‘Best I’ve felt in years’: lean, keen Nichols excited about camp, ready to work

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This article was published 17/05/2019 (2307 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Matt Nichols and Chris Streveler positioned themselves away from the rest of the group Friday, tossing the football back and forth, pausing to chat or go for a short jog.

No pads or helmets. Just a couple of guys playing catch. Clearly, these are not the dog days of training camp for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers quarterbacks. Camp begins in earnest Sunday at IG Field.

Yet, there’s nothing nonchalant — in his conduct on and off the field — about Nichols, the de facto starter and leader of the CFL squad, who’s attendance wasn’t required at Bomber rookie camp this week.

But he was there anyway.

“Seeing the guys just start to filter in here gets you fired up. During the off-season, it always feels like it’s forever away and then all of a sudden you blink your eyes and it’s full go here,” said Nichols, in his first meeting with the press. “It’s always one of the more exciting times of the year, when football’s back.”

Nichols, preparing for his fifth season in a Blue Bombers jersey, is listed as 6-2, 216 pounds. But the Redding, Calif., native appears noticeably leaner. He said it’s by design — a combination of a healthier diet and off-season training regimen for guy who celebrated his 32nd birthday in March but wants to incorporate even more mobility into his game.

“It’s something I worked extremely hard on this off-season. I talk about it every year, it’s just trying to improve your game. For me, there’s aspects that always can be improved so I’ve kind of focused on making sure I’m running around a little bit better, extending plays, making more plays with my feet,” he said.

“Nothing super-strict. Just trying to eliminate a lot of the bad stuff, bad habits. As you get a little bit older, you’ve just got to evolve, the metabolism is not as good, so it’s just making sure I’m changing to make myself better which, obviously, helps the team feel better.

“I see some of the birthdays on some of the new guys coming in and that can make you feel old for a second but, as far as how I actually feel, I feel great. Best I’ve felt in years.”

Nichols missed a month of action because of a knee injury last year but dressed in 14 games, throwing for 3,146 yards while connecting on 18 touchdowns, 10 shy of his 2017 total. He was also intercepted 13 times, five more than the previous year.

He’s banking on a more productive 2019 campaign, not just from the guy in the mirror but the entire football club, which has experienced incremental improvement during his tenure. Having that “Grey Cup or bust” mentality and earning the city’s first CFL championship since 1990 doesn’t seem out of line at all, he said.

“We’ve kept the core group together for a number of years now, which is hard to do in this day and age. We’ve taken steps. We went from not being very good here for a few years, to going to the playoffs, then hosting a playoff game, then winning one,” Nichols said.

“We feel like we’ve taken steps every year and sometimes those are necessary things to get to where you want to be. We feel like this is that year that we take the next step and reach our ultimate goal.”

Veteran players join the rookies Saturday for medical testing, before training camp officially gets underway Sunday.

•••

The Bombers locked up their final piece from the 2019 CFL Draft, signing Canadian defensive end Jonathan Kongbo to a contract.

Kongbo, selected fifth overall out of the University of Tennessee, played 30 games — starting 17 — over three seasons with the Volunteers as a linebacker and defensive lineman.

The 23-year-old from Surrey, B.C., listed at 6-5, 254 pounds, won’t be available until late June or July, as he recovers from a season-ending knee injury suffered last October in a game against Auburn.

•••

The Bombers made a couple of personnel moves on eve of camp opening.

Winnipeg released 2019 draft pick Malik Richards, just days after signing the receiver from Brampton, Ont. He was injured on the first day of rookie camp and was a spectator Thursday.

The club added former University of Manitoba receiver Dylan Schrot. The Sisler grad hauled in 55 passes for 846 yards and seven TDs in his last year with the Bisons.

 

jason.bell@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @WFPJasonBell