Eureka! Looks like the Bombers, against all odds, finally have a winner

The fifth starting receiver

Newcomers Weston Dressler and Ryan Smith will anchor two starting positions in the Bombers receiving corps and Winnipeg veterans Darvin Adams and non-import Rory Kohlert will hold down two other starting jobs come opening week.

So who’s the fifth guy? Expect imports Julian Talley and Jace Davis, especially, but also Kevin Cone and Gerrard Shepphard, to all get a long, hard look.

Who’s the fifth starting offensive lineman?

The Bombers are going to open the season with Stanley Bryant starting at left tackle, Matthias Goossen at centre, Sukh Chungh at right guard and Patrick Neufeld at right tackle.

Veteran Jace Daniels has the inside track at left guard, but he’s going to be pushed hard at a position the front office thinks they can upgrade and which has been unsettled since the Bombers traded non-import Chris Greaves midway through last season.

Who’s the other defensive end?

Jamaal Westerman had a monster first season in the CFL, finishing second in sacks, the lone bright spot on a woeful defensive line that had the rare distinction of being lousy against both the run and the pass.

The front office blew up the front-four in the off-season — former starters Greg Peach, Bryant Turner and Zach Anderson are all gone. Expect non-import tackle Keith Shologan and import tackle Euclid Cummings — off-season signings who freakishly combined for 15 sacks last season, an unheard of number for interior linemen — to take over the starting tackle jobs.

But the end opposite Westerman is wide open, with newcomers Shayon Green and Adrian Hubbard — who the Bombers spent a couple seasons trying to sign — getting serious auditions.

An embarrassment of riches at linebacker

Khalil Bass, who led the Bombers in defensive tackles in his rookie CFL season in 2015, is back and will almost certainly anchor one starting linebacker position, but the other two are up for grabs in camp.

The club has Maurice Leggett pencilled in at strong-side linebacker and Sam Hurl nominally tops the depth chart in the middle, but former Bombers rookie of the year Ian Wild and a bonafide former NFLer in Kyle Knox will both have a lot to say about that in camp.

This is easily the most competitive positional battle we’ll see in camp this year.

— Wiecek

Linebacker Kyle Knox, who played 12 games with the New Orleans Saints in 2014, is going to make this team and will challenge for a starter’s job… The off-season signings of non-imports DL Keith Shologan and RB Andrew Harris give the Bombers all kinds of ratio flexibility this season and that has former non-import starters LB Sam Hurl and, especially, DB Matt Bucknor, on the bubble heading into camp… Don’t be surprised if the Bombers go with an all-import secondary this season… K Sergio Castillo and P Billy Pavlopoulos are going to be in camp the next couple weeks, but they’re fodder — Justin Medlock, a key free agent signing in the off-season, will hold down both jobs for the Bombers when the season opens June 24 at home against Montreal… A Winnipeg O-lineman says Euclid Cummings was the toughest tackle to block in the CFL last season… Shologan clearly has the inside track, but he will have to win his starting job against some very talented import tackles the Bombers have also brought to camp.

This year’s ‘only in the CFL’ storyline

So, did you hear the one about the eight-fingered football player?

Meet defensive back C.J. Wilson, a former member of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers who saw his NFL career come to an abrupt end last July 4 when he blew off the middle and index fingers of his right hand in a fireworks accident.

Wilson is hoping to resurrect his career in the CFL by proving eight fingers are just as good as 10. He was in Winnipeg for rookie camp this week, but was relegated to the sidelines for the first two days because of delays in getting his release paperwork from the NFL. He finally signed with Winnipeg Friday and was a full participant.

Back when he still had a full complement of fingers, Wilson played in a couple of games with the Bucs in 2014 and also had a brief stint with the Chicago Bears in 2013.

Can you tackle with eight fingers? We’ll see. The only people who will be hoping Wilson makes the team more than his own family will be the Winnipeg media. This story writes itself.

— Wiecek

14 — Number of players who were on the Bombers 46-man roster at the start of last season who were no longer still on it by season’s end.

Take a deep breath, in other words. While the opening of 2016 training camp on Sunday is a long-awaited chance to get a look at the enormous number of changes this team made over a long winter, this is also the itinerant CFL, where history overwhelmingly suggests the team that emerges out of this year’s camp will look nothing like the team that takes the field at season’s end.

It’s best, in other words, not to get too attached.

Does the pre-season matter?

Conventional wisdom in pro sports is pre-season games are a great chance to get a look at the new guys and get your game legs under live fire, but are otherwise meaningless — in the standings and in the big picture.

All of that is true. But if you believe it ends there, then you believe it’s entirely coincidental the Bombers went 2-8 in the pre-season over the last five years at the same time as the club missed the playoffs in four of those five years.

Bottom line: sometimes teams that are lousy in the pre-season are also lousy in the regular season and, in retrospect, there are often flashing red lights in those pre-season efforts of the miseries to come.

Of course, it’s also worth noting the Bombers were winless in the 2011 pre-season only to put together a 10-8 regular season en route to an East Division title and the club’s last appearance in the CFL playoffs. Go figure.

— Wiecek