QB conundrum beats loudly

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This article was published 13/12/2019 (2095 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Now that everyone has had a couple of gulps from the Grey Cup, it’s time for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to roll up their sleeves and get back to work.

With general manager Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O’Shea officially signing contract extensions on Friday, the team can now shift its focus onto its free agents. 

With defensive back Mercy Maston and offensive lineman Patrick Neufeld recently re-signing, the Bombers have 22 players who are without contracts for next season. While Walters was quick to remind one reporter on Friday that’s the lowest amount in the league, the Bombers still have their hands full, as their quarterback situation is one of the juiciest storylines of the CFL off-season.

Quarterbacks Matt Nichols, who is recovering from surgery to his throwing shoulder, Chris Streveler and Zach Collaros have all had their contracts expire, and their futures are up in the air.

“I think all three have talked about wanting to come back,” O’Shea told a scrum of reporters on Friday. “I don’t think you’re going to find a player at the end of a Grey Cup season that says, ‘Yeah, I’m out of here.’ All of these players are very intelligent, too. They’re not going to go to their coach and say, ‘Yeah, I’m moving on’ right away. They want to make sure their doors are open, too.”

All three players find themselves in intriguing situations. Nichols has been in Winnipeg since 2015 and guided this franchise out of the CFL’s basement as the team’s starter. But when the confetti came down at McMahon Stadium last month, it wasn’t him who led the team to victory — it was Collaros. The Bombers have been a very loyal to their players in recent years, but is it not tempting to see what this team could do if they continued to roll with Collaros?

“Yeah, these are all the discussions that we will have once we have an offensive co-ordinator in place (to replace Paul LaPolice, who recently signed on as head coach of the Ottawa Redblacks) and he gets familiar with these discussions,” Walters said. “But, yeah, Matt’s won a lot of games for us. Zach’s come in and won the Grey Cup and was the starting quarterback. Chris did some great things for us. There’s some real difficult decisions and discussions that are going to have to be made.”

If the Bombers bring back Collaros, it will also cost them a first-round pick in the upcoming draft. It was a stipulation in the Collaros trade with the Toronto Argonauts that if Winnipeg re-signed the quarterback, they’d have to send the Boatmen their first-rounder. Walters said that’s something the team would be comfortable doing.

“We would be OK if we went down that scenario as we discussed,” Walters confirmed. “Not like in years past, where we needed every first-round draft pick to come in and play… If the decision is made that Zach Collaros is the quarterback we want in this organization, then that wouldn’t factor into the decision.”

As for Streveler, his toughness and ability to run through defenders caught the admiration of everybody — including the NFL.

The second-year quarterback made it clear he loves playing in Winnipeg, but he has several NFL workouts scheduled before the CFL free-agency period kicks off in February.

If an opportunity doesn’t come from one of those workouts, Streveler will likely find himself at the negotiating table with Walters. But Walters admitted Streveler’s unique role and style of play will add some wrinkles into determining what the young quarterback is potentially worth.

“There’s not a lot of comparables for Chris Streveler. That’s generally what you do. You go through the list of contracts and you start looking at guys that have comparable stats, comparable ability on certain teams,” Walters said.

“But he’s a very unique individual in regards to setting a price point and that’s an interesting one.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31