It’s often been said an offensive line does its thing knowingly and willingly in the shadows — grinding and grinding in gruelling conditions like the men shovelling coal into the engine on an old steam ship.

Without them, a ship lists lifelessly or, in football’s case, an offence struggles to gain one single yard or complete a single pass.

We bring this up today as the opening to the next chapter in our Winnipeg Blue Bombers 2026 Positional Preview series with training camp just a few weeks away.

And if you can play along with our little analogy, it could be said that over the club’s most recent run — 10 straight seasons of double-digit wins, five Grey Cup appearances and two championships — this crew not only established the Blue Bombers as a consistent rushing threat and dangerous offence over those years, but served as the very backbone of the team’s overall identity.

When they’re on, this team has been dominant. And when they’re off even slightly, well, all the numbers — the rushing and passing yardage and, most important, the win totals — reflect it.

We’re going to throw out some numbers now that speak of the Blue Bombers offensive decline over the past two seasons as evidence and, yes, it’s completely unfair to hang it all on the big eaters up front. After all, there was a new offensive coordinator last year in Jason Hogan and new faces on the offensive depth chart.

Couple that with quarterback Zach Collaros missing five starts and not finishing four other games and some of the numbers were severely impacted.

Winnipeg finished second in rushing yards per game (124.1), but ninth in passing (235.0); fifth in net offence (345.7 yards per game) and sixth in sacks allowed (37). To be fair, the numbers were in decline in 2024 as well, with the Blue Bombers finishing third in rushing (111.7), eighth in passing (260.2) and sixth in net offence (358.5) while allowing the fifth-most sacks (36).

For context, here the best representation of the dramatic dip: just three years ago those rankings were first in net offence (414.7), first in rushing (139.1), second in passing (292.4) and second in sacks allowed (33).

Again, the fingers of blame surely don’t get pointed solely at the O-line here, but they do have to own their share of the overall offensive decline.

It’s hardly surprising, then, that given all this the Blue Bombers offensive line will feature at least two changes to its five-man front in 2026 with the team moving on from veteran centre Chris Kolankowski — he signed with the Hamilton Tiger-Cats eight days after his release — and then making a huge splash in free agency by grabbing dominant tackle Jarell Broxton from their Western Division rival B.C. Lions.

New tackle Jarrell Broxton in action as a member of the Lions vs. Willie Jefferson

Broxton, a Canadian Football League All-Star last year and the Lions top lineman in each of the last three seasons, will move to right tackle with the Blue Bombers on the opposite flank of Stanley Bryant — the future hall of famer who was again named the team’s Most Outstanding O-lineman last year at age 39.

Second-year man mountain Gabe Wallace settled in at left guard and started 16 games, including the playoffs while steady veteran Pat Neufeld started every game at right guard. Right tackle Kendall Randolph will likely now shift to guard with the arrival of Broxton while five-year veteran Tui Elli is the front runner to replace Kolankowski in the middle.

Here’s where things get interesting heading into 2026: the addition of Broxton, coupled with Randolph moving inside, the return of versatile veteran Micah Vanterpool and the collection of eight other American candidates — including Tyler Elsbury and Bucky Williams, both of whom have experience at centre — means the Blue Bombers are toying with the idea of changing the ratio and going with three imports and just two Canadians on the line.

Countering that is the Blue Bombers do have Wallace, Neufeld, Eli and second-year man Ethan Vibert already in house as Canadians and will likely use one of their four picks in the top 24 selections in next week’s CFL Canadian Draft to grab another offensive lineman.

All of this is to say the Blue Bombers will have some options up front on the line of scrimmage — ratio wise, depth wise and with young talent ready as part of a succession plan — to help play their role in getting the offence humming once again.

POSITIONAL PREVIEW ’26

The Offensive Line

Left tackle Stanley Bryant

Offensive line coach: Marty Costello
The Returnees:
Starters: Left tackle Stanley Bryant, left guard Gabe Wallace*, right guard Pat Neufeld*, right tackle Kendall Randolph
Returning vets: Guard/centre Tui Eli*, guard Micah Vanterpool, Ethan Vibert*, Tyler Elsbury (spent time on the practice roster in ’25), Hunter Poncius (also spent time on the practice roster last year)
CFL vets added: OT Jarell Broxton (B.C.), Tariq Stewart (has had looks from Edmonton, Saskatchewan and B.C.)
2025/26 CFL Draft pick:  Iwinosa Uwubanmwen (Rd 8, 71st overall did not attend camp last year); Kevin Cline (Rd 2, 20th overall in 2026 — has signed with the Miami Dolphins and will not be in Blue Bombers camp)
Newcomers: Ben Dooley, Zovon Lindsay, Micah Mazzccua, Joseph More, Sebastian Poncius, Bucky Williams
Departed: Chris Kolankowski* (Hamilton), Eric Lofton (Hamilton)
*Indicates Canadian

Keep an eye on:

OT, #55, Jarell Broxton

Two of the biggest additions the Blue Bombers made in free agency in February came at the line of scrimmage, with Jake Ceresna on the defensive side and Broxton at tackle on offence.

Broxton is a tone setter with his run blocking and in pass protection and, should Stanley Bryant ever retire, could shift back to left tackle. But that’s a down the road thing right now. In the meantime, it could be argued Broxton was the team’s biggest — literally and figuratively — addition this winter.

Broxton: “It feels amazing.”

Did you know?

Last season was the first time since 2015 that the Blue Bombers did not place at least one offensive lineman on the CFL All-Star Team.

Prior to that: Stanley Bryant (2024), Pat Neufeld/Jermarcus Hardrick (2023), Bryant/Neufeld (2022), Bryant/Neufeld/Hardrick (2021), Bryant (2019), Bryant/Matthias Goosen (2018), Bryant (2017) and Travis Bond (2016).

Notable Number:

The CFL has been tracking quarterback sacks since the early 1980s. Winnipeg surrendered 37 last year, as mentioned above. The club record for the fewest was 16 in 2021 (in the Covid-19 shortened 14-game season of 2021), with just 20 given up in a full season in 1993.

The most sacks surrendered in Blue Bombers history was 71 in 2014.