{"id":679208,"date":"2026-05-19T07:48:22","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T07:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/679208\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T07:48:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T07:48:22","slug":"taits-take-blue-bombers-training-camp-day-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/679208\/","title":{"rendered":"Tait’s Take | Blue Bombers Training Camp Day 9"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today\u2019s collection of notes, quotes and anecdotes from Day 9 of Blue Bombers training camp\u2026<\/p>\n

SANTOS-KNOX UPDATE<\/p>\n

Blue Bombers head coach Mike O\u2019Shea opened his media session Monday with some tough news: veteran linebacker Jovan Santos-Knox is gone for the entire season after suffering an injury on Day 1 of training camp.<\/p>\n

The 2026 was supposed to be a homecoming of sorts for Santos-Knox, who began his CFL career with the Blue Bombers in 2017 and was returning after stints in Edmonton (2019), Hamilton (2021-22) and Ottawa (2023-25).<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s emotional,\u201d said O\u2019Shea, who chose not to offer specifics as to the nature of Santos-Knox\u2019s injury. \u201cHe was brought here for a reason \u2014 we had him here when he started and liked everything about him. He ends up not in our building, we watched him from afar and enjoyed the way he plays and the way he leads, especially.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought he was going to be a great fit for us this year and so did he. It was nice to have him back and so, yeah, he\u2019s crushed. He knew what he wanted to do this year and what he wanted to be a part of and that\u2019s been taken away from him.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers still return veteran starters Tony Jones and Kyrie Wilson at linebacker, along with Michael Ayers and Canadians Tanner Cadwallader, Connor Shay, Jaylen Smith and Lane Novak along with three draft picks from this spring in Charles-Elliott Bouliane, Ethan Stuart and Brody Clark.<\/p>\n

3 THOUGHTS FROM DAY 9<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

1 Things got a little testy today in a receiver screen drill and there were some flare ups between receiver Joey Corcoran and Warren Burrell, followed by Redha Kramdi and Jayden Harrison also pushing and shoving.<\/p>\n

Asked about the scraps, O\u2019Shea offered this:<\/p>\n

\u201cI would say they were a lot less than a \u2018scrap\u2019 \u2014 it would depend on which alley you walked down. Emotions ran a little high and there was a little bit of pushing and shoving. They have to understand they can\u2019t take a penalty. Football is tough and it\u2019s played by tough guys and there\u2019s a lot of physicality involved. And when it gets physical you just can\u2019t leave the fray and take a penalty.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s wasting our time. We have a set amount of time to do that drill and the more they muck it up afterwards the less reps we get and they\u2019re wasting everyone\u2019s time. And then you throw in the fact that it\u2019s a penalty? We did a drill today where we were third and goal from the 17 because of stuff like that. We have to practice that because somebody may take a penalty and it costs us 15 (yards) and pushes us off the goal line and that\u2019s what we\u2019re left with \u2014 a very difficult situation. So, they have to understand that. Plus, they\u2019re teammates. I don\u2019t make it too big a deal but they\u2019re wasting our time and they\u2019re taking penalties. That\u2019s not smart.\u201d<\/p>\n

2 Noticeable on Monday for their work during the practice: defensive linemen Willie Jefferson and De\u2019Shaan Dixon in DL vs OL 1-on-1s; receiver Dorian Singer on a red-zone TD toss from Taylor Elgersma; defensive backs Ridge Texada and Nick Hallett, who had interceptions.<\/p>\n

3 The number of players nicked up or taking time to recuperate on Monday was long with Brady Oliveira, Nic Demski, Pat Neufeld, Micah Vanterpool, Pokey Wilson on offence, with Jake Ceresna, Jonathan Moxey, Trey Vaval, Ethan Ball, Cam Lawson, Tanner Schmekel, Michael Fletcher, Antoineo Harris and Arnold Young on defence all not participating.<\/p>\n

The club did make a couple transactions on Monday, releasing receiver Key\u2019Shawn Smith and adding Global punter Keegan Andrews \u2014 the club\u2019s second round-pick in the 2026 CFL Global Draft \u2014 and defensive tackle Jonah Pace.<\/p>\n

Andrews \u2014 who is massive for a kicker at 6-2, 250 \u2014 is an Aussie kicker who attended the CFL\u2019s offseason kicking showcase this winter and was First-Team All-MAC with the Minutemen after transferring from Texas A&M.<\/p>\n

Pace (6-5, 285, Iowa) started 12 games for the Hawkeyes last year.<\/p>\n

FYI: O\u2019Shea said the Blue Bombers lineup for the first preseason game in Saskatoon this Saturday will not be impacted by it being the second contest for the Saskatchewan Roughriders, who played today in Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would be totally working on our own schedule and our own parameters, not really look at what they\u2019re doing,\u201d he said. \u201cI haven\u2019t seen anything on that today or how they deploy their lineup and it really wouldn\u2019t change how we think.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Gabe Wallace continues to get a lot of work at tackle with the second unit. He started 15 games last year at left guard. O\u2019Shea said the move is part of offensive line coach Marty Costello\u2019s plan to move his crew around to get different looks at the personnel.<\/p>\n

\u201cTackle is tough but Gabe\u2019s no stranger to it and he\u2019s a massive human being,\u201d O\u2019Shea said. \u201cYou do remember some big tackles you played against, and it was really hard to go around them because they just take up so much space. Gabe takes up a lot of space and for a guy that size he moves it around.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s having a helluva lot of fun playing this year. Moving around to different spots. He\u2019s flying around the field.\u201d<\/p>\n

NEXT: Tuesday\u2019s practice times: 9:35 a.m. -12:25 p.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Today\u2019s collection of notes, quotes and anecdotes from Day 9 of Blue Bombers training camp\u2026 SANTOS-KNOX UPDATE Blue…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":679209,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-679208","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\/679208","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=679208"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/679208\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/679209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=679208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=679208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=679208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}