Zach Collaros is excited about the new offence being put together this offseason; photo by Cameron Bartlett
The real test — and the honest reviews that follow — will come in June and July when defensive linemen with bad intentions in their hearts are stampeding at Zach Collaros with designs on rearranging his spine.
It’s just April, so morale is high across the Canadian Football League. But if the tone of excitement in Collaros’ voice is any kind of sign, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers offence could once again be potent under new coordinator Tommy Condell after seeing its collective numbers nosedive last season.
“This is kind of my first time really doing it, being able to work this closely with a coordinator,” said Collaros in a media Zoom call from Hamilton where the Canadian Football League is holding a content capture event. “So being able to watch Tommy’s process has been really cool for me.
“You start off with formations and what we’re going to call stuff and motions and all those things and the terminology. As of late it’s been buttoning up what we’re going to do in the quick-game world, the drop-back world, play action — all those things that in my past I’ve liked to read out from a concept standpoint, and maybe some stuff that I haven’t done well at or haven’t been exposed to. So it’s just kind of going through those things and putting together what we’re going to rep in training camp to decide what our identity is going to be. That’s been really cool.”
Not to bust open old wounds here, but Winnipeg’s offence struggled last year as Collaros missed five starts and didn’t finish four other games. That, coupled with a new coordinator in Jason Hogan and new faces on offence saw the team ultimately finish seventh in offensive points (23.1 per game) and ninth in passing (235.0 yards per game). That prompted a coaching shuffle in December with Condell, the veteran CFL play caller, brought in from his most recent stop in Ottawa with Hogan returning to his gig as the running back coach.
Collaros said he’s been in constant communication with Condell this offseason, rekindling a working relationship that began when the two were with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 2014-15. Asked if he pushed to be more involved, if Condell was pulling him in or if it was a bit of both, Collaros offered this:
“I didn’t really have to ask. I always like to be more involved. Sitting at home for five months and not doing football stuff is not fun. I’d always like to be in some kind of meeting and talking about the game. I’ve known Tommy for a long time. We stayed friends after our time together in Hamilton so after that deal got done it was, ‘We’ll start these meetings on Monday. This is what we’re going to do, this is how we’re going to do it.’ It’s been awesome.”
He also said those conversations already have them deep into studying the tendencies of their first four-five opponents this coming season — Calgary, Hamilton (twice), Edmonton and Toronto — to better hit the ground sprinting this year.
Most of all, Collaros said so many of these offseason chats are born organically and come from a QB and offensive coordinator who just love the game and are constantly studying offensive concepts.
“You put your own time in the off-season if you’re somebody who enjoys studying the game,” he said. “Shoot, from the first however many years of my career, it’s kind of just been me on my own, or Dru Brown (former Blue Bombers QB now in Ottawa) would be in there the last few seasons, just watching tape and discussing ideas. Having a coach offer to do that with you to share his experience and how he goes about building the system has been really eye-opening for me.
“It’s something that I might want to do in the future, get into coaching. It’s just been a cool way to learn, seeing the game from a different vantage point, and all the little details that go into just drawing a play up. Making sure that we can install it because you’ve got to cross your Ts and dot your Is with the offensive line coach, with the receiver coach, all those things that as a player you don’t really think about. You just think about, ‘Okay, we’ll just call it this and then just go run it.’ So being able to watch a guy with his process has been cool.”
Collaros was scheduled to do his media conference on Wednesday alongside former teammate Kenny Lawler, now with the Ticats. Some snippets from the session which stood out most:
-Lawler when asked for a take on receiver Tim White, one of the Blue Bombers key offseason additions this winter after positing four consecutive 1K seasons in Hamilton:
“One, he’s a great guy. He’s going to fit in in that locker room. But also, Tim is an explosive receiver that is moments away from igniting an offence with a big play stretching the field. He’s probably one of the fastest guys on the team and when it comes to stretching a defence, he can very much do that.
“He’s going to explode down the field in the screen game. He’s going to be able to catch those screens and he’s going to try and get every inch that he possibly within a play. He’s one of the best guys at his position. He’s a fearless competitor. He’s a guy that works his tail off, so Winnipeg got a good one.”
Tim White, Jr. at a February autograph signing in Winnipeg
Added Collaros:
“Hearing that from Kenny with respect to how (White) is as a person and his work ethic… that was echoed from Coach Milanovich (Hamilton’s head coach) when he actually signed Tim. I spoke to him briefly and he said, ‘You’re going to love Tim. He hasn’t missed a practice in two years.’ He’s what we want as a culture personified. I’m really excited to have him around. What he can do from a stretching the field standpoint with his speed is special, catching the ball, running after the catch. It’s those kind of things and hearing it from, in my opinion, the best player in our league saying that about a guy means a lot.”
–The pair also offered their thoughts on former teammate Chris Streveler, who announced his retirement on the weekend:
Collaros: “Just a great, unbelievable teammate, unbelievable person. I caught wind of it about a month before he announced it. What I said to him was I’m just so lucky, so blessed, to have been his teammate, to have been around him. Just his positive energy, who he is, just being able to watch him overcome the adversity that he did.
“Whether it was the 2019 season, watching him come back from the ACL. What I told him was, ‘I’ll tell these stories to my kids when they’re going through something in their life.’ How I was around somebody who was dealt a pretty shitty hand, given the circumstances. And you’ve got to battle. You’ve got to fight through it. He was somebody that you could definitely draw on and learn a lot from, from his life experiences. Just the way that he approached every single day, with just relentless positivity and energy.”
Lawler: “Man, Zach summed that up beautifully. Streveler, I was blessed to get here with him in ’18, and from Day 1 I’ve seen the amount of energy, the positivity that he carried himself with. And that is contagious. When you have a quarterback with that much positivity, that much high energy – Streveler is one of the all-time team guys. Greatest guy out there when it comes to just his unselfishness. I was personally just grateful to be able to cross paths with him.
“Those are some of the intangibles you want to take from a person. The relentless effort, the grittiness that he had. Zach was just speaking about the story, just from college going on to the CFL and finding his way into the NFL. Man, that’s a guy to look up to. I will be telling my son stories about Chris Streveler and just the amazing things he had to overcome, especially in 2019. We know the stories. We know everything. And the way that man came to work every day… and to show just the tremendous amount of grit that he had, playing through a significant injury. This is a first-class athlete, football player and person. I messaged him and let him know how grateful I was to be able to cross paths with him and be able to call myself a teammate and brother of his.”
ICYMI our story with Streveler from the weekend, it can be found here:
Streveler: “I hope that’s my legacy, that people say, ‘That guy was a great teammate.’”
