They were the deadliest of duos, bringing the kind of pressure from their defensive end positions that often had opposition quarterbacks waking up in cold sweats the night before a game… and arranging for chiropractic visits afterward.
Together in Winnipeg Blue Bombers colours from 2019 through last season, Willie Jefferson and Jackson Jeffcoat were fixtures at the end spots. And when healthy and on the field together, the two terrorized quarterbacks while taking a flamethrower to offensive gameplans.
Their dominance and the work the Blue Bombers did in the trenches along both the defensive and offensive lines became a massive part of this team’s trademark dominance at the line of scrimmage through four straight Grey Cup appearances and championships in 2019 and 2021.
We’ll spend the next two days looking at both the defensive and offensive lines in the next two installments of our Positional Preview series, and a common theme for both will be a changing of the guards, tackles and ends.
Jeffcoat retired this offseason, leaving a size-large question mark at the end spot opposite Jefferson. Appearing in 14 games last season, the most since he dressed for since 2017, Jeffcoat registered eight sacks while forcing three fumbles. And in seeing #94 stationed on the edge, teams could hardly double-team the opposite side and the wrecking machine that is Jefferson, who led the club in sacks with 11 while again leading the entire Canadian Football League in pass knockdowns with 13.
This nugget — courtesy Blue Bombers play-by-play voice Derek Taylor of CJOB – hammers home how valuable Jeffcoat was as part of that duo: in the 10 games he missed over the last three seasons, Jefferson failed to record a sack, serving as concrete evidence of the extra attention he received with his compadre out of the lineup.
Now, all of this isn’t to say the Blue Bombers don’t have candidates ready to step up and claim Jeffcoat’s spot, because they do. Or that Jefferson can’t remain a dominant force. It’s just going to look different, especially as camp opens in a couple of weeks and then when the curtain goes up on the 2024 season in June. The leading defensive end candidate right now is Celestin Haba, who didn’t sign until late May but made an immediate impression with a sack in his first game – while replacing Jeffcoat – and finished with four in just eight appearances.
Jefferson and the solid Canadian defensive tackle duo of Jake Thomas and Cam Lawson are back. But in addition to Jeffcoat’s exit is the departure of another D-line mainstay in tackle Ricky Walker, who had five sacks last year and opted to sign with the Calgary Stampeders before having a change of heart and walking away from the deal. He’s yet to resurface with any team. Management is intrigued by Miles Fox – he was scooped up last year after his release by the B.C. Lions – and there is a collection of Canadian talent as well at the tackle spot in addition to Thomas and Lawson in Tanner Schmekel and 2023 draft pick Collin Kornelson as well as end Anthony Bennett, who dressed for every game a year ago in his first season as a pro.
Ultimately, it’s always about who is still in house that matters most to coaches and the Blue Bombers have had a knack of finding new D-line talent, or adding veterans like Jefferson, in free agency.
That said, until cleats are on the ground for camp, the departures of Jeffcoat and Walker leave two holes in what has long been a dominant defensive front.
POSITIONAL PREVIEW ‘24
The Defensive Line
The Returnees:
Starters: Willie Jefferson, Jake Thomas*
Returning vets: Cam Lawson*, Anthony Bennett*, Celestin Haba, Tanner Schmekel*, Miles Fox, TyJuan Garbutt
Newcomers: Ends — Ali Fayad, Jordan Lewis, Chauncey Rivers, Jordan Waggoner; tackles: Collin Kornelson* (2023 draft pick), Kenneth Randall, Jamal Woods
Departed: Jackson Jeffcoat (retired), Ricky Walker (signed with Calgary, then pulled out of the deal, remains unsigned), Thiadric Hanson (Toronto), Nate Givhan (retired)
*Indicates Canadian
Keep an eye on:
DE Ali Fayad, #52
Every football player will insist opportunity and fit are two critical components in landing work with a new team. Ali Fayad might just have found his right place/right time window with the Blue Bombers.
A star at Western Michigan – he was the MAC (Mid-America Conference) Defensive Player of the Year in 2021 after registering 13 sacks – Fayad appeared in four games with Toronto in 2022 before signing with the Philadelphia Stars of the USFL.
Fayad, Haba and Chauncey Rivers – who played last season with the Houston Roughnecks – will all get long looks in camp to replace Jeffcoat.
Did you know?
The last time the Blue Bombers led the league in sacks was 2018, when they tied with four other teams with 48. And the last time the defence led the league in sacks outright was 2011, with 55.
The team record for sacks in a season is 75, set in 1984 (with the stat first tracked by the league in 1980). Tyrone Jones led the team that year with 20.5 sacks (back when the CFL credited half sacks), a record that stood until Elfrid Payton had 22 in 1993.
Notable Number:
The Blue Bombers registered 53 sacks in 2023 – third most in the CFL (Toronto was first with 68; B.C. second at 55). That was an increase of 17 from 2022, when Winnipeg’s defensive ranked eighth in that department.
