and getting washed out in the blocking scheme.

9 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

You are only as good as your weakest link. The primary limiting factor varies from team to team. But what is the most highly valued coach in all of pro sports? An offensive coordinator. Football has by far the highest value-added aspect from coaching, and a huge chunk of that comes from the HC's roster and the playbook/call of both COs.

In baseball, you can throw a great team under any manager and succeed. In hockey and basketball, coaching matters more, but still a lot less than the talent on the field. In football, it's generally very close.

Football also has the smallest talent gap between fringe league guys and starters. The primary limiting factor with players isn't often talent, athleticism, or size; it's fit and usage.

This is why we've seen big free agents flop, then produce again elsewhere in football, and why we've seen teams like the old Stamps dynasty able to run through tons of veteran players and maintain their high level of play.

Our front useage and gap scheme is not very good. We see HBs taking the inside gaps all the time while the lbers are both chasing sidelines and getting washed out in the blocking scheme.

our usage was horrible....and factor in a poor choice of who to actually use even worse

It was obvious all your that there were things both sides the ball that needed to be addressed....some even just minor little things that would have probably had a major impact on the overall picture...and if for anything wouldnt heve been worse

But it was either ignored due to stubborn selfish reason's....Not actually recognized due to an inability to see it...we lacked ability to fix it....HC incapable of recognizing and then have the chops to if not fix, try and address it...pick your poison(s) but nothing was done. And it wasn't just a this yr thing..this been ongoing

Personally I think a lot of it was the stubborn/selfish bias of the coach and I base it on his stupid stance in not utilizing the Nationalized American rule because he didn't like it, plus his insistence to play more Canadians than required, again for no particular reason other than his personal choice, as it wasn't due to them being better...if they were....have at it...but they weren't. Add to it his real lack of technical football I.Q (self admitted btw) and his poor way to evaluate talent and it's prett evident where the weakest link has been exposed now...and after 13 yrs now here...He ain't changing his ways...he is what he is....done here...Move on elsewhere and prove you're what some people think

Good example....Killam in edm...took over a dumpster fire...But he also added and played a ton of new blood...rookies...didnt glom onto old vets...added some key rookies later in the yr this yr...and is in the cup..with best record in the West...does anyone here think if they lured Osh over there he would have done that in yr 2?...I dont...too bad they didnt get him and us Killam...He would have rostered the best guys...showed firery attitude on sidelines and guys would be held accountable for their starter spots...or be relegated to bench

On 2026-11-07 at 9:40 PM, wbbfan said:

Having Singer and Wilson is a lot to start with. Gotta replace white and probably demski/ 1 canadian. Hit free agency for a wr1 and a good canadian and then you just need depth.

I believe the lesser Philpot has indicated he doesn't plan to re-sign in Calgary...

14 hours ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

I wonder what Brady though? How many yards did Condell cost Oliveira this season? Five hundred pus? I bet he has juuuuust a little different take on Condell.

500+ yards would put him over 2000 for the year, so probably not that many... but there were definitely many times when he could've been used more

Just now, Booch said:

our usage was horrible....and factor in a poor choice of who to actually use even worse

It was obvious all your that there were things both sides the ball that needed to be addressed....some even just minor little things that would have probably had a major impact on the overall picture...and if for anything wouldnt heve been worse

But it was either ignored due to stubborn selfish reason's....Not actually recognized due to an inability to see it...we lacked ability to fix it....HC incapable of recognizing and then have the chops to if not fix, try and address it...pick your poison(s) but nothing was done. And it wasn't just a this yr thing..this been ongoing

Personally I think a lot of it was the stubborn/selfish bias of the coach and I base it on his stupid stance in not utilizing the Nationalized American rule because he didn't like it, plus his insistence to play more Canadians than required, again for no particular reason other than his personal choice, as it wasn't due to them being better...if they were....have at it...but they weren't. Add to it his real lack of technical football I.Q (self admitted btw) and his poor way to evaluate talent and it's prett evident where the weakest link has been exposed now...and after 13 yrs now here...He ain't changing his ways...he is what he is....done here...Move on elsewhere and prove you're what some people think

Good example....Killam in edm...took over a dumpster fire...But he also added and played a ton of new blood...rookies...didnt glom onto old vets...added some key rookies later in the yr this yr...and is in the cup..with best record in the West...does anyone here think if they lured Osh over there he would have done that in yr 2?...I dont...too bad they didnt get him and us Killam...He would have rostered the best guys...showed firery attitude on sidelines and guys would be held accountable for their starter spots...or be relegated to bench

I did not think Killam was going to be nearly as good a HC as he is. I gotta give him major props. I did not think that after they brought back Hervey, they would accomplish a fraction of what they have. If they win the final GC under real CFL rules, that will be pretty fitting.

We see it time after time: a bad coach makes good plays look worse than they are, whereas great coaches cycle through guys with great success.

Some of the ultimate examples of the impact of coaching on player performance is the RBs of the Shanahans coaches. Tons and tons of late-round picks and UDFAs who looked like all-stars with them then came back to earth with other teams.

We've seen it here with Rbs too. Brady was far from the guy he is today in years 1 and 2.

Look at the starting QBing in this league and how much time they spent with AC/Maas, and Maksymic. I think Buck is on the fringe of that group too.

10 minutes ago, bearpants said:

I believe the lesser Philpot has indicated he doesn't plan to re-sign in Calgary...

500+ yards would put him over 2000 for the year, so probably not that many... but there were definitely many times when he could've been used more

Boy, Jalen will get paaaiiiddddddd.

14 minutes ago, Booch said:

Good example....Killam in edm...took over a dumpster fire...But he also added and played a ton of new blood...rookies...didnt glom onto old vets...added some key rookies later in the yr this yr...and is in the cup..with best record in the West...does anyone here think if they lured Osh over there he would have done that in yr 2?...I dont...too bad they didnt get him and us Killam...He would have rostered the best guys...showed firery attitude on sidelines and guys would be held accountable for their starter spots...or be relegated to bench

The funny thing is you just described exactly what O'Shea/Walters did from 2014-2019... just took them longer to do it...

The question shouldn't be "why can't O'Shea and Walters do this?"... it should be "why did they stop doing this?"

Edited 20 hours ago20 hr by bearpants

18 hours ago, rebusrankin said:

From the article and this makes me barf

“I love Tommy, I love his family, I love the person that he is,” said Collaros. “I think he’s the best play-caller I’ve ever played for. He’s the best coordinator I’ve ever played for. It’s not really close.”

Warts and all Lapo and Buck were both better than Tommy.

Where is the "barf" icon when you really, really need it?

1 hour ago, bearpants said:

I believe the lesser Philpot has indicated he doesn't plan to re-sign in Calgary...

500+ yards would put him over 2000 for the year, so probably not that many... but there were definitely many times when he could've been used more

unless, of course, you are fond of the excitement that turnovers bring.

52 minutes ago, bearpants said:

The funny thing is you just described exactly what O'Shea/Walters did from 2014-2019... just took them longer to do it...

The question shouldn't be "why can't O'Shea and Walters do this?"... it should be "why did they stop doing this?"

Until walters supplied osh with legit proven vets..we were struggling and he was a foot out the door...and since the cups and that formula eroded..we headed right back down..we were a hair from being last in west this yr..3rd worst in league..

2 hours ago, 17to85 said:

Even the people we do put on the roster, are they put in positions to maximize their chances? I don't think the game plan did our QBs any favours, I don't think the defensive philosophy helps our DBS out at all... What other ideological thing a are we trying to force?

I can agree with coordination being very poor this season. JY's defence started coming around later in the season, so it could be just the vast amount of turnover we had in players this year that saw growing pains this season, but offensively our gameplans were generally poor, with the exception of a couple games here and there.

1 hour ago, Booch said:

Until walters supplied osh with legit proven vets..we were struggling and he was a foot out the door...and since the cups and that formula eroded..we headed right back down..we were a hair from being last in west this yr..3rd worst in league..

If we are going to talk about being a hair away, we were also that same hair away from hosting the WSF....so i would prefer that we just stick with where we actually finished as we can both embellish it one way or the other with equal accuracy. FACT: We did not finish 2nd in the West FACT: we did not finish last in the West. FACT: We were one of 4 teams still standing in the conference finals.

Say what we will but fact we went to the EF and took a very good MTL team down to the wire gives me a lot more hope than I had 3 weeks ago. Do we need sections of our team rebuilt? Absolutely, our success next year is 100% dependant on the type of offseason that Walters has both retaining some of the few good players we do have, and in the monumental task of rebuilding 2/3 of our offence including a massive need at QB as we only have TE and BP under contract for next year so far and there is literally no one hitting the market that moves the needle. KW needs to be the GM he was in the late teens and not the crap show he has been the past 4-5 years. I will also suggest that MOS needs to come to the table this year prepared to make some tough decisions on some players.

Edited 18 hours ago18 hr by GCn20

considering we couldnt close the deal and win an extra game outta our last 4...I'd hardly call that a hair away from hosting anything...we pissee it all away from the culmination of the whole yr....andthats what matters.

We were a hair away from playing in a Grey Cup ... So it goes both ways.

We were a mediocre team like a bunch of other teams. We are what our record says. A total mixed bag

3 hours ago, Booch said:

Until walters supplied osh with legit proven vets..we were struggling and he was a foot out the door...and since the cups and that formula eroded..we headed right back down..we were a hair from being last in west this yr..3rd worst in league..

2016 the team moves from Willy to Nichols, and changes the ratio to play Bond at guard... they recognized flaws and fixed them...

2019, they moved Hecht (who was arguably an "O'Shea guy" and Canadian) from safety and started Alexander there... then signed Maston when he became available who overtook Gator for the starting SAM spot... though he did get the job because of a Gator injury, but Matson still kept it when it was clear he was the better option...

I'm sure there were many more in the early years... when is the last time we made a bold and necessary move early enough in the season to make a difference... Singer only got on the roster because of injury and it took 16 weeks of sucking before Ellsbury was replaced...

I just can't understand why our coaches/management don't seem to care anymore... it reeks of complacency and we desperately need change

2 hours ago, Noeller said:

We were a hair away from playing in a Grey Cup ... So it goes both ways.

we coulda been a contender. lol

We came much closer to missing the play offs all together.

Over the course of the year we had a couple short stints of being better than average and a few far longer stretches of being one of the worst teams in the league.

With such an old team, it’s not going to get better with our significant change.

Just now, wbbfan said:

we coulda been a contender. lol

We came much closer to missing the play offs all together.

Over the course of the year we had a couple short stints of being better than average and a few far longer stretches of being one of the worst teams in the league.

With such an old team, it’s not going to get better with our significant change.

I know the oline and dline are a matter of great importance but our current qb stable is a huge unknown, no?

Are we confident as an organization we will be competitive at that position in the foreseeable future?

5 minutes ago, HardCoreBlue said:

I know the oline and dline are a matter of great importance but our current qb stable is a huge unknown, no?

Are we confident as an organization we will be competitive at that position in the foreseeable future?

Yes, QB is a huge unknown. Most teams are in that position though. BC is in the best shape, good back ups to a young mop qb. Then Montreal. Calgary is pretty solid, though QBing didnt even get them to the play offs. Every one else is a question mark. Bunch of old guys with serious injury concerns, and some performance concerns as well.

Brown (assuming we bring him back) plus TE and Perkins is pretty solid for not having a top tier QB. Id still want to go out and take a swing on another vet in free agency too. But I like that 3 pack of QBs.

I also think you can run a game manager pack with brown, and a competent supporting cast. He isn't a guy that needs to fling the rock and carry to a victory.

Reality is though, if you don't have an elite QB, you need to be working all the time to improve at QB. If you get the chance, you pay whatever it takes. But that chance does not come along often.

58 minutes ago, wbbfan said:

also think you can run a game manager pack with brown, and a competent supporting cast. He isn't a guy that needs to fling the rock and carry to a victory

Let him run something like Kevin Glenn used to do.

We were a hair away from going to the Grey Cup and a hair away from missing playoffs.

2 hours ago, wbbfan said:

Yes, QB is a huge unknown. Most teams are in that position though. BC is in the best shape, good back ups to a young mop qb. Then Montreal. Calgary is pretty solid, though QBing didnt even get them to the play offs. Every one else is a question mark. Bunch of old guys with serious injury concerns, and some performance concerns as well.

Brown (assuming we bring him back) plus TE and Perkins is pretty solid for not having a top tier QB. Id still want to go out and take a swing on another vet in free agency too. But I like that 3 pack of QBs.

I also think you can run a game manager pack with brown, and a competent supporting cast. He isn't a guy that needs to fling the rock and carry to a victory.

Reality is though, if you don't have an elite QB, you need to be working all the time to improve at QB. If you get the chance, you pay whatever it takes. But that chance does not come along often.

I'm not the biggest fan of Brown but I think that there is a correlation (and not a positive one) with his development (two years in Ottawa and one year here with Condell as his OC). Just my opinon but get rid of Condell, who may be a nice guy and a great friend of Collaros but a terrible OC, and hire a "competent" OC and I think the Brown will develop in the right direction. Do that and I'd be OK with Brown, Elgersma and Perkins.

32 minutes ago, TBURGESS said:

We were a hair away from going to the Grey Cup and a hair away from missing playoffs.

one of the stranger seasons in modern history. From 2nd worst and almost out of the play offs to almost a gc appearance, with out a significant improvement over all on O or D, and with out getting many turn overs.

Montreal sort of ran away with the season but honestly there wasn't much to choose between and of the Western teams. Riders got 3rd ass much because of garbage time games against Montreal and Edmonton late in the season, BC was in that same pack. Edmonton even though they had more wins really didn't in my opinion separate themselves a lot. Ottawa and Hamilton sucked, Montreal was good, the rest were lumped in the middle

7 hours ago, GCn20 said:

If we are going to talk about being a hair away, we were also that same hair away from hosting the WSF....so i would prefer that we just stick with where we actually finished as we can both embellish it one way or the other with equal accuracy. FACT: We did not finish 2nd in the West FACT: we did not finish last in the West. FACT: We were one of 4 teams still standing in the conference finals.

Say what we will but fact we went to the EF and took a very good MTL team down to the wire gives me a lot more hope than I had 3 weeks ago. Do we need sections of our team rebuilt? Absolutely, our success next year is 100% dependant on the type of offseason that Walters has both retaining some of the few good players we do have, and in the monumental task of rebuilding 2/3 of our offence including a massive need at QB as we only have TE and BP under contract for next year so far and there is literally no one hitting the market that moves the needle. KW needs to be the GM he was in the late teens and not the crap show he has been the past 4-5 years. I will also suggest that MOS needs to come to the table this year prepared to make some tough decisions on some players.

O'Shea has repeatedly shown that he is unwilling/incapable of making the uncomfortable decisions when his favourites are involved, unless his back is to the wall. That kind of management/supervision is doomed to fail.

Edited 11 hours ago11 hr by Tracker

12 hours ago, 17to85 said:

If you need to have an absolutely loaded team with tons of depth to win are you really a good coach?

Here's something I've been thinking about as the season wound down... If I say Singer is our best receiver is that wrong? Sonic that's the case why didn't take injury to get him into the lineup? Similarly a guy like Smith I think is our best lb so why did it take injury to get him starting? What else might be on the bench that's better than what we were using?

Is that really a way to run a team? Are we putting people in the best situations to maximize their potential?

Nothing will change next season. We know that it'll be the same old tired bullshit. I keep reading stories that Ottawa will take a run at McManus for GM & Osh for HC next season... I'm thinking, "Please!!"

12 hours ago, TBURGESS said:

We were a hair away from going to the Grey Cup and a hair away from missing playoffs.

Close only counts in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Anyone arguing that we were a play away from missing the playoffs or going to the Grey Cup is simply splitting hairs and it's absolutely meaningless.