Johany Jutras/CFL.ca
Entering his eighth year in Winnipeg, Kyle Walters has experienced just about the full gamut of emotion from Blue Bombers fans. The team’s GM for the last four-plus years and their special teams coach before that, he’s seen the organization go from a Grey Cup appearance in 2011, to seven- and five-win seasons in the years that followed, before his vision for the team began to come together in the last two years.
While he feels and understands the passion that fans feel for their team, he said he’s never seen an ugly side of it; even in those dark days where the playoffs felt like a distant hope.
“It’s interesting. In most markets, the people that are negative are not negative to your face, for the most part,” he said while in Banff for the GMs and presidents meetings.
“Generally the people that I came in contact with (after taking over as GM), it was, ‘Wish you the best of luck, get this thing turned around’. There was certainly a frustration, but I think with Wade (Miller, the team’s CEO and president) and myself and Mike (O’Shea, the head coach), I think there was some cautious optimism. I think there was some patience with us.
“I think (fans) realized we were three Canadian guys that had all played in the CFL and they wanted us to succeed. Even those first couple of years where we weren’t very good and we were trying to turn the roster around, I think the general public wasn’t happy but they were more patient than they’d been in the past when the team had struggled.”
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Walters, like Miller and O’Shea, lives in Winnipeg full-time. He thinks Bombers fans appreciate that, and that it helped build faith that they were committed to turning the team around and ending its now 27-year Grey Cup drought.
In bringing in QB Matt Nichols, winning a combined 23 regular-season games over the last two years (11-7 in 2016, 12-6 in 2017) and making consecutive playoff appearances, the Bombers look like they’re getting closer to taking the team where some of its fans haven’t been in their lifetimes. There’s a newfound pressure that comes with that success, but Walters says he loves it.
“Yes we’ve won, but we haven’t won a playoff game,” he said “There’s more pressure on us now publicly than there was four, five years ago. Now the expectation is higher and it’s win. Which is not a bad thing.”
As the 2017 season progressed, the Bombers began to look like they might be ready to take that next step. While their defence gave up its share of big plays, it forced turnovers and had game-changing capabilities. Nichols threw for a career-best 4,472 yards, with 28 touchdowns and eight interceptions while showing a mobility out of the pocket that he hadn’t previously in his career. It seemed like everything was coming together for the Bombers, as they carved out a place in the incredibly tough West Division.
Then, late in the season, the injury bug that had worked its way through so many teams finally settled in over Winnipeg. The team lost linebacker Maurice Leggett and receiver Darvin Adams after Week 17. O-lineman Travis Bond (a 2016 all-star) was lost four days later, in a Week 18 loss to Toronto. Jamaal Westerman went out after Week 12. Nichols was able to play in the Bombers’ Western Semi-Final loss to Edmonton, but did so with a broken ring finger on this throwing hand and a calf strain that limited his movement.
“It was frustrating in the sense that everybody goes through their injuries,” Walters said.
“It’s all just the timing of the injuries. I think our injuries were just as severe as anybody else’s but unfortunately for us, ours happened where our guys couldn’t come back onto the roster and give us that little burst into the playoffs. We weren’t playing our best football the last three games of the year and into the playoffs and that’s why we lost.”
The Bombers’ faith in Mike O’Shea and Kyle Walters has paid dividends for the team (Johany Jutras/CFL.ca)
It’s the coldest time of the year across the country and in one of the coldest cities in Canada, there’s a buzz around the Bombers right now. Immediately after the season ended, Walters and his staff went to work, signing pending free-agents. Nichols has helped out on that front, working the phones and pleading with his teammates to stay in Winnipeg.
They’re building something and they feel like they’re close to completion. Walters has seen just about every emotion from fans in his adopted hometown over the last eight years. The elation from winning in the playoffs and eventually raising a Grey Cup is the only one he hasn’t seen yet.
“I think we are (close to winning) and more importantly I think the players do,” Walters said.
“Matt Nichols is on the phone with offensive linemen that are free agents saying, ‘You’ve got to come back, we’re close.’ We need a piece here or a piece there on the offensive side of the ball, but I believe we’re close.
“I think the players believe in Mike (O’Shea). The players believe in what we’re doing and there’s obviously on the offensive side of the ball we kick too many field goals and don’t get enough touchdowns, I think needs to be cleaned up. Defensively, we need to eliminate the big plays but these are correctable things moving forward.
“The players believe most importantly that we’re really close to being one of those elite teams that’s going to compete for a Grey Cup year-in and year-out, if injuries and all those things you can’t control (work out). All things being equal we have a chance to compete with the best in the league.”
