Bombers’ pre-season opener a mixed bag

In typical pre-season fashion, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers showcased some good and bad in Saturday’s 31-27 loss to the Saskatchewan Roughriders in Saskatoon.

The Blue and Gold will have one final tune-up on Friday when they host the B.C. Lions (7:30 p.m. kickoff). The real action begins when they’re in Calgary for Week 1 on June 5.

But before they look ahead, there’s a lot from Saturday that needs to be dissected.

“We got a lot of very valuable snaps for a lot of guys and saw some great stuff that we liked.”

“It’s tough coming off a camp and we don’t give them much rest at all. I thought they showed well in terms of their compete level,” said head coach Mike O’Shea after the game.

“You’d like to always win, it didn’t turn out that way, but we got a lot of very valuable snaps for a lot of guys and saw some great stuff that we liked and there’s always stuff that we can correct that will help us for the entire year.”

To find out what we learned from this one, let’s dive in with the 2026 debut of 5 Takeaways.

ELGERSMA HYPE TRAIN

It’s been a long time since a young quarterback in Bomberland has garnered the amount of interest that Taylor Elgersma has.

Through two weeks of training camp, his hype train was full steam ahead — and rightfully so — thanks to the 24-year-old Canadian consistently looking like the most impressive pivot behind Zach Collaros.

Now, one pre-season game isn’t going to make or break his career, but Saturday’s showing made it clear that a lot of work is needed before Elgersma can be annointed the heir apparent at the position.

With Collaros subbed out after the opening series, Elgersma took the field and went on to go 6-for-13 for 78 yards and two interceptions. He also ran four times for 18 yards.

He had two passes dropped, and on his second INT, he threw a ball in the direction of rookie pass catcher TJ Davis, who slipped.

“He’ll learn from it, for sure. He’s not happy right now,” said O’Shea on Elgersma afterwards.

“He had a stern look on his face when he rolled into the locker room. I got to tell him to enjoy himself a little more.”

Elgersma’s outing was less than ideal, but it wasn’t all bad.

The Wilfrid Laurier product did showcase his arm talent by connecting with rookie receiver Dorian Singer twice for completions of 20 or more yards.

Let’s also not forget that Elgersma hasn’t played the Canadian game in nearly two years.

COLLAROS HITS GROUND RUNNING

If Zach Collaros had his way, he would’ve stayed in the game.

Can you blame him?

He was rolling on all cylinders in his lone drive under centre by going three-for-four for 57 yards.

The drive was capped off by a Brady Oliveira touchdown scamper.

Pre-season is pre-season, but Collaros was matched up against a Riders defence mostly made up of starters.

It wouldn’t be a surprise to see Collaros return to vintage form this season now that his pal Tommy Condell has taken over playcalling duties.

“It’s great to be back out there playing against a different defence that we don’t see every day,” said Collaros postgame.

“What you want to do is go out there and try and execute a plan, try to get things to slow down because it doesn’t matter how long you’ve been in this game, the first time back out there, things are moving fast.”

WATCH OUT FOR WHITE

Speaking of Collaros, all three of his completions went to the same target: Tim White.

The duo were showing immediate signs of chemistry on Day 1 of training camp and it translated to Saturday.

His third and final grab was his most impressive, when he had to make an adjustment to haul in an underthrown ball to prevent an INT.

White, 31, is coming off four consecutive 1,000-yard seasons and was signed by the club in the off-season after being let go by the Hamilton Tiger-Cats.

As for rookie receivers, Singer was the lone standout with three catches on six targets for 59 yards. The Bombers don’t have any obvious openings at receiver but the 23-year-old out of Utah is making a strong case to be kept around.

PERKINS MAKES CFL DEBUT

Bryce Perkins hasn’t had a tremendous training camp.

However, last year’s UFL MVP did showcase some promise during his game action in the fourth.

He completed five-of-nine passes for 67 yards and one interception — which was a desperate heave with 12 seconds left in the game.

The 29-year-old former Los Angeles Ram played rather conservatively but threw a tremendous 22-yard strike to second-year Canadian Joey Corcoran.

“Obviously, very mobile. Probably had some other opportunities he probably could’ve taken, but once again, he’s new to this game,” said O’Shea. “Perk’s been in it for 12 days. There’s going to be some pictures that are just a little cloudy for him, and those will clear up as we go along.”

It’s a good thing that Perkins fared well as the Bombers don’t have any other options at the moment. Payton Thorne left the team early last week, and Terry Wilson unexpectedly followed suit on Friday.

The team’s in-house reporter asked O’Shea after Saturday’s game for some insight into Wilson’s departure.

Wilson was entering his third season in Winnipeg and was battling for the No. 2-and 3 gigs behind Collaros.

“He came to my office, and we had a decent conversation. It wasn’t short. It wasn’t overly long either. But it was a must for him to gather information, and he just felt it was time for him to go,” said O’Shea.

“It was last minute but it’s something that I don’t think was a rash decision. These things creep into your mind over time and then they eventually come to a point where a conversation has to be had.”

WHO’S AT CORNER?

The Bombers started a pair of rookie cornerbacks on Saturday in Warren Burrell and Ridge Texada.

Veteran Jonathan Moxey — who was signed in free agency this off-season — will lay claim to one of those spots in Week 1, leaving Burrell and Texada to duke it out for the lone job posting in the secondary.

Burrell gave up a nearly 50-yard play early on and was covering Daniel Wiebe when he caught a game-winning, three-yard touchdown with 45 seconds remaining.

Texada wasn’t perfect but was clearly better on the night and made one of the plays of the game when he tipped a Jack Coan pass that ended up in the arms of Evan Holm for a 55-yard pick-six. Texada also picked off a pass himself late in the third off Wiebe bobbling a pass.

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