‘I want to be the least sacked team’

Being sacked 37 times during the 2025 season was far from ideal for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ offence.

The Blue and Gold finished last in the CFL in passing yards per game with 235, while quarterback Zach Collaros was brought down 19 times alone.

For comparison, the BC Lions allowed a league-low 20 sacks all season.

Now, one of the key pieces from that Lions offensive line believes he can help change things.

“I want to be the least sacked team”: that was the message from Jarell Broxton after practice Thursday at training camp, one of Winnipeg’s big free-agent additions this off-season.

The six-foot-five, 325-pound American offensive tackle inked a two-year contract with the Bombers in February on the first day of CFL free agency.

“Play a clean game every game,” the 33-year-old said of his goals for the year. “Learn from our coach, learn from the other vets, coming out with just a great game plan going into the weeks. Getting to the Grey Cup is the ultimate goal for everybody.”

It’s Broxton’s sixth season in the CFL, and his first outside of B.C. He was named a CFL All-Star for the first time in 2025 and served as the Lions’ top offensive lineman in each of the past three seasons.

“He is very large, you cannot mistake that… he’s physically imposing. I think he’s gonna fit right in.”

He’s also the highest-paid American offensive lineman in the CFL, with a two-year contract worth $500,000.

“He is very large, you cannot mistake that,” Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea said. “I think he fits in well. Obviously, he’s smart. He picks up all the offence he can play; he’s physically imposing. I think he’s gonna fit right in.”

Consistency, Broxton said, has been the foundation of his rise to one of the league’s top linemen.

“The work I put in the off-season and during the season, and always being a student of the game,” he said. “Never thinking I know everything, and then my knowledge, giving it to others. And me, too, I ask questions as well with other players if they’re doing something really well, and maybe I want to piggyback off their game or something.”

In Winnipeg, he may benefit from piggybacking off the steady play of future Hall of Fame tackle Stanley Bryant on the opposite side of the line, who was named the team’s Most Outstanding O-lineman last year at age 39.

“Great guy outside of football, I mean hilarious,” Broxton said. “He likes to joke around, you know? I mean, even though on the field he’s serious, but when he gets in the rooms, in the meetings and stuff, he’s hilarious.

“So it’s been very nice. Even before I joined the team, I’d talk to him after games, just kind of learning from him, joking around with him about stuff that happened in the games. So yeah, it’s been great.”

Broxton didn’t play tackle before arriving in the CFL, and said his first two seasons were spent “figuring it out” at the position. Since then, he said he has grown more comfortable each year as he settled into the role.

That growth came after a winding path, including time on the Baltimore Ravens’ practice roster, a cancelled CFL season in Winnipeg and a torn bicep in his first CFL game with the Lions in 2021 before his eventual rise to all-star status.

“Mentally, I’m great,” he said. “Very blessed. My lord and saviour, Jesus Christ, definitely helped me. Just being a believer has helped me a lot during this journey in my football career.”

Broxton will move to right tackle this year, something he says will be an adjustment.

“But that’s what training camps and practises are for, just to work on these things,” he said. “And I stay a little after practice, get some sets in and stuff.”

O’Shea said part of building a winning culture is “bring in the right people and then we stay out of their way.”

“We’ve signed the right people to do their work.”

Off the field, Broxton said the transition to Winnipeg has already felt smooth thanks to the locker room environment.

“The guys,” Broxton said on his favourite part of being a Bomber so far. “Everybody’s very welcoming, I mean people already call me by my nickname, ‘JB’ and ‘Rell’, so it’s very welcoming.”

Camp updates

The Blue Bombers released American rookie receiver Kenneth Womack on Thursday.

Receiver Nic Demski was at practice but was not wearing a helmet at the start of the session and did not participate, while returner Trey Vaval and defensive linemen Cam Lawson and Tanner Schmekel were not dressed.

O’Shea added he would provide an update on linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox at a later date.

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