Kyle Walters is plunked down in a chair in his office, his cell phone jammed to his ear. A pile of reports are scattered across his desk surrounding his laptop, and a college prospect’s film is playing out on a projection screen.
It’s December. And if you were to check back in with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers GM any time between now and next May, the scene would likely be the same.
Day after day after day.
A GM’s job is never finished, but it cranks up particularly after the obit is penned on a season. The Bombers have been in that mode for about a month now and here are some of the items on Walters’ offseason To-Do list:
Get head coach Mike O’Shea signed to a new deal:
The top item on the list of tasks was completed with last week’s announcement both Walters and O’Shea had signed contract extensions. This was expected, but until the coach agreed to terms it would have been difficult for Walters to proceed with the other items on his list.
“It’s all about continuity,” said Walters. “It’s good for our team to see that Mike has re-signed, that the leader of our team is back. It just sends a good message heading into the offseason, that our leader wants to be here.”
Sign QB Matt Nichols to a new deal:
The Bombers were 10-3 in the regular season after Nichols took over the starting role from Drew Willy. Nichols, who is scheduled to become a free agent in February, finished fifth in the CFL in passing yards with 3,666 and in his 14 starts – including, arguably, his best in the West Semi-Final – he averaged 283.2 yards per game.
That’s a 5K passing season pro-rated, but Nichols also had a 21:9 TD-to-interception ratio and brought a fiery leadership approach to the huddle that his teammates loved.
He’s reportedly seeking starter’s money in free agency – $400,000-plus – and discussions on a new deal between Walters and Nichols’ agent have already started.
“We made a decision on Drew, who was a bit of an unknown, and he ended up showing some flashes early and then through the last couple of years it just didn’t progress,” said Walters. “I think it was the injuries and his confidence went down. It was a tough road for him.
“But we’ve moved forward and with what we’re doing with the offence I think we need to get Matt signed and get him to be the leader of the quarterbacks while we develop the young guys. We’d like to get Dominique Davis back and see if he can grow into a starter and find the next great one on the neg list.”
Davis is also a pending a free agent, as is veteran Kevin Glenn, who returned to Winnipeg in September in a deal with the Montreal Alouettes. Asked about Glenn, Walters said:
“The point of this discussion is who is the quarterback you want to hang your hat on as your starter, which is Matt Nichols, and then the development of the young guys, which is Dom. Kevin fits somewhere right in the middle.
“We all think very highly of Kevin Glenn in this organization, but it is a business and we need to get Matt Nichols sorted out contractually and see where that number is. I’ll talk to Kevin’s agent and tell him this is where we see him fitting in and this is the price range we have… is it a good fit or is it not a good fit. That’s a discussion down the road.
“It’s almost a separate entity when you’re looking at your salary cap and you’re looking at your roster. It’s what’s the number got to be for your starting quarterback and then what’s the domino effect for the rest of the roster. It would be really nice to get that piece into place so that you can figure out the rest.”
The 2017 CFL Draft prep work:
The Bombers have two picks in the first round – first and sixth overall – and then select in the 15th, 23rd, 50th, 59th and 68th spots (no fourth or fifth-round selections).
The scouting staff of Danny McManus, Ted Goveia and Craig Smith has been after this for a while and the prep work is only going to crank up with two picks in the Top 6, three in the Top 15.
“It’s non-stop,” said Walters. “We’ve spent the last week going over with Danny and Craig and Ted all our notes that we’ve gathered throughout the year. That’s all in our database now. We’ve got a list of 135 players to be evaluated so now it’s about sitting down and watching these guys and putting clips together.”
Walters, for example, is working on watching O-linemen tape this week, studying 3-4 games of each prospect and then piecing together a 20-play highlight tape. The goal is to have all their prep work done by March, well in advance of the draft next May.
A comparative review:
The Bombers coaches were tasked with breaking down film for a comparison of their talent vs. the rest of the league, both by position groups and each player. The goal here is to establish a consensus of areas that need upgrading before free agency and the draft and to give the scouting department positional targets.
“You want to identify your positions of weakness relative to the rest of the league,” said Walters. “If across the board we believe our players and positional groups rank in the top half, then we’re in good shape. If we don’t believe that our player at position ‘X’ is in the top half of this league, then that’s a key area we need to improve.
“It’s a matter of the scouting department and the coaching staff all seeing things and saying, ‘Here’s the obvious areas, compared to the rest of the league, that we need to improve on’ and then it is about the strategy to improve that.”
Free agency:
The Bombers have 21 players scheduled to become free agents on February 14th, the fewest in the CFL. That list includes quarterbacks Matt Nichols, Kevin Glenn and Dom Davis; linebackers Khalil Bass, Jesse Briggs, Tony Burnett, Sam Hurl; receivers Darvin Adams, Clarence Denmark, Tori Gurley, Rory Kohlert, Quincy McDuffie and Gerrard Sheppard; defensive backs Teague Sherman and Macho Harris; offensive linemen Stanley Bryant, Jeff Keeping; kicker Justin Medlock, defensive tackle Euclid Cummings, fullback James Tuck, and long-snapper Chad Rempel.
All that means keeping some kind of continuity becomes increasingly difficult, given the available talent soon to be on the market.
“It’s not the reality of the CFL now,” said Walters of continuity. “You’re seeing anywhere from 20-35 free agents from every team. This could go either way… I think you’re going to see the top guys go after their money and maybe jump ship. But I just don’t know if teams are going to be able to go after all the top-priced free agents like they used to.
“There’s so many free agents on your own team and you’re going to want to keep your group together as best you can. Maybe there is less jumping around from team to team because there’s just less money to go around. We’ll see. Maybe the offer we make to a player in this locker room that he’s not happy with and then goes to free agency doesn’t look so bad after a few days of free agency. I think you’re going to see fair bit of that this year.
“I believe you’re going to see the top guys on the list – the all-stars, the 1,000-yard receivers, the big-name guys – they might jump ship and get snatched up. But I think everybody else is going to be focused on their own guys and adding one or two pieces here or there.”
The club has a weekly conference call that includes the scouting department and the coaching staff in which roster decisions, salaries, the ratio and how it all affects free agency are all discussed.
“The 2017 training camp roster is really starting to get into shape right now,” said Walters. “The scouting department needs to hear the area of focus in regards to potential players. In this CFL, with the number of free agents and the escalating salaries across the board, you are going to have to go into training camp with two or three roster positions that are unknown, that are going to be pencilled in with first-year American guys that you’ve scouted. That’s just the way it is. It’s the way the CFL is going. You just can’t afford to do it any other way and so the challenge to the scouting department is, whatever the positions are, to have them fill them out for training camp.
“Maybe we can fill one of those in the draft or if there’s one area where we are weak we can target that in free agency.”
