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<\/p>\nIt says something about the last nine seasons of Winnipeg Blue Bombers football \u2014 nine straight double-digit win campaigns, five Grey Cup appearances, two championships \u2014 that there is a consensus the franchise has reached a \u2018where do they go from here\u2019 crossroads.<\/p>\n
No doubt that kind of consistent success significantly raises the bar of expectations over time, so much so that the 10-8 record posted by the club in the 2025 regular season followed by a first-round playoff loss to the Montreal Alouettes has prompted all this doubt about what\u2019s ahead.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s not just a sentiment from fans and media, either, as coaches, players and management have all taken turns since the end of the season publicly wondering aloud about where the team is headed and how it can get back to being one of the Canadian Football League\u2019s elites.<\/p>\n
That storyline \u2014 we\u2019ve dubbed it simply \u2018Onward\u2019 \u2014 comes in at #2 in our look at the Top 5 stories of the Blue Bombers in our annual Year in Review.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the other thing about all this: there is an admission inside the walls of Bomberland that things need to be fixed and, just as important, a consensus that this team still has the key pieces in place to both make those tinkerings and take a step forward in 2026.<\/p>\n
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Since the end of the season both GM Kyle Walters and head coach Mike O\u2019Shea have signed extensions, as have key players like Brady Oliveira, Redha Kramdi, Deatrick Nichols, Cam Lawson, Nic Demski and Pokey Wilson.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a start \u2014 a solid one \u2014 heading into free agency in February.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody has said the same thing and that\u2019s the best part about our situation right now: everybody understands the situation and our weaknesses and strengths,\u201d said Nichols last week after his extension was announced. \u201cAnd when everybody is on the same page then nothing else matters because everyone has the same goals, the same mindset. Everybody wakes up with the same intentions. When a unit or a group of guys have the same mindset, nothing is too difficult to handle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe problems come when a unit thinks there are 10 different problems. Then\u00a0that becomes the problem because you can\u2019t get to Step 1 to get everyone believing in the same thing. We\u2019re already past that point and it\u2019s easier to chase what\u2019s in front of us because we all know what the goal is from Day 1.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winnipeg defence allowed the fewest offensive points in 2025, and the special teams found some magic in Trey Vaval and has a solid kicking game with both Sergio Castillo and Jamieson Sheahan \u2014 although that duo are also both pending free agents and Vaval has already had a handful of workouts by NFL teams.<\/p>\n
The offence, as everyone is well aware, had its struggles in 2025 as Zach Collaros missed five starts and didn\u2019t finish three others and with injuries and changes to the receiving corps seeing its production fall to seventh in scoring and last in passing. That led to the hiring of long-time CFL offensive coordinator Tommy Condell, last with the Ottawa RedBlacks, with Jason Hogan resuming his role as running backs coach.<\/p>\n
Count Oliveira among the many that believe this team can reload for 2026.<\/p>\n
\u201cI trust this organization That\u2019s a big part of why I signed back,\u201d Oliveira said last week. \u201cSeeing Osh and Kyle) sign back\u2026 We have been very successful the last number of years and I put full trust in their hands.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said this from the beginning last year: I truly did believe that we had a Grey Cup calibre team. I look across the board \u2014 the level of talent that we had, the level of leadership that we had, vets that have played a ton of football games in the CFL, for the Bombers, we just unfortunately fell short and could get it done.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it came down to the details. I don\u2019t think we were as detail oriented as years past and we have a high standard here. We\u2019ve got to get back to that and I\u2019m excited to get back to work. The works already started for next season.\u201d<\/p>\n
It might have been Lawson who best captured the prevailing sentiment within the Blue Bombers camp in a chat earlier this month after he, too, had signed an extension.<\/p>\n
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\u201cOur coaching staff and the management are great people, and they know what to do,\u201d Lawson said. \u201cThey\u2019ve built championship teams in Winnipeg before. I have faith in them like they have faith in me.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, sometimes you need to be punched in the face. You can get comfortable with where you are\u2026 there\u2019s the saying \u2018complacency is the killer of progress.\u2019 I believe in that. After every season I\u2019m always planning on things I can do better \u2014 how I can be stronger, how I can improve in certain areas. You never want to be OK with what happened. None of us are.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd so, I think we can get back to winning championships and dominating once again and I know we\u2019ll keep signing guys and bringing guys in that are going to contribute to that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Next: Take A Bow, Bomber Nation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It says something about the last nine seasons of Winnipeg Blue Bombers football \u2014 nine straight double-digit win…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":375413,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-375412","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\/375412","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=375412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/375412\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/375413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=375412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=375412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=375412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}