WINNIPEG, MB., December 13, 2022 – The Winnipeg Blue Bombers today announce the club has signed American cornerback Winston Rose to a one-year contract extension. He had been scheduled to become a free agent in February.
Rose (6-0, 174; New Mexico State; born: November 29, 1993, in Inglewood, CA) returns in 2023 for a fourth season with the Blue Bombers and his sixth in the Canadian Football League.
Rose started 17 regular season games as well as the Western Final and Grey Cup in 2022 and finished second on the team in tackles with 66 while adding three interceptions, including a Pick-6, one forced fumble, one fumble recovery and seven pass knockdowns. Rose also added eight tackles and an interception in the Western Final and another five tackles in the Grey Cup.
Rose led the CFL in interceptions in 2019 and was a league all-star, earning him a contract with the Cincinnati Bengals as a result. He spent most of the 2020 season on the Bengals practice roster, suiting up for two regular season games, and then rejoined the Blue Bombers in late October of 2021. Rose was part of one of the most memorable plays in the championship game that December, as he tipped a pass first deflected by Deatrick Nichols into the arms of Kyrie Wilson for the championship-sealing interception in overtime of the Grey Cup win.
A veteran of 60 CFL games with Ottawa, B.C. and Winnipeg, Rose has 182 career tackles and 17 interceptions – 12 of them as a member of the Blue Bombers.
He first came to Canada in 2016 as a late practice roster addition in Toronto after NFL stints with the Los Angeles Rams and Indianapolis Colts before being waived and signed by Ottawa.
