Danielle Del Valle/CFL.ca
It could be this week. It could be next.
When it comes, Winnipeg Blue Bombers general manager Kyle Walters will be ready. Ready to pounce on getting a key signature or two, or ready to deftly alter the vector to Plan B or even C if it comes to it.
After four straight trips to the Grey Cup and with a decade of off-season wheelings and dealings under that GM’s belt of his, Walters knows that although the timing varies from year to year, the script can play out in only so many ways.
“I do have a kind of an idea in my head of, ‘I think this is probably the way it may or may not go’ and then be prepared to execute that,” said Walters, sizing up the landscape as we head towards free agency season.
“But yeah, you’ve always got to be ready to pivot.”
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Keeping things straight and up to date is a bit of an intellectual juggling act for Walters and he has a number of ways to keep the moving parts of contractual cause and effect in order.
“It’s always kind of going on in my brain,” said the native of St. Thomas, ON, who signed a two-year contract extension himself this past off-season. “And I’ve got my notebook with all the discussions. But the big one for me is the cap sheet with your 45 projected Day One players with a price point. You’re always just kind of playing around with that and trying to make it all work within the cap.”
With free agency less than a month away (February 13), Walters is awaiting decisions from a group of high-calibre, ‘might-be’ Winnipeg free agents. Those decisions are catalysts in the way this particular off-season shapes up for the team.
Running back Brady Oliveira, the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian in 2023, tops that list but he is by no means alone in the category of key veteran players whose decisions set the tumblers on everything else clicking.
Receiver Dalton Schoen’s contract is about to expire. So are the contracts of offensive line stalwarts Jermarcus Hardrick and Stanley Bryant. And defensive lineman Jackson Jeffcoat. To name a few. The Bombers have a big list of primetime players on the potential free agents list.
“There is a delay while we sift through all of that,” explained Walters.
“But once one or two, three of those guys get locked in and we have a ‘here’s the direction we’re going,’ then I think the rest of things will move fairly quickly.”
“Once your highest price point guys get slotted in, or you realize you can’t get them, then the ball can get moving on everything else.”
If it seems that Walters and the Blue Bombers have not been as swift to re-sign returning stars as they have been in the recent past, that’s not just your imagination at work there. This off-season has been less productive in that vein, at least so far.
Timeline, though, is not something that seems to worry Winnipeg head coach Mike O’Shea. Asked whether the slower pace of re-signing pending Blue Bomber free agents this off-season as compared to, say, last off-season, O’Shea, predictably, shrugged it off.
“To compare it to other years, where we’re at in our progress of puttin’ the roster together, I’m not sure I would remember the timelines of when guys signed or not,” said O’Shea. “Our guys are constantly workin’ on it. We’ve made some excellent signings so far.”
That they have. The Blue Bombers announced new contracts for the likes of defensive end Willie Jefferson – as key an extension as extensions can possibly get – along with offensive lineman Paddy Neufeld, defensive back Deatrick Nichols and defensive lineman Cam Lawson prior to Christmas. Then they got linebacker Brian Cole’s name on a fresh agreement on New Year’s Day.
However, a glance at CFL.ca’s Free Agent Tracker reveals names beyond those that have already been mentioned. Receivers Rasheed Bailey and Drew Wolitarsky are on the list. So is running back Johnny Augustine, Oliveira’s talented back-up, and offensive linemen Chris Kolankowski and Geoff Gray, as well as defensive linemen Ricky Walters and Jake Thomas.
Then there’s star returner Janarion Grant. Veteran safety Brandon Alexander and 2023 CFL-All-Star corner Demerio Houston are potential free agents, too, as is kicker Sergio Castillo.
Walters didn’t deny it, nor did he sugarcoat it. Keeping the band together the way the team has in previous seasons is not as easy this time around.
Nor is it as likely.
“We’ve done a pretty good job in recent years of trying to make it all work and bringing back the core,” said Walters, proudly, and in a way that suggested the word ‘but’ was coming. It was.
“But I anticipate this offseason there’ll be more turnover than we’ve seen,” he added.
“We’ve done a very good job over the last four years of keeping dang near the whole team intact. But at some point, you need to figure out a way to keep a competitive product on the field but also start transitioning to the next group that’s gonna get back to Grey Cups.”
The Bombers will make decisions to move on from some of the veteran players that have become familiar faces and fan favourites over the last handful of seasons. Walters said that those decisions should not be seen as a judgement that those players can’t do it anymore.
Rather, it’s merely the reality of having just so much money to spend and a great deal of successful veteran players who long ago moved past entry-level contracts or even mid-range deals.
It’ll be sad, sure. And done with some regret, too. But Walters is prepared and ready to take it in stride.
“I don’t get too don’t get too fired up,” he said. “Everything’ll sort itself out and as I say the Winnipeg Blue Bombers will field a football team next year.”
