Bombers eyeing free-agents

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This article was published 14/01/2025 (332 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers GM Kyle Walters watched the deck get shuffled within the club’s football operations department for the first time in a decade, now he’s preparing to play his hand differently when it comes to crafting this year’s team.

One day after head coach Mike O’Shea provided an update on how he’s fared with his off-season to-do list, Walters did the same from his point of view on Tuesday, detailing how the club’s recent staffing changes have affected his approach and what the coming weeks of contract negotiations entail before free agency begins Feb. 11.

Most notably, Walters revealed the Bombers may look to the open market more to build a team this year.

“I do anticipate us (being more active),” Walters said via Zoom from Charlotte, N.C., where the CFL is hosting its annual winter meetings. “You saw it with signing (American receiver) Dillon (Mitchell) this week that we’ll augment a piece here or there, I think more so than other years where we’ve been very stagnant and I don’t know that we’ve done much in free agency.

“There’s a bunch of variables. We’ve got some money set aside for some pieces still and depending on how those shakedown we’ll have to pivot, so it’s very fluid once you get to this time of year with allocating funds and how those funds are spent, and if somebody doesn’t want them what’s the next plan and the next plan, et cetera.”

Winnipeg has been lauded for its continuity on and off the field during its run of five consecutive Grey Cup appearances, as some of its best players agree to cheaper deals for the betterment of the team, but it appears the club’s architects are at a crossroads with some of its key pending free agents who are looking for big paydays in 2025.

Receivers Dalton Schoen and Kenny Lawler headline that list, which is why Walters felt it was a “no-brainer” to sign Mitchell at a reasonable price and protect the club in the event its two star pass-catchers leave.

Is there a world in which both receivers are still back?

“I guess anything can happen,” Walters said. “I mean, we went through this last year… you have funds allocated for different spots and sometimes things change quickly and last year it didn’t seem possible. I believe it was Brady (Oliveira) and Dalton and then right at the (last) minute, Jermarcus (Hardrick) went to Sask. and freed up some money.

“So it’s tough to say what’s going to happen over the next few weeks.”

Offensive lineman Liam Dobson and defensive backs Tyrell Ford and Evan Holm are also in line for raises.

Ford appears to be out of the Bombers’ hands, as the Canadian cornerback is exploring opportunities in the National Football League for the second time. If and when those dry up, he will be a coveted asset, playing a position typically occupied by an American player.

The same can be said for Dobson, another Canadian who shone in his first year as a starter. While those types of players can provide great flexibility to a team as it navigates the Game Rule Ratio, Walters dismissed the idea that there’s any extra pressure for the Bombers to retain its national players.

“We’re fairly comfortable to have these decisions. We started nine Canadians last year, and we do have some room if something doesn’t go our way to potentially drop down to eight, drop down to seven, or something like that. The way we’ve been built over the last few years, it does allow some ratio flexibility if you can’t make it all work financially,” he said.

“You see the offensive line market for Canadians, it’s pretty high for some of these guys, and Liam was an all-star and did very well as a starter so his agent, rightfully so, is expecting a very big raise. He’s a part of that interesting puzzle on how to make it all work.”

As Walters alluded to, not everyone can eat while Winnipeg stays under the $5.76 million salary cap. It’s also worth mentioning the GM previously shut down the notion the club would exceed the salary cap in order to win the Grey Cup in a year it is hosting.

The Bombers, who have 21 pending free agents remaining, have reached agreements on contract extensions with Stanley Bryant, Patrick Neufeld, Willie Jefferson, Tony Jones, Sergio Castillo, and, on Tuesday, linebackers Kyrie Wilson and Shayne Gauthier.

They followed the four signings of American receiver D’Marcus Adams, American offensive lineman Antonio Garcia, American defensive back Marcus Hillman and American linebacker Marvin Pierre.

As the Bombers planned a strategy to field a similar roster, change was expected within the front office, as assistant GMs Ted Goveia and Danny McManus fielded calls for GM jobs around the league. Goveia wound up accepting the Hamilton Tiger-Cats GM job in December.

In a corresponding move earlier this month, Winnipeg announced a trio of additions to its scouting department in Jim Jauch, Eric Deslauriers and Brock Sunderland, who will all hold the title of Senior Director of Player Personnel. Each will work closely with McManus to scout new talent across Canada and the U.S.

Walters said it’s been a refreshing change in the front office.

“That was an interesting process, interviewing guys and putting a group together. And it was good. It was almost like a reset,” he said. “We’re talking, we’ve been running the way we’ve been running for so many years, it was a nice reset organizationally.

“We had meetings with the staff a couple of weeks ago and it went right from the beginning levels of expense reports and budgeting and all the business cards, so it was actually a refreshing reset for us to go back to square one and build it up.”

joshua.frey-sam@freepress.mb.ca