He is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive workhorse, a consistent yardage eater, a two-time Canadian Football League rushing champion, multiple award winner and arguably the face of the franchise as a hometown star.
Yet, running back Brady Oliveira made it abundantly clear on Tuesday during his post season media availability that his pursuit of a championship will trump everything when it comes to contract negotiations this winter. And because his eyes are always on the big prize the Winnipegger indicated he’ll survey the CFL landscape in great deal before committing anywhere — including with the Blue Bombers.
“Everyone knows the last number of years here have been amazing. Playing for my hometown, it’s been incredible,” said Oliveira. “I have nothing but good things to say about my time here, and would I love to be back? Absolutely, but I think I owe it to myself to sit down with my agent and OTG Sports (his management firm) and to talk to my family and see what the best scenario and situation is for me.
“I know what I can bring and I know I’m a calibre player that can help a team win a championship, so I want to put myself in the best situation to win a championship. This is why I play this game. I don’t play it for none of the awards or any of that stuff, I play it to win a Grey Cup. So, I’m going to put myself in the best situation. Would I love to be back? I love playing for my hometown. Playing for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers has been a dream come true for myself.”
And when asked what would need to happen for him to feel comfortable staying with the Blue Bombers in pursuit of a championship, he added:
“It all starts with the guys around me. I’m only as good as the guys around me, right? There’s a lot of core pieces that have been here for the last number of years that I think still continue to this day to make an impact on game day. So, we don’t know what it’s going to look like moving forward. There’s a lot of free agents, so I think as the months kind of unfold we’ll see who’s coming back, who’s not going to be brought back, and I think that’s big into the decision. Like I said, I need to know what’s around me and we’ll go from there.”
Oliveira has spent the last few days decompressing after the club’s season-ending loss on Saturday to the Montreal Alouettes in the Eastern Semi-Final. It was an abrupt end to a bitterly disappointing season for the Blue Bombers, who posted a ninth consecutive double-digit win campaign, but finished fourth in the West Division at 10-8.
Winnipeg’s offence finished seventh in offensive points scored, second in rushing, as Oliveira posted his fourth consecutive 1,000-yard season and finished second to Edmonton’s Justin Rankin in yards from scrimmage at 1,709 — 1,163 along the ground and 546 receiving yards on 61 receptions, the latter two numbers both career highs. All that while missing three games and all but one series of a fourth.
The frustration levels with the attack have been an ongoing storyline since the team rocketed to a 3-0 start as the offence showed just brief flashes after that going 7-9 in its last 16 games, including the playoff loss. Even with all that, the offensive point total per game from 2024 to 2025 was 23.2 to 23.1, or marginal.
“It felt different. It didn’t feel like we scored the same amount of points last compared to this season. It felt different,” said Oliveira. “The thought that comes to my mind is that Hamilton game (a 40-3 win that featured 514 yards net offence). We looked like that Bomber offence. But I just don’t think that we had many of those games this year.
“We had lots of tight games, gritty wins, gritty performances. We kept them close. But of course, as an offence you want to go out there and you want to be dominant. You want to go out there and score points and help your team win games. We didn’t do enough of that this year.”
New offensive coordinator Jason Hogan spent the previous three years as the Blue Bombers running backs coach and developed a close relationship with Oliveira over that span. Oliveira met with Hogan on Sunday and the two had a long conversation — “some tough moments in there but a lot of great moments as well” — and he lamented how their relationship wasn’t as involved with Hogan taking on more responsibility.
Oliveira and Hogan during training camp
Asked point blank on Tuesday if the hiring of Hogan as the offensive coordinator was a mistake, Oliveira said:
“I don’t think it was a mistake. He deserved an opportunity to showcase his abilities. I mean, the guy works extremely hard. He showed that the last number of seasons. So, I think that’s why he was rewarded that opportunity to be an offensive coordinator. And I’ll leave it at that.”
Oliveira stressed several times on Tuesday he felt the 2025 Blue Bombers had the talent to make it to another Grey Cup. But the five-year run of championship appearances fell a couple wins short and, again, that’s something everyone in Bomberland will be wearing for a good chunk of the winter.
It’s also going to be a potentially newsworthy offseason, what with so many questions unanswered — not the least of which is the future of GM Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O’Shea, both operating on expiring contracts.
To that end, Oliveira was asked to weigh in on the notion this run of success for the franchise — some have dubbed it ‘The Glory Years 2.0’ in reference to the four Grey Cups in five years from 1958-62 — is now over with last Saturday’s playoff loss.
“I don’t think it’s the end. I think there’s a ton of good football players still here who have a lot more tread on the tires,” he said. “So, I think it’s up to the organization of how they want to move forward with the roster. But I do know we still have guys that want to come back here and play, so, the era isn’t going to end, because I feel comfortable in the guys that we have, the pieces that we have.
“In the end, we fell short of our goal here. We didn’t meet the expectations. But I know the guys we have here, if they choose to move in the direction to bring the key pieces back, I think that’s a good step in the right direction of chasing that thing next year.”