{"id":481057,"date":"2026-02-17T16:41:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481057\/"},"modified":"2026-02-17T16:41:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T16:41:09","slug":"winnipeg-blue-bombers-stuck-in-taylor-elgersma-purgatory","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/481057\/","title":{"rendered":"Winnipeg Blue Bombers stuck in Taylor Elgersma purgatory"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Credit: Evan Siegle, Green Bay Packers.<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have made no progress getting Canadian quarterback Taylor Elgersma under contract, which appears to have them feeling discouraged.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a tough one. I talked to his (CFL) agent who is a Canadian guy, and then they have an American guy (for the NFL). They\u2019re still trying, they\u2019re still holding out hope that there\u2019s an NFL contract \u2026 and there\u2019s still the UFL, so they\u2019re figuring it out. There is zero clarity,\u201d general manager Kyle Walters recently told the media via videoconference.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer it goes, from my standpoint, I guess the worse it feels that he\u2019ll be in Winnipeg. I guess I was hoping come February 1, if there\u2019s no futures (NFL) contract, that he\u2019d jump at the opportunity to sign a Blue Bomber contract, but that has not been the case. They\u2019re still sorting things out and hoping that there\u2019s some NFL interest on their behalf and if there is, then he gets some workouts, and maybe he gets into a camp, I think is their ideal plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 23-year-old passer was a second-round pick in the 2025 CFL Draft out of Wilfrid Laurier University, where he won the Hec Crighton Trophy as the top player in all of U Sports football. He\u2019d impressed at the Senior Bowl, becoming one of few U Sports players ever invited to the premier showcase game for NFL prospects, and signed a contract with the Green Bay Packers as an undrafted free agent in May.<\/p>\n

The native of London, Ont. dressed for three preseason games with the Packers and completed 16-of-23 passes for 166 yards and one touchdown. He was waived near the end of August but requested a meeting with head coach Matt LaFleur to inquire about how he could improve. LaFleur obliged and Elgersma felt it was a productive meeting, saying he was \u201cvery appreciative\u201d of the feedback he received<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-five, 227-pound passer has remained a free agent since his release from Green Bay, despite recent reports that he\u2019d signed with the UFL\u2019s Birmingham Stallions. Though the Stallions claimed Elgersma\u2019s rights through the UFL draft, he would need to obtain a U.S. work permit in order to play in the league.<\/p>\n

Elgersma has garnered NFL interest over the past few months, working out for the San Francisco 49ers, Chicago Bears, and Miami Dolphins, though it doesn\u2019t appear he\u2019s been offered another contract. For what it\u2019s worth, Elgersma recently indicated that he doesn\u2019t see the Blue Bombers as some type of backup plan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWinnipeg\u2019s not a backup for anything. I have great respect for the culture of that\u00a0locker room and for what the CFL is,\u201d he recently told 3DownNation<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019ve said all along throughout the draft process when I was interviewed by teams that my\u00a0goal is to be a pro quarterback and that\u2019s ultimately what my dream has always been \u2014\u00a0to make a living playing the game I love.\u00a0I don\u2019t think of Winnipeg as a backup at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers didn\u2019t make any additions at quarterback in free agency, sticking with incumbents Zach Collaros, Terry Wilson, and Chase Artopoeus.<\/p>\n

Wilson has attempted only 12 regular-season passes over two CFL seasons, while Artopoeus has never taken a meaningful snap. Chris Streveler, who suffered a torn in ACL in October, wasn\u2019t retained and has yet to confirm whether or not he intends to return to the CFL<\/a>. He\u2019s currently a free agent.<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers also added two CFL rookies in Bryce Perkins and Payton Thorne. Perkins has six years of professional football experience and a UFL MVP award<\/a>, while Thorne started 48 games at Michigan State and Auburn and was mentored by longtime CFL quarterback Kent Austin<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Walters seems pleased with the group of young passers currently under contract, though he warned that Collaros will need to practice more following the hiring of Tommy Condell as offensive coordinator<\/a>, leaving fewer reps for the others.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re cautiously optimistic with the group behind Zach that one of them is going to step up. It\u2019s just so challenging \u2014 and you\u2019re gonna see it this year with a new offensive coordinator \u2014 where Zach\u2019s going to have to take a ton of the reps with all the different personnel, so Zach\u2019s going to have to take more reps than usual with Tommy, with the new receivers, which means the second, third, fourth guys (at quarterback) are going to be limited with how many reps they get,\u201d said Walters.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou get two preseason games, so for these young quarterbacks, not just here but around the league, when you get your opportunity, you\u2019ve got to take it and show that you can make a play. I\u2019m excited (to see) one or two of them step up in training camp and show the coaches that that they\u2019re the guy that deserves to take the reps and be behind Zach.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are several veteran quarterbacks currently available on the free agent market, including Streveler, McLeod Bethel-Thompson, Jeremiah Masoli, Caleb Evans, Shea Patterson, and Tyrie Adams. It doesn\u2019t seem like Winnipeg will consider signing any of them until they get clarity on whether or not Elgersma will be in training camp.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sure would like to wait on the Taylor Elgersma (issue) to figure itself out,\u201d said Walters. \u201cOnce that is decided one way or another, then we\u2019ll potentially look at a guy with a little more experience than the guys we have, but nothing imminent that we\u2019re going to go out and sign one of these guys until Taylor\u2019s situation is sorted out.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Credit: Evan Siegle, Green Bay Packers. The Winnipeg Blue Bombers have made no progress getting Canadian quarterback Taylor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481058,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,22070,22936,49,48,521,522,520,527,168671,1627,7338,82,173382,168683,22073],"class_list":{"0":"post-481057","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-3down","9":"tag-3downnation","10":"tag-blue-bombers","11":"tag-bombers","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-canadian-football-league","15":"tag-canadianfootballleague","16":"tag-cfl","17":"tag-football","18":"tag-laurier","19":"tag-qb","20":"tag-quarterback","21":"tag-sports","22":"tag-taylor-elgersma","23":"tag-wilfrid-laurier","24":"tag-winnipeg"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481057","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=481057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}