{"id":405555,"date":"2026-01-13T00:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405555\/"},"modified":"2026-01-13T00:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-13T00:22:14","slug":"notes-from-oshea-walters-and-the-cfl-winter-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/405555\/","title":{"rendered":"Notes from O’Shea\/Walters and the CFL Winter Meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers took some hefty swings in Canadian Football League free agency a year ago and will be wielding a heavy bat when the market opens in less than a month.<\/p>\n

And while the organization has scored some major coups in the last 10 years in the open market \u2014 landing the likes of Andrew Harris, Nic Demski, Justin Medlock, Stanley Bryant, Adam Bighill, Willie Jefferson and many, many others \u2014 last year\u2019s haul didn\u2019t exactly wrap themselves in glory.<\/p>\n

Defensive end James Vaughters finished with a team-leading six sacks and receiver Jerreth Sterns had 530 yards and four touchdowns in 14 games, but running back\/returner Peyton Logan and linebacker Jonathan Jones appeared in only three games, Dillon Mitchell was a disappointment while receiver Reggie White, Jr., quarterback Shea Patterson, defensive end Brock Gowanlock, defensive back Josh Haggerty never even made the team.<\/p>\n

Still, that won\u2019t stop GM Kyle Walters & Co. from looking at a talent upgrade when the market opens on February 10th.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can\u2019t be worried about your past results,\u201d said Walters Monday during a media availability as CFL meetings began in Calgary. \u201cIf you\u2019re going to be aggressive in free agency \u2014 which you\u2019re going to have to be if you want to improve an area of your team \u2014 once that opportunity arises, once the time hits, you need to go out there and you need to be aggressive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve certainly had meetings with the coaches and identified some players that we like at different positions. We\u2019ve got to make sure we go get those guys or make a run at the guys we think can help improve an area on our team. But you have to be aggressive, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Walters didn\u2019t want to get into specifics on each of the remaining pending free agents \u2014 there are 23 inching toward free agency, down from the 35 at the end of the year \u2014 but did indicate veteran left tackle and right guard Pat Neufeld both want to continue playing.<\/p>\n

Not everyone will be offered contracts, obviously, but there are some other notable names on the list<\/a> including defensive end Willie Jefferson, Vaughters and Sterns, kickers Sergio Castillo and Jamieson Sheahan and starters like receiver Keric Wheatfall, defensive tackle Jamal Woods, cornerback Demerio Houston and linebacker Kyrie Wilson.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of moving parts when it comes to free agency,\u201d Walters explained. \u201cA lot of names on the list we are talking to and you have a general idea of what a player might cost; his agent has a vastly different idea of what that player might cost and then, to your point, it\u2019s the juggling act of where does this slot in? If this player who would we thought would be this number is in fact substantially higher then the give and take is what\u2019s the next plan. And then you start going down the amount of times that could happen is a very interesting task that is very fluid and constantly changing. So, it\u2019s just a matter of prioritizing, hopefully, when an agent accepts the deal and then you can lock something in and then move on. It\u2019s a challenge with all the different moving parts.<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 It\u2019s the same as every year. It\u2019s just when you hadn\u2019t made the Grey Cup this past season for the first time in five years\u2026 so, you take a look like you do every offseason where you evaluate the players and evaluate where we need to get better and how we need to get better as a group. It\u2019s no different this year, it\u2019s just finishing fourth made us realize these other teams have caught up and we had a heckuva run but we didn\u2019t make the Grey Cup this year for the first time in five years so let\u2019s figure out how to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Some other notable items from the O\u2019Shea\/Walters media session on Monday\u2026<\/p>\n

Canadian QB Taylor Elgersma, the Wilfrid Laurier star drafted by the club in the second round last year who is still chasing his NFL dream after attending training camp with the Green Bay Packers last year: \u201cHis agent and I talk all the time. Nothing\u2019s changed,\u201d Walters said. \u201cThey\u2019ve made it perfectly clear they\u2019re going to go through this process. He\u2019s had some workouts and he\u2019s going to see it right through until the bitter end. Hopefully, if he doesn\u2019t have a futures contract in February then they\u2019ll turn their attention to the CFL. But they are still 100 percent focussed on getting an NFL contract. No change than we talked last.\u201d\"\"Update on this: Elgersma was selected by the Birmingham Stallions in the UFL Quarterback Draft on Monday, after the media availability, along with Matt Corral and Jaren Hall. The remainder of the UFL Draft will take place over the next few days.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Shea indicated that new offensive coordinator Tommy Condell will also serve as the QB coach in 2026 and that he\u2019s got \u201cone or two spots to fill \u2014 one, most likely. Not pressed (to fill the role) right now. I just want to make it right.\u201d
\nThe rules committee was scheduled to hit on a number of topics after Monday\u2019s media availability.
Walters: \u201cThis is the first time since these have been announced that we\u2019ll be in a group together to talk and listen and have a discussion and kind of wrap our head around what the plan is moving forward. So it\u2019ll be I guess of an information gathering session and how do we apply that for our training camp and make plans moving forward. So it\u2019s going in with an open mind and listen and discuss afterwards among ourselves, I guess.\u201d
O\u2019Shea was outspoken about some of the new changes when they were announced last fall and said this, with a chuckle: \u201cI think the raw emotion is gone. It might be sparked again here, momentarily in an hour and a half or two hours when we start our meetings. I think I\u2019m certainly in the mindset to listen, and if I believe I have something valuable to add, just like any other year I\u2019ll try and add it. I\u2019ve got more of an open mind.\u201d
\nWalters on new QB signings Bryce Perkins<\/a> and Payton Thorne:<\/a>
\u201cWe\u2019re excited. Bryce has a little different pedigree than we\u2019ve seen in our training camp for a while. He\u2019s a little more mature, he\u2019s been around. He was the MVP of the UFL, and we\u2019re excited that he wants to focus on the CFL. We\u2019ll temper expectation.
\u201cWith Thorne, again, interesting athlete, played at the big-time school. So we\u2019re excited. But we\u2019ll see. There\u2019s a steep learning curve in that quarterback room. But these guys are coming in with interesting skill sets and they\u2019re excited and ready to come in and learn the Canadian game and we\u2019re excited to have them.\u201d
\nOn Trey Vaval, who has worked out with six NFL teams this offseason and has until February 10th to land a deal down south before he would return to the Blue Bombers: \u201cStill up in the air. Was interesting, when that flurry of (CFL) guys signed early, and Trey had a bunch of workouts and now him and his agent are just kind of sifting through. We\u2019re kind of giving them their spac. There hasn\u2019t been a formal offer put to us asking for his release to sign. Obviously, we\u2019d be happy for Trey and his family if he gets an NFL offer. But boy we would be excited if he was back in Winnipeg as well.\u201d
\nOn the release of centre Chris Kolankowski: \u201cChris, first of all, has been a good, loyal Bomber and a great young man and I do anticipate he\u2019ll get picked up. Once the decision was made, his agent asked to be released so he can get a jump-start. Organizationally, just the status quo after last season we didn\u2019t think was going to be good enough moving forward. So unfortunately, some changes needed to be made. And it was a difficult one. But we\u2019re looking forward to moving forward and thank Chris for his time here. I\u2019m sure he\u2019ll catch on and do just fine next year as well with a new team.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Winnipeg Blue Bombers took some hefty swings in Canadian Football League free agency a year ago and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":212404,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-405555","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\/405555","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=405555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/405555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/212404"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=405555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=405555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=405555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}