Brady Oliveira is already among the franchise leaders in rushing and climbing higher; photos by Cameron Bartlett
Sometimes we need to take the blinders off, step back and survey the big picture for a moment — not just what is staring us directly in the face.
That revelation — OK, maybe revelation is too strong a term, so we’ll just call it a realization — came to yours truly just the other day when rolling through the all the stars on the Winnipeg Blue Bombers roster and some of the all-time numbers they continue to post.
And the big picture take here is this: some of these guys are headed for both the Canadian Football and Winnipeg Football Halls of Fame, as well as the club’s Ring of Honour.
To that end, your humble agent tumbled down a rabbit hole again — it has certainly become a thing at this time of year — and came out with some notable milestones within reach by some of the best in franchise history, all of them still doing their thing at Princess Auto Stadium and across the CFL map.
So, stats geeks and franchise historians unite, for what follows is this year’s annual Blue Bombers Milestone Tracker…
951
Zach Collaros is already among the QB legends in Blue Bombers history and with just 951 yards passing would move past Khari Jones into second place on the franchise’s all-time list.
Collaros is at 19,225 yards passing as a Blue Bomber, trailing only Jones (20,175) and Dieter Brock (29,623).
14
And another on Collaros, the Blue Bombers QB1: he has 126 career passing touchdowns since moving to Winnipeg, that ranks third all time. He needs 14 this season to move past Jones (139) with Brock atop the list (187).
34
Sergio Castillo needs 34 points to move past Bernie Ruoff into fifth place on the Blue Bombers all-time scoring list. Castillo is at 640, Ruoff finished his career at 673.
The club’s all-time leading scorer is Troy Westwood at 2,748 followed by Trevor Kennerd (1,840), Milt Stegall (890) and Justin Medlock (802).
5
With five touchdowns this season Nic Demski would reach 48 career touchdowns as a Blue Bomber and would move past Terrence Edwards (46) and Jeff Boyd (47) and into a tie with Joe Poplawski for ninth place on the franchise’s all-time TD list.
That list, one through eight, features: Milt Stegall (147), Charles Roberts (79), Leo Lewis (75), Gerry James (63), James Murphy (62), Ernie Pitts (55), Willard Reaves (53) and Rick House (49).
707
One more Demski-related number: he has 5.560 career receiving yards as a Blue Bomber, which is seventh most in Blue Bombers history. Should he reach 707 yards this season — he’s posted three consecutive 1K years — he would move past Perry Tuttle (5,817) and Rick House (6,266) into fifth place on the team’s all-time list.
One-through-four on that list is Stegall (15,153), Murphy (9,036), Poplawski (8,341) and Edwards (7,200).
62
Brady Oliveira has a real shot at moving into third place on the Blue Bombers all-time rushing yardage list. He already ranks sixth all-time at just 28 years old with 5.480 career rushing yards, and with 62 rushing yards he would past Gerry James (5.541). Jim Washington would be next at (5,736) followed by Willard Reaves (5,923).
Charles Roberts is the franchise’s all-time leader at 9,987 yards, followed by Leo Lewis at 8,861.
4 and 6
Willie Jefferson needs four quarterback sacks to give him 50 as a Blue Bomber. Only three other players in the long and storied history of the club have reached that mark in Tyrone Jones (98), Tony Norman (59) and Doug Brown (52). Jefferson now has 77 career sacks in his CFL career.
Jefferson also swatted down a league-best 16 passes last year and now ranks second in CFL career knockdowns with 94. Another half dozen would get him to 100, and move him closer to the league’s all-time leader, Eddie Davis, who had 111 in his career with Birmingham, Calgary and Saskatchewan from 1995-2009).
117-77
Mike O’Shea is already the winningest coach in Blue Bombers history with his 117 victories since taking on the role in 2014.
That total is highest among active CFL head coaches and ranks seventh all-time, behind only Wally Buono (82), Don Matthews (231), Frank Clair (147), Ron Lancaster (142), Eagle Keys (131) and Ray Jauch (127).
80
And, finally, here’s one for the guys who get grimy on special teams…
Nick Hallett has 80 career special teams tackles as a member of the Blue Bombers. That ranks sixth all time in franchise history. Atop that list is the boss, Wade Miller, (184), followed by Brendan Rogers (124), Mike Miller (110, who holds the CFL record for career tackles on specials with 226), Neil McKinlay (92) and Pierre-Luc Labbé (84).
