{"id":427945,"date":"2026-01-23T11:37:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-23T11:37:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/427945\/"},"modified":"2026-01-23T11:37:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-23T11:37:26","slug":"veteran-defensive-lineman-jefferson-agrees-to-one-year-extension-with-blue-bombers-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/427945\/","title":{"rendered":"Veteran defensive lineman Jefferson agrees to one-year extension with Blue Bombers \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>WINNIPEG \u2013 Defensive end Willie Jefferson agreed to a one-year extension with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>Jefferson was slated to become a free agent next month.<\/p>\n<p>Jefferson, 34, enters his seventh season with Winnipeg and 12th in the CFL. The six-foot-seven, 244-pound Texan appeared in 17 regular-season games in 2025, recording 15 tackles, three sacks, a forced fumble and league-high 16 pass knockdowns that tied the club record he set in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dddbed887695ac8cd5bbd947da422f754cebd0fc8b6ddb8951c6eee6f212736d.jpg\" data-pswp- data-pswp-width=\"1019\" data-pswp-height=\"768\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/dddbed887695ac8cd5bbd947da422f754cebd0fc8b6ddb8951c6eee6f212736d.jpg\" alt=\"Winnipeg Blue Bombers\u2019 Willie Jefferson (5) celebrates a sack on Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Jake Maier (9) by James Vaughters (93) and Cameron Lawson (99) during first half CFL action in Winnipeg, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/John Woods\"\/><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWinnipeg Blue Bombers\u2019 Willie Jefferson (5) celebrates a sack on Saskatchewan Roughriders quarterback Jake Maier (9) by James Vaughters (93) and Cameron Lawson (99) during first half CFL action in Winnipeg, Friday, Oct. 17, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/John Woods<\/p>\n<p>The 16 knockdowns were also the third-most in CFL history. And he enters 2026 with 46 sacks as a Blue Bomber, ranking him fifth all-time in franchise history.<\/p>\n<p>A six-time CFL all-star, Jefferson was the league\u2019s top defensive player in 2019. He has accumulated 77 career sacks and 94 pass knockdowns, the latter being the second-most in league history.<\/p>\n<p>Jefferson is a three-time Grey Cup champion with Edmonton (2015) and Winnipeg (2019, \u201921).<\/p>\n<p>\u2014<\/p>\n<p>Ottawa Redblacks re-sign American defensive back Bennett Williams<\/p>\n<p>OTTAWA \u2014 The Ottawa Redblacks re-signed American defensive back Bennett Williams to a one-year contract Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tThe Warm-Up<\/p>\n<p class=\"frequency\">Winnipeg Jets Game Days<\/p>\n<p>On Winnipeg Jets game days, hockey writers Mike McIntyre and Ken Wiebe send news, notes and quotes from the morning skate, as well as injury updates and lineup decisions. Arrives a few hours prior to puck drop.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t<a class=\"email-subscribe-link button the-warmup inline-block-logged-in\">Sign up for The Warm-Up<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/theWarm-up-tile.jpg\" alt=\"Sign up for The Warm-Up\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Williams, 26, was slated to become a free agent next month,<\/p>\n<p>Williams registered 26 total tackles (17 defensive) and two forced fumbles in nine regular-season games last year.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The six-foot, 200-pound Williams enters his third campaign with Ottawa, having recorded 55 total tackles (44 defensive), one sack and two forced fumbles in 20 regular-season appearances with the Redblacks.<\/p>\n<p>Williams spent time with the Miami Dolphins in 2023 after playing collegiately at Oregon and Illinois.<\/p>\n<p>This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 22, 2026.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WINNIPEG \u2013 Defensive end Willie Jefferson agreed to a one-year extension with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers on Thursday.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427946,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-427945","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427945","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=427945"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427945\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427945"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427945"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427945"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}