Photo courtesy: Andrew Mahon/CFL
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers remain fully committed to Zach Collaros as they will not look to restructure his contract this offseason.
The 37-year-old threw for 3,048 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions in 2025, marking the second-straight year in which his numbers were pedestrian relative to other top quarterbacks in the league. Collaros is currently the third-highest-paid passer in the CFL, yet he was outplayed by many quarterbacks who earn less than him, including Vernon Adams Jr., Trevor Harris, Bo Levi Mitchell, and Davis Alexander.
With the native of Steubenville, Ohio set to earn around $600,000 again in 2026, one might suspect the Blue Bombers would try to renegotiate to free-up space under the salary cap. Instead, they aren’t looking to take money away from Collaros, but instead provide him with more support in order to be successful.
“We’ve never been big on renegotiating. Zach’s earned his contract, he led us to all those Grey Cups playing at a high level,” said general manager Kyle Walters on Wednesday.
“We need to do better at surrounding him with better support because you saw flashes again this year where he’s still a guy that can get’r done out there. We need to surround him with better support.”
The Blue Bombers were unable to retain arguably their most important offensive weapon in free agency as Kenny Lawler left for the Hamilton Tiger-Cats. The native of Pomona, Calif. had the best year of his career in Steeltown, catching 86 passes for 1,443 yards and 14 touchdowns to earn All-CFL honours.
Lawler claimed in September that the team didn’t make a formal offer until the day before free agency got underway and that his agent was contacted by the team only twice before then. Walters at least partly denied this while speaking to the media, saying him and Lawler’s agent remained in far closer communication than the receiver described.
“Kenny’s a very emotional young man, which makes him really good on the football field. I deal with the agent on that sort of stuff, so it wasn’t the day before free agency (that we made our first offer). We had had lots of talks,” said Walters.
“Him and his agent and I were talking non-stop about this stuff because there was other issues outside of just the player contract that we were dealing with that needed to be sorted out prior to the new year, to be honest with you. I don’t want to get into that sort of stuff, but there were discussions between me and the agent even through the season to try to get ahead of what was coming.”
Lawler was also upset that the team signed Dillon Mitchell prior to making him an offer, something that made him feel disrespected. The signing ended up being a complete bust as Mitchell made only 19 receptions for 193 yards and one touchdown over nine starts. He was a healthy scratch for the team’s other nine regular-season games.
“I don’t want to get into the specifics but Dillon struggled. It is what it is,” said Walters. “He struggled having the productivity, getting targets, the whole bit.”
The team was also without two-time All-CFL receiver Dalton Schoen for most of the year as he tore his ACL in July, marking the second-straight year in which he suffered the injury. He tried to return to the lineup and play through the injury in the Labour Day Classic but was ultimately unable to stay in the lineup.
It remains unclear if Schoen, who is a pending free agent, will be offered a new deal to return for a fifth season in Bomberland.
“All players that finish the year with injuries, we’ll need to get more medical reports and talk to our trainers and our doctors before any sort of decisions on those guys are made moving forward,” said Walters.
Player personnel aside, one could argue Collaros needs more support from the team’s coaching staff. The veteran quarterback appeared to butt heads with first-time offensive coordinator Jason Hogan, indicating the team repped plays in training camp that were never called during the regular-season.
Head coach Mike O’Shea declined to discuss the status of his assistants when speaking to the media on Tuesday, so Hogan’s status remains unclear for 2026.
Regardless, it seems as though Collaros will stay the team’s franchise quarterback into next year at the same price point as ever, though it remains to be seen if the club will get its money’s worth.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers finished fourth in the West Division standings in 2025 with a 10-8 record, qualifying for the playoffs as the crossover team before losing the East Semi-Final to the Montreal Alouettes. Zach Collaros threw for 3,048 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions over 13 regular-season games, going 6-7 as a starter.
The Blue Bombers ranked fifth in net offence, third in net defence, and eighth with a turnover differential of minus-eleven. The club’s leading rusher was Brady Oliveira with 1,163 yards, leading receiver was Nic Demski with 1,001 yards, and leading tackler was Tony Jones with 104 tackles. Winnipeg ranked first in attendance with average crowds of 32,343, which was a 3.7 percent increase from the previous year.