{"id":262565,"date":"2025-11-05T04:28:09","date_gmt":"2025-11-05T04:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/262565\/"},"modified":"2025-11-05T04:28:09","modified_gmt":"2025-11-05T04:28:09","slug":"brady-oliveira-loves-playing-for-winnipeg-blue-bombers-but-wants-best-situation-as-pending-cfl-free-agent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/262565\/","title":{"rendered":"Brady Oliveira loves playing for Winnipeg Blue Bombers but wants ‘best situation’ as pending CFL free agent"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Winnipeg Blue Bombers<\/p>\n

Canadian running back Brady Oliveira is arguably the top pending free agent in the CFL and though he\u2019d like to return to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, it\u2019s clear he wants to maximize the value of his next contract while chasing another championship ring.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone knows the last number of years here have been amazing. Playing for my hometown, it\u2019s been incredible. 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 to talk to my family and kind of see what the best scenario and situation is for me,\u201d Oliveira told the media in Winnipeg on Tuesday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI know what I can bring. I know I\u2019m a calibre of 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 \u2014 I don\u2019t play for awards, any of that stuff. I play to win a Grey Cup, so I\u2019m going to put myself in the best situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliveira might not play for personal accolades but he\u2019s won a bunch of them. He\u2019s one of fewer than two-dozen players ever to win multiple Most Outstanding Canadian awards and only four Canadians ever to be named the CFL\u2019s Most Outstanding Player, though Nathan Rourke will likely be added to both lists later this month.<\/p>\n

The bruising ball-carrier is already the CFL\u2019s eighth-leading Canadian rusher, according to statistician Jeff Krever, and needs only 1,365 more yards to move into third behind just Andrew Harris (10,380) and Normie Kwong (9,022). Oliveira also needs only one more 1,000-yard season to tie Harris for the Canadian record of five.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s arguably the best tailback in the league,\u201d said head coach Mike O\u2019Shea on Monday. \u201cWe love his style, we love the way he plays, hometown kid \u2014 not that that even matters. He\u2019s just really, really good, so (re-signing Oliveira) would obviously be a priority.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old won\u2019t repeat as the CFL\u2019s Most Outstanding Player this year but that doesn\u2019t mean he didn\u2019t have a great season. He rushed for 1,163 yards and three touchdowns to lead the league at 5.8 yards per carry (min. 50 attempts) and caught 61 passes for 546 yards, marking new career-highs as a receiver.<\/p>\n

With that said, Oliveira had a quiet performance in the East Semi-Final, managing only 39 yards from scrimmage on 10 touches. His opportunities were limited given how poorly the team started, falling behind 25-3 before halftime, though he committed a key error in the fourth quarter with his team trailing 32-30. Oliveira lost a fumble deep in Winnipeg territory, which the Alouettes recovered and turned into a touchdown four plays later.<\/p>\n

\u201cI understand that mistakes will happen throughout the course of the season \u2014 obviously, you want to limit those mistakes in pro football and that (fumble) was costly at a costly time in the game,\u201d said Oliveira. \u201cIt was a great play that was made from that defensive lineman and I definitely will be thinking about that for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oliveira declined to comment on the team\u2019s offensive scheme this year, which was recently criticized by Zach Collaros<\/a>. The veteran quarterback indicated that the offence repped plays during training camp that were never called during the regular season. He also suggested the offence didn\u2019t master any concepts they could rely upon in key moments. O\u2019Shea complimented offensive coordinator Jason Hogan\u2019s work ethic, though he also wishes he\u2019d provided the offence with more support<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The five-foot-ten, 229-pound ball-carrier has a special relationship with Hogan, given that he served as the team\u2019s running backs coach for three season prior to becoming Winnipeg\u2019s offensive coordinator. Oliveira has always spoken highly of Hogan, who he thanked no fewer than three times during his M.O.P. acceptance speech last year in Vancouver.<\/p>\n

The two men had a long meeting during garbage bag day on Sunday, which Oliveira felt was productive.<\/p>\n

\u201c(This year) felt different for me. I didn\u2019t get to spend as much time (with Hogan) as I\u2019d liked. That guy had a lot going on and we all know he\u2019s a rookie OC and there\u2019s going to be growing pains throughout the season. He obviously had to manage a lot more now than just myself and the running backs \u2014 a very small room to a very large room now with the entire offence as a whole,\u201d said Oliveira.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know this offence didn\u2019t live up to our standards of being an explosive offence that wins a lot of football games. We all know that we didn\u2019t do that, so we also had that conversation as well. The conversation I had with [Hogan] was a good one. It was some tough moments in there, but a lot of great moments as well. I still have a lot of respect for him and love for him and that will never change.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked point blank if it was a mistake for Hogan to become the team\u2019s offensive coordinator in 2025, Oliveira spoke in support of his coach.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think it was a mistake,\u201d he said. \u201cI think he deserved an opportunity to showcase his abilities. The guy works extremely hard, he showed that the last number of seasons, so I think that\u2019s why he was awarded that opportunity to be an offensive coordinator.\u201d<\/p>\n

The University of North Dakota product turned down massive contract offers from the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and B.C. Lions<\/a> the last time he was a free agent. He earned $240,000 in Winnipeg this year<\/a> \u2014 almost $100,000 more than any other running back \u2014 but one could argue that he\u2019s due a raise, especially with the CFL\u2019s recent salary cap increase<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve still got a lot more tread on the tires. I\u2019ve got a lot more in me. I look forward to attacking another offseason because I think I attack these offseasons better than anyone. I\u2019m gonna have a whole new fire, I guess \u2014 I know there\u2019s so much more that I can show. We\u2019ll see what\u2019s best for my future but I love it here. I truly do, it\u2019s been amazing, but you don\u2019t know how many years you get to play this game and when I look at my last two seasons under this contract, I think they got everything out of me,\u201d said Oliveira.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everyone knows that there were some big suitors out there when I did my deal a few years ago. This is where I wanted to be, but understanding that I don\u2019t know how many more years I have to play this game \u2014 I still know I have some time \u2014 but we\u2019ll see, so I think I owe it to myself to capitalize on that because I\u2019ve earned that, I worked my butt off to put myself in that position to kind of get what I deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers ranked fifth in net offence, third in net defence, and eighth with a turnover differential of minus-eleven. The club\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Winnipeg Blue Bombers Canadian running back Brady Oliveira is arguably the top pending free agent in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":262566,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-262565","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-canadian-football-league","11":"tag-canadianfootballleague","12":"tag-cfl","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262565","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}