‘You work really hard to never be in a rebuild’

Winnipeg Blue Bombers head coach Mike O’Shea has dealt with an unusual off-season to this point, but he is adamant that the team is not looking at a rebuild.

O’Shea spoke to TSN’s Farhan Lalji at the CFL’s Winter Meetings in Calgary on Wednesday about the 2025 season and the team’s outlook moving forward.

“It’s the first time I’ve been asked [about a rebuild], and I would believe you would work really hard to never be in a rebuild,” O’Shea said. “I think in pro sports there’s always some change, but I think you work really hard to limit the amount of change you have to go through.”

O’Shea has turned the Blue Bombers into one of the CFL’s premier franchises in the CFL since taking over as head coach ahead of the 2014 campaign.

In 11 seasons with O’Shea at the helm, the Bombers have a .603 winning percentage and two Grey Cup titles. The Blue Bombers appeared in five consecutive Grey Cups from 2019-24, winning in 2019 and 2021.

This past season marked the first time they did not advance to the Grey Cup since 2018 after losing to the Montreal Alouettes in the Eastern Semi-Finals.

“The off-season’s been a little bit different, started a bit sooner, got to spend a little bit more time trying to figure things out,” O’Shea said.

The loss in the semifinals may have provided the team a chance for extra self-reflection, but O’Shea noted that every off-season is a chance to evaluate and improve.

“That’s every year, after Grey Cup wins, Grey Cup losses, it’s the process of validating your process,” said O’Shea. “That’s what you have to do every year. There’s things we’ve landed on a decade ago that we haven’t changed, and I think some of those things are still the right course. You do it constantly.”

There are two challenges O’Shea is facing moving forward: an aging roster, and a quarterback in Zach Collaros whose production has dwindled in consecutive campaigns.

“[I have] 100 per cent faith in the group we have,” O’Shea said. “And that core every year changes … It fluctuates a little bit, and some younger guys move into that core, some guys leave, but very confident. I was confident in that group last year too, and it didn’t work out, but I was very confident in that group last year that we could win a championship.”

Collaros has been the starting quarterback in Winnipeg since the 2021 season, and after throwing for 30 touchdowns per season from 2021-23, he has thrown for only 34 touchdowns against 31 interceptions over the past two seasons.

O’Shea isn’t worried about questions surrounding Collaros’ diminishing arm strength entering his age-38 season.

“He’s a phenomenal leader, he’s a fiery competitor, people follow him,” O’Shea said. “The physical side of it, I don’t really take note of it. His work ethic is second to none, his leadership is unparalleled in terms of his authentic leadership style. Am I trying to quantify whether his deep ball is 64 yards or 61 yards? No, I don’t really pay attention to that stuff, because what it takes to lead a football team from that position, he has it in spades.”

The Blue Bombers made a change at offensive coordinator in December, hiring Tommy Condell from the Ottawa Redblacks to replace Jason Hogan, who was demoted to running backs coach, after the offence finished eighth in passing yardage in 2025 and worst in the league in 2024.

“That’s the hope [that Condell can help maximize Collaros’ production], and I believe that’s what’s going to be the outcome,” O’Shea said. “I think Zach can work with a lot of different people, and I also think Tommy can coach a lot of different quarterbacks. The fact that they have a relationship from their days [working together] in Hamilton and they had a lot of success there is an absolute bonus.”

One potential question O’Shea will be faced with working alongside Condell: the veteran coordinator has a reputation for focusing on the passing game, while the Bombers have established dominance recently (finished top three in rushing yardage in five consecutive seasons) relying on a top-tier rushing attack and former CFL Most Outstanding Player Brady Oliveira.

The Redblacks finished second in passing in 2024, but the team’s offence was slowed by injuries at the quarterback spot in 2025 after four different players made starts at the position.

“I think Tommy’s really adaptable, he’s going to be an easy guy to work with and just with guys that have been in the league a long time, players move from one team to the next, I have faith that Tommy knows what we’re all about,” O’Shea said.

“I think he’s a highly qualified coordinator that’s going to look at his roster, he’s going to look at what it’s going to take to win that week. If I were to talk about what I believe we’re about, then over the course of time it’s been about having the ability to, on a quarter-by-quarter, game-by-game basis, figure out what it’s going to take to win that series, that quarter, that game, and make sure we’re trending in that direction. Tommy’s going to do whatever it’s going to take to win and it just so happens that we have the best [running] back in the league. He’ll figure out how to use him.”

On top of getting an early start to the off-season, O’Shea’s break was also unusual after he was heavily courted by the Toronto Argonauts to take over as their head coach and general manager after Ryan Dinwiddie went to the Redblacks.

Instead, O’Shea signed a three-year deal to stay with the Blue Bombers.

O’Shea’s reason for returning to Winnipeg was simple.

“We still got legs left (laughing), we still got an opportunity to win championships,” he said. “We’ve built something, a whole pile of us have put a lot of time and effort, a lot of soul into building this and I think we got a lot left to do.”