Winnipeg Blue Bombers are eager to add top free agents

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This article was published 22/01/2016 (3870 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Bummed about your football team, Winnipeg Blue Bombers fans?

Well, it’s about to get better, maybe even a lot better.

I spent a few days this week talking to some sources around the CFL and what quickly became clear is your bumbling Bombers are about to make a very big splash in the free-agent market.

A new kicker, a new big-play receiver — maybe even two new big-play receivers — and a dominating non-import defensive tackle are all being targeted by the Bombers as they look toward the start of CFL free agency Feb. 9.

Here’s what I learned:

After losing four games in 2015 in which missed field goals were the margin of difference, my sources are telling me the Bombers are going to be very aggressive bidders if, as expected, Hamilton Tiger-Cats kicker Justin Medlock hits the free agent market next month.

Medlock has made 87.5 per cent of his field-goal attempts in five seasons in the CFL, the best career accuracy rate of any active kicker in the CFL with more than 40 attempts.

And Medlock heads into the season off one of his best years — he made 42 of 47 attempts (89.4 per cent) in 2015 and was 28 of 29 inside 40 yards. Plus, Medlock was nine of 10 in the fourth quarter, which tells you he’s money.

Medlock is an import, never the preferred passport for a kicker. But he’s also a serviceable punter — he had the shortest average in the CFL last season at just 40.5 yards, but he partly made up for that with accuracy, punting for just two singles all season.

Medlock would be a monstrous upgrade over the erratic Lirim Hajrullahu or Sergio Castillo, who replaced Hajrullahu towards the end of last season. And Medlock will be instantly comfortable in Winnipeg — the Bombers current long snapper, Chad Rempel, did the same job for Medlock when the two were with the Toronto Argos a few years back.

At receiver, the Bombers tendered a contract offer Wednesday to free-agent slotback Weston Dressler.

The Bombers offered Dressler about $170,000 per season for two seasons, which would be about a $70,000 cut from the $240,000 Dressler was set to receive this season before the Saskatchewan Roughriders cut him this month.

The Bombers brain trust had still not received an answer as of late Friday from Dressler, who is also being courted by the Calgary Stampeders, who lost their big play wide receiver, Eric Rogers, to the NFL this week.

Regardless of what happens with the Dressler negotiations, expect the Bombers to also aggressively pursue Riders wideout Ryan Smith if he hits the free-agent market.

The Bombers think Smith — who had a breakout season in 2015, hauling in 59 catches for 991 yards and seven touchdowns on a terrible offence — could actually be better value than Dressler. Smith is 24 — six years younger than Dressler — and is believed to be seeking a three-year deal, which would also give the Bombers some stability at the position.

And on top of all that, Smith grew up just over the border in Wahpeton, N.D., and went to school in Fargo at NDSU. The fact he’d be playing close to home if he signs in Winnipeg, combined with the fact playing football in cold weather won’t be new to him would make a Smith signing a win-win for both the player and the Bombers.

Even if the Bombers land Dressler in the coming weeks, it’s very possible they will still pursue Smith come Feb. 9. The Bombers will free up $185,000 in salary when they say goodbye to Nick Moore, who will hit free agency next month and whom the Bombers aren’t interested in re-signing, even at a reduced rate.

Whether the Bombers could sign Dressler and Smith and keep veteran slotback Clarence Denmark, who earns north of $150,000 a season, isn’t clear. But if they could make the salary numbers work, incoming offensive co-ordinator Paul LaPolice is a creative guy and an aerial corps of that calibre would give QB Drew Willy weapons in 2016 the likes of which he’s never had.

Also in play for the Bombers at receiver: free agent Duron Carter and pending free agent Kenny Stafford of the Edmonton Eskimos.

On the defensive line, the Bombers are desperately seeking some help for rush end Jamaal Westerman, who was the only effective pass rusher Winnipeg had in 2015.

While there’s been lots of talk about the possibility of exiled Rider defensive end John Chick landing in Winnipeg, Chick and the Bombers are miles apart.

Chick is seeking a deal in the range of $175,000-$200,000 and for that kind of money the Bombers could be serious players instead for non-import defensive tackle Ted Laurent, a CFL all-star the last two seasons who hasn’t yet come to terms with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

The Bombers were unhappy with the play last season of veteran tackle Bryant Turner and could shed Turner’s salary by cutting him or trading him and then replace him with a Canadian in Laurent, who would give them all kinds of ratio flexibility — not to mention a push up the middle the likes of which they haven’t had since Doug Brown retired in 2011.

But that’s all contingent on Laurent becoming a free agent next month — and word is Hamilton is going to do everything possible to keep that from happening.

And finally, there’s the matter of pending free-agent tailback — and native Winnipegger — Andrew Harris.

While Harris has always been regarded by fans in this town as the one who got away, it’s far from certain he will finally end up in Blue and Gold in 2016. Harris finished second in rushing in the CFL in 2015, but there were reports he was also a disruptive influence in the B.C. Lions dressing room, expressing publicly his displeasure with the Lions offence and just generally wearing out his welcome in Vancouver.

Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea had to work long and hard after he took over in 2014 to rid the Winnipeg dressing room of bad influences and it’s not clear O’Shea wants to risk going down that path again.

Harris will also command a price on the open market. A cheaper option would be import tailback Cameron Marshall, who is expected back back in 2016. Import Paris Cotton, who missed most of last year with injury, is also an option.

Plus, the Bombers’ scouting department — most notably assistant GMs Ted Goveia and Danny McManus — could step up in 2016 and find an import tailback who can take over.

Goveia and McManus did well to find a couple of rough diamonds in linebacker Khalil Bass and cornerback Johnny Adams. But overall, the book on McManus and Goveia is that they’ve so far underachieved and need to come up big in 2016 with the jobs of O’Shea, GM Kyle Walters and maybe even CEO Wade Miller on the line following playoffs-less performances the last two seasons.

If Walters and O’Shea get fired this year, the scouting department they built at great expense will go down along with them.

And speaking of expenses, the Bombers are leaning toward not holding a mini-camp in Florida in April.

While the Bombers made some finds at Florida mini-camps the last two years, the already high cost of holding a camp in the U.S. would be off the charts this year with the cratering Canadian dollar. The feeling in the Bombers front office is they could get the same results, for less money, by just bringing all their prospects up to Winnipeg this spring and holding mini-camp under the roof on the U of M campus, like they used to do.

Now, all of talk of signing coveted free agents comes with important caveats.

First, there’s no guarantee, of course, that any of the top targets on the Bombers wish list — Medlock, Smith and, especially, Laurent — are even going to hit free agency. All three players could still get locked down by their current teams.

And even if they do hit free agency, the Bombers will not be alone in courting the services of game-changing players such as those.

And on top of that, there’s this — even if the Bombers do land the big fish next month, making waves in free agency is a guarantee of nothing, as Winnipeg found out last year when they finished 5-13 despite signing the likes of such high-profile free agents as Dominic Picard and Stanley Bryant.

But doing nothing is also not an option. And, with their jobs on the line in 2016, it seems Miller, Walters and O’Shea have decided to go all-in.

They’ve got nothing left to lose. And a Bombers franchise that’s gotten all too accustomed to losing has everything to gain.

paul.wiecek@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @PaulWiecek