Menu
April 19, 2018

Season Preview Call

2018 Fan Forum. Photo: David Lipnowski

These are the hard facts that represent growth for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers – a $5.1 million profit in 2017, a two year regular season won-lost record of 23-13, and a jump in attendance.

And this is the number GM Kyle Walters, Head Coach Mike O’Shea and quarterback Matt Nichols want to change going forward: the club is 0-2 in its last two playoff games and hasn’t won a postseason tilt since the 2011 East Final.

On a day in which the juicy profit total was announced by the club, the three men who played instrumental roles in the turnaround were made available on a Canadian Football League-sponsored conference call with the national media.

Naturally, the mood in Bomberland has been upbeat over the last little while, and particular on Thursday. But this is a team that for as much progress as it has made over the past two seasons, also knows it will judged ultimately on what happens in November.

That expectation also represents a dramatic turnaround from where it was just a few years ago.

“It’s encouraging when you hear guys talk around our league about what a quality organization we are now,” said Walters. “That’s what I’m most proud of from four or five years ago to now, we’re respected in this league top to bottom with the way we run our business and the way we treat our players.

“We put a product on the field our fans can be proud of and we compete week in and week out. We’ve won our fair share of games over the last couple of years and organizationally, now we need to take the next step and win playoff games and win a Grey Cup.”

 

Walters, O’Shea and Nichols riffed on a number of subjects during a 40-minute conference call on Thursday. Here are the major talking points that jumped out from this perch:

Nose to the grindstone…

The Bombers have posted the second-best regular season record in the CFL over the last two years with only Calgary, at 28-6-2, sporting better numbers. O’Shea, in general terms, touched on the what things could be improved on for the franchise to take that pivotal next step.

“There are a few things we identified collectively that whole groups think they can change,” he said. “I think we need to be physically stronger throughout the season. We need an even greater attention to detail… we spend a lot of time on detail, but we can go to another level in that regard.

“And then communication, as a team, as a group, as players on the field we can take our communication to the next level. We’re doing a lot of good things. It’s just trying to find that minutiae that’s going to make a difference. Some of the detail stuff is just drilling down another layer or layers in our preparation and in our communication.”

Eyes on the middle…

The Bombers will have close to 50 players in town for next week’s mini-camp, but while every team wants healthy competition, there aren’t many starting spots on the depth chart that seem to be available. The exception is the middle linebacker job.

Walters mentioned the versatility of Ian Wild and Jovan Santos-Knox does make them an option there and the team is returning two players from last year’s practice roster in Jevaris Jones and Kyrie Wilson. But nothing is carved in stone here, either.

“We’re feeling pretty confident with the guys we have, but mini-camp will be where we get to take a look at some of the young guys we signed in person and running around,” said Walters. “And we’re bringing back a couple guys we had on the practice roster throughout last year. We’re excited to see how these guys look in mini-camp and all throughout training camp.”

Photo: David Lipnowski

Nichols is driven…

The Bombers QB1 has posted some gaudy numbers over the last two years, throwing for 8,138 yards with a touchdown-to-interception ratio of 46:17. But the veteran pivot hardly slipped into the recliner over the winter to simply coast on those numbers.

“Any time you don’t win a championship you’re going to have things you obviously felt you could have done better,” said Nichols. “I’m a strong self-critic. I went back and watched all of our games multiple times… I’m still doing it, to make sure I’m critical of myself and find all those little things I can do better.

“I’ve implemented more things into my training and studied other guys around the league even more this year. It always sits with you because obviously, your goal is to win a championship and we haven’t done that. I’ve put in a large amounts of work this offseason to change that and make sure we end the season the way we want to and that’s with bringing a championship to Winnipeg.

“I’m feeling more and more comfortable with every rep I take, so I feel like I’m going into this season the most prepared I’ve been and the best I’ve ever felt. I’m excited to get going and itching to get on the field with the guys.”

O’Shea and the defence…

The Bombers head coach spoke at the conclusion of last season of being more involved in the defence going forward, including sitting in on more meetings. That process is already in effect.

“The meetings are a little different in terms of discussing football and the way we discussed it,” he said. “The discussions are maybe a little more detail oriented. I’m asking for the details to be validated… let’s check everything we talk about, from how we name it to how we coach it to whatever. Let’s validate everything to make sure we’re drilling down another couple layers and finding out what we can do better.”

Remember Ross…

The Bombers added two new QBs on Thursday, a rookie in Tyler Stewart who started 22 games at Nevada and Alex Ross, who starred at Coastal Carolina but was released recently by the B.C. Lions. That’s when the influence of new Bombers Director of College Scouting Ryan Rigmaiden – a former Lion employee himself – was heard. It was Rigmaiden who scouted Ross in college and played a role in bringing him to B.C.

Asked if he was surprised Ross had been released, given the potential the 25-year-old has flashed, Walters said:

“Nothing really surprises you, particularly when you see a new regime come in (Ed Hervey is the Lions new GM) and they want to put their stamp on things. Different regimes view things differently and very subjective in their evaluation of players. I think it’s quite common in all sports that things like this happen.”

Ross will likely be battling other prospects for the third-string job behind Nichols and veteran Darian Durant.

“It’s a very difficult process for the quarterbacks, but anybody you sign you’d like to think can grow and develop,” said Walters. “As we’ve learned in our league where it’s a two-week training camp and you spend your time getting your No. 1 and your top couple guys their reps in training camp, there’s just not a lot of reps to go around for the rest of the guys so you evaluate as best you can with the reps that you have.

“Until these young guys get thrown into the fire and get an opportunity to play, it’s really difficult to say one way or another. The expectations for anybody on your roster, regardless of position, you think they’re going to be able to contribute when called upon.”