Unofficial list of FAs out on 3down.

Not a ton of guys I'd want back really.

Dru, Gabe Wallace, MCI, Cam Allen, Griffin,

Maybe for the right price, Sheahan, Clercius

Hallet is good on teams

Tim White played well but is $$$

3DownNation

Winnipeg Blue Bombers have nearly 30 pending CFL free age...

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers saw their season come to an end on Saturday following a 33-23 loss to the Montreal Alouettes in the East Final. The team’s most high-profile pending free agent is franchise q

Quarterback

Dru Brown (A)
Zach Collaros (A)

Running back

None

Fullback

Michael Chris-Ike (N)

Receiver

Kevens Clercius (N)
Gavin Cobb (N)
Tim White (A)

Offensive line

Stanley Bryant (A)
Patrick Neufeld (N)
Micah Vanterpool (A)
Gabe Wallace (N)

Defensive line

Willie Jefferson (A)
Kydran Jenkins (A)
Thiadric Hansen (G)
Matt Jaworski (A)
Tanner Schmekel (N)

Linebacker

Michael Ayers (A)
Tony Jones (A)
Jovan Santos-Knox (A)
Kyrie Wilson (A)
Jaiden Woodbey (A)

Defensive back

Cam Allen (A)
Michael Griffin II (A)
Nick Hallett (N)
Jake Kelly (N)
Deatrick Nichols (A)

Specialists

Jamieson Sheahan (G)

5 hours ago, M.O.A.B. said:

Must sign - Wallace, MCI, Clercius
For the right price - Brown, Woodbey, Griffin

So, Collaros retires & we must sign Dru Brown at the "right price"? WTH is the right price? You'd actually let Dru go to FA for the "wrong price"?? We'd be cooked. Like Ottawa. Back in the QB wilderness of 2013 after Buck retired.

Bomber management really put us in a bad situation. A GM who lets Osh do what he wants, the way he wants when he wants. A head coach who answers to no one & is a terrible roster manager. The Bombers might have had a chance to improve at qb a year or so ago but they blew it. Could we win with a tandem of say, Dru Brown & Nick Arbuckle?

Edited Tuesday at 11:15 AM5 days by SpeedFlex27

10 hours ago, JohnnyAbonny said:

Different industry obviously but I prefer to work with my friends, doesn’t mean they’re technically better at their jobs than some less fun people at my workplace.

Players will always have their favourites and as much as we bitched about Lapo (he did have his shortcomings) his offence was objectively better than Condells. Same with Buck.

Doesn't think we need to rebuild (maybe/maybe not depending on your definition)...thinks "we'll be just fine"...prefers working with his friends.

Still sounds like O'Shea is rubbing off on him.

1 hour ago, SpeedFlex27 said:

Bomber management really put us in a bad situation. A GM who lets Osh do what he wants, the way he wants when he wants. A head coach who answers to no one & is a terrible roster manager. The Bombers might have had a chance to improve at qb a year or so ago but they blew it. Could we win with a tandem of say, Dru Brown & Nick Arbuckle?

Blew it how? Who is the QB they could have got a year or so ago?

21 hours ago, blue85gold said:

Quarterback

Dru Brown (A) - yes
Zach Collaros (A) - no

Running back

None

Fullback

Michael Chris-Ike (N) - yes

Receiver

Kevens Clercius (N) - yes
Gavin Cobb (N) - no
Tim White (A) - sure, only at a lower price

Offensive line

Stanley Bryant (A) - no thanks... we love you, you're the goat... please enjoy retirement now!
Patrick Neufeld (N) - depending on who we draft or sign... would make a nice 6th man still
Micah Vanterpool (A) - yes
Gabe Wallace (N) - yes (don't wat to give up on a young Canadian yet)

Defensive line

Willie Jefferson (A) - sure... reduced role, reduce pay
Kydran Jenkins (A) - no, could do better
Thiadric Hansen (G) - sure, if we need a ST global
Matt Jaworski (A) - yes... at least give him a shot
Tanner Schmekel (N) - no, draft someone better

Linebacker

Michael Ayers (A) - on the fence... has shown flashes but never given a real opportunity outside of teams
Tony Jones (A) - no, time to move on
Jovan Santos-Knox (A) - maybe... depending on how he's recovered... would prefer him over Jones and Wilson
Kyrie Wilson (A) - no, time to move on
Jaiden Woodbey (A) - on the fence... looks really promising in 2025, then looked like ass in 2026... injury issues maybe??

Defensive back

Cam Allen (A) - yes... forgot he was even here... on IR all season
Michael Griffin II (A) - yes
Nick Hallett (N) - sure, if we need special teamers
Jake Kelly (N) - sure, if he takes Hallett's role as a teams demon and never sees the field on D
Deatrick Nichols (A) - no, time to move on

Specialists

Jamieson Sheahan (G) - sure, unless they find a different Aussie punter

Here's my take... feel free to discuss

14 hours ago, M.O.A.B. said:

Must sign - Wallace, MCI, Clercius
For the right price - Brown, Woodbey, Griffin

Why Woodbey? What has he done to deserve praise around here except horribly whiff on tackles and spend most of his time on the IR?

I will add Holm and Eli to the Must sign list.

2 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

Why Woodbey? What has he done to deserve praise around here except horribly whiff on tackles and spend most of his time on the IR?

I will add Holm and Eli to the Must sign list.

Eli and Holm were not on that list... so if the list is accurate, those two are already under contract for next year

14 minutes ago, bearpants said:

Here's my take... feel free to discuss

I agree. Though, if I'm being honest I'd take Collaros over Brown. I didn't really see anything from Brown that makes me think he's the guy. And it would cost the team a 1st, which really isn't a huge deal...but for a team lacking CND talent, they need all the picks they can get. I'd rather let Perkins and Elgersma battle it out.

7 minutes ago, Bigblue204 said:

I agree. Though, if I'm being honest I'd take Collaros over Brown. I didn't really see anything from Brown that makes me think he's the guy. And it would cost the team a 1st, which really isn't a huge deal...but for a team lacking CND talent, they need all the picks they can get. I'd rather let Perkins and Elgersma battle it out.

Did Perkins even throw a pass all year? Not to say he can’t run a normal offence but all his UFL highlights were strictly RPO and roll out stuff. I’m not sure that he can run an offence from the pocket. Seems like he’d be a Strev/LeFevour package kind of QB. Good to have around but you still need a dependable 1a. If Elgersma gets there great. There should still be another experienced QB in camp at least.

18 hours ago, Booch said:

dumping a 26 yr old Canadian offensive lineman with serious potential is a lot dumber than dropping 2 over paid DB's...who are getting burned all the time...and are what they are...They aint getting better...or younger and eat up about 330k per yr doing it.

we can do much better there for a lot less

Wallace is a pylon.

18 hours ago, Mike said:

Whatever we do, I hope our approach in free agency changes from targeting the old washed up guys to targeting the young up and coming guys

Less Tim White, more Makai Polk

I'm sure they would love too but those guys are hard to get. Here's hoping.

13 hours ago, M.O.A.B. said:

Hoping we also draft legit talent / potential starters and not special teamers.

For sure, our drafting has been abysmal the past few years.

2 hours ago, blue85gold said:

Blew it how? Who is the QB they could have got a year or so ago?

Vernon Adams for one. Hell I'd feel a whole lot better even if we had Powell here and he had been our backup this year. I'm not high on Dru Brown as anything more than a stop gap. I would try for Arbuckle before I resigned myself to Brown. If Elgersma is not ready to take a big leap forward I'm trying to talk Zac into one more year.

Edited Tuesday at 02:56 PM4 days by GCn20

15 hours ago, Deiter Fan said:

He's also said recently TC is the best OC he's ever worked with

says a lot of ZC I guess....and not good things, so definately time to move away

He prob likes TC as he gives him a lot of liberty to change the calls and and deviate from the smart options, and seek glory...The god awful fumble that basically ended our season a prime example...as well as the too many to count instances of forcing balls into really stupid spots...many times triple coverage with a pop gun for an arm now...who does that constantly??

1 hour ago, Bigblue204 said:

I agree. Though, if I'm being honest I'd take Collaros over Brown. I didn't really see anything from Brown that makes me think he's the guy. And it would cost the team a 1st, which really isn't a huge deal...but for a team lacking CND talent, they need all the picks they can get. I'd rather let Perkins and Elgersma battle it out.

I was thinking along the lines of 29 years old vs 38 years old... but purely on skillset, I agree that Brown won't ever be what peak Zach was

1 hour ago, Bigblue204 said:

I agree. Though, if I'm being honest I'd take Collaros over Brown. I didn't really see anything from Brown that makes me think he's the guy. And it would cost the team a 1st, which really isn't a huge deal...but for a team lacking CND talent, they need all the picks they can get. I'd rather let Perkins and Elgersma battle it out.

thats why we trade Holm an Kramdi at draft...if they as good as some here like to think they are...then what team wouldn't give a 2nd thru 4th rounder for them.???..and saves us 350k min. in salary...win win WIN

2 hours ago, Booch said:

thats why we trade Holm an Kramdi at draft...if they as good as some here like to think they are...then what team wouldn't give a 2nd thru 4th rounder for them.???..and saves us 350k min. in salary...win win WIN

Kramdi is what you hope to get in a first rounder that is just entering his prime. I am unclear why you hate him so much but we would be stupid to trade him. I get you don't like him at SAM but he is a very good S. Why on god's green earth would we trade a NAT that can start at a high level and is just entering his prime for 2nd through 4th draft pick? Makes no sense to me. I know you don't like his pay scale but he is getting paid the market value for a NAT of his ability. That's the cost of doing business with NAT starters.

2 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Kramdi is what you hope to get in a first rounder that is just entering his prime. I am unclear why you hate him so much but we would be stupid to trade him. I get you don't like him at SAM but he is a very good S. Why on god's green earth would we trade a NAT that can start at a high level and is just entering his prime for 2nd through 4th draft pick? Makes no sense to me. I know you don't like his pay scale but he is getting paid the market value for a NAT of his ability. That's the cost of doing business with NAT starters.

cause he not good enough to be a legit starter, and his salary is crazy high for what he offers...I like him as depth/role...but thats about it...Just look at his stats as a starter too compared to other guys in the league at his position...bottom rung. And at safety he is always in wrong spot in space, and doesnt have the pure athleticism to make up for it

He's making market value yeah if he was a Deqouy...or similar player...but he isnt..and never will be...Plus we dont have to even have him as a starter. A guy who's best season in an impact high volume area is 59 tackles...Has 2 int's in his career and racks in the most money for DB in the league....Thats just stupid

You say it's dumb to get rid of him as a Canadian and he is at his peak...aint gonna get better...Then on flipside you say get rid of another more valuable Canadian who is just coming off a rookie deal, and has serious upside...You claim he sucks tho like you said Singer sucked hence why he wasnt on roster...and he was looking bad in practice to boot...where you got that from who knows, but it was quite the opposite about him being said in practice...and then his play showed he was our best import....go figure

Plus he gonna be 30 next yr...hardly entering his "prime" if anything he in decline now as he was never a gifted high end athletic freak...We need to get younger...better....salvage salary...Thats the perfect spot for it

Edited Tuesday at 07:01 PM4 days by Booch

17 hours ago, bigg jay said:

It started going down hill for him after his streak ended, anyways way to much money for the results in the last third of the year, also we need a new punter

1 minute ago, Booch said:

cause he not good enough to be a legit starter, and his salary is crazy high for what he offers...I like him as depth/role...but thats about it...Just look at his stats as a starter too compared to other guys in the league at his position...bottom rung. And at safety he is always in wrong spot in space, and doesnt have the pure athleticism to make up for it

He's making market value yeah if he was a Deqouy...or similar player...but he isnt..and never will be...Plus we dont have to even have him as a starter. A guy who's best season in an impact high volume area is 59 tackles...Has 2 int's and racks in the most for DB in the league....Thats just stupid

You say it's dumb to get rid of him as a Canadian and he is at his peak...aint gonna get better...Then on flipside you say get rid of another more valuable Canadian who is just coming off a rookie deal, and has serious upside...You claim he sucks tho like you said Singer sucked hence why he wasnt on roster...and he was looking bad in practice to boot...where you got that from who knows, but it was quite the opposite about him being said in practice...and then his play showed he was our best import....go figure

Wallace is a pylon because he can't control his weight. No comparison between these two players. I never once said Singer sucked EVER, and I did not say he sucked in practice. I said he was having trouble adjusting to the waggle. You like to put words in people's mouths Why don't we go back through the list of players you say suck, and it's a long one that quite literally you are about the only person who thinks so. Argue your point if you wish, but you don't, you just attack the poster who argues with you. That's the weakest form of argument. Ad hominem attacks are extremely transparent to other readers and actually hurt the credibility of the attackers argument. That is time proven.

17 minutes ago, Booch said:

My biggest issue with getting rid of Wallace, is he is at the very least a good backup/fringe starter. And we are staring at likely 2 starting spots to be open with guys retiring. Replacing 2 spots on the Oline is asking for trouble....replacing 3 is a disaster waiting to happen.

43 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Kramdi is what you hope to get in a first rounder that is just entering his prime. I am unclear why you hate him so much but we would be stupid to trade him. I get you don't like him at SAM but he is a very good S. Why on god's green earth would we trade a NAT that can start at a high level and is just entering his prime for 2nd through 4th draft pick? Makes no sense to me. I know you don't like his pay scale but he is getting paid the market value for a NAT of his ability. That's the cost of doing business with NAT starters.

I actually think he's better at SAM than safety.... Basically Kramdi is the kind of guy who is great depth but if he's one of your top Canadians you have issues.

Just now, 17to85 said:

I actually think he's better at SAM than safety.... Basically Kramdi is the kind of guy who is great depth but if he's one of your top Canadians you have issues.

Yes, in a world where our GM does his job we would or could move on easily from him. RIght now we are at or near the bottom of the league in NAT talent so yes...we have issues talent wise right across our entire roster NAT and IMP. Our NAT talent used to be the envy of the league, now it's abysmal over all. For some reason we went away from making NAT talent a priority and it is costing us. This offseason will see at least one more NAT starter leaving, maybe more. Those have to be replaced and replaced with a high level player or players if it is more than one. We are playing at least 3, and for a lot of the season 4, NAT starters that are well below league average. That's just on offence. I do agree with the criticism of playing more NAT starters than required because right now we don't have the talent level to adequately start the bare minimum without rolling out below average starters. Kyle has really screwed up.

How we ended up with sub par OL like Eli and Wallace starting, Cobb and Nield (sometimes both at the same time) is really concerning. These guys are not in the top half of their respective league wide counterpart groupings. We need better. I'm not trying to **** on any of our players but teams need their NAT starting group to be in the top third of the league if they want to contend....ours is close to ...if not the bottom. Hopefully some impact guys come this offseason because we desperately need them.

Edited Tuesday at 07:41 PM4 days by GCn20

22 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

I never once said Singer sucked EVER, and I did not say he sucked in practice.

What you actually said:

"My old coach, a former Bomber, attends practice regularly, and we chat often, he says that both Singer and Frederickson (before his release) were not practicing well and struggling when given reps. This was about a month ago, but his thoughts were neither guy should be kept around."

So yeah you basically came in here saying guy was not worth keeping around, turns out he might have been the best receiver we had on the team. You had a bunch of posts talking about how just trying guys who weren't good enough wouldn't improve things too.

So we can make of this what we will.

6 minutes ago, GCn20 said:

Yes, in a world where our GM does his job we would or could move on easily from him. RIght now we are at or near the bottom of the league in NAT talent so yes...we have issues talent wise right across our entire roster NAT and IMP. Our NAT talent used to be the envy of the league, now it's abysmal over all. For some reason we went away from making NAT talent a priority and it is costing us. This offseason will see at least one more NAT starter leaving, maybe more. Those have to be replaced and replaced with a high level player or players if it is more than one. We are playing at least 3, and for a lot of the season 4, NAT starters that are well below league average. That's just on offence. I do agree with the criticism of playing more NAT starters than required because right now we don't have the talent level to adequately start the bare minimum without rolling out below average starters. Kyle has really screwed up.

Smith was way more impactful at different positions than Kramdi. Maybe a guy like Shay would be too? MCU seemed to have more explosive ability in limited reps than some receivers who dressed ... Again the ultimate question, do we just use guys badly and vets like kramdi get their spots because tenure and intangibles? I don't doubt people when they say kramdi is a smart dude who understands the defense and the positions... But he was shitty at safety and hit or miss as SAM. You gotta build your roster in such a way as to use your pieces the best

3 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

What you actually said:

"My old coach, a former Bomber, attends practice regularly, and we chat often, he says that both Singer and Frederickson (before his release) were not practicing well and struggling when given reps. This was about a month ago, but his thoughts were neither guy should be kept around."

So yeah you basically came in here saying guy was not worth keeping around, turns out he might have been the best receiver we had on the team. You had a bunch of posts talking about how just trying guys who weren't good enough wouldn't improve things too.

So we can make of this what we will.

I never said he sucked, I repeated information that was given to me at a point in time that i fully admitted was a bit outdated. I could still be right in that maybe he didn't look good early and it started to click eventually. In fact that is the most likely scenario. I had no basis to form my own opinion, just like those making claims we have studs on our roster that are being denied playing time out of loyalty have no real way of backing that up because they literally have never seen them play. Works both ways.

It seems like nonsense to me that those arguing that we have studs on our roster that being hidden can point to one or two examples over many years as proof they are right. but those pointing out that the other 98% of players rolling into the lineup proved that quality depth was the exception not the rule are told that is nonsense. Proof is in the pudding.

Edited Tuesday at 07:48 PM4 days by GCn20

Now you're arguing semantics. You took your 2nd hand information and said the guy wasn't worth it. Others said "hey he made some plays in preseason and what we're playing now isn't doing enough, he should get a chance". Turns out it wasn't just idle talk, it was actually insightful because Singer was arguably our best and most reliable receiver as soon as he went on the roster. He plays the whole year good chance he wins rookie of the year too.

2 minutes ago, 17to85 said:

Now you're arguing semantics. You took your 2nd hand information and said the guy wasn't worth it. Others said "hey he made some plays in preseason and what we're playing now isn't doing enough, he should get a chance". Turns out it wasn't just idle talk, it was actually insightful because Singer was arguably our best and most reliable receiver as soon as he went on the roster. He plays the whole year good chance he wins rookie of the year too.

Absolutely. Glad to eat crow on that one. What I am saying is that just because a Singer came off the PR and excelled doesn't mean we have hidden studs all through our backups and PR. Wish it were true but that just doesn't happen for any team ever. We need skill added to our team, or are you of the belief that we had enough talent to win the Grey Cup this year?

Edited Tuesday at 07:52 PM4 days by GCn20