1st Half - Adam Bighill 4 anthem
It seems like such a straightforward blueprint: the Winnipeg Blue Bombers – still hurting from a loss in the 109th Grey Cup – should simply get the entire band back together and crank out another album chock full of hits.
Sure, the roster may be greying around the edges a bit but this is a squad also coming off a franchise record 15-win season and, save for the final 14 minutes of the Grey Cup, was this close to winning a third straight championship.
Of course, in the salary cap era in a league where free agency is busier than ever with the proliferation of short-term contracts – plus with professional football simply being a ‘change business’ – nothing comes that easy.
Make no mistake, the Blue Bombers want to have as much continuity as possible in ’23 and a dwindling pending free agent list which has already dropped from 26 to 18 with a slew of signings before Christmas certainly speaks of that commitment. Yet, some hard decisions will obviously be on the horizon.
“I don’t think we’re done yet,” said head coach Mike O’Shea earlier this month when his contract extension was announced. “I think that the group that we have here, now there’s always additions and subtractions every single year, it’s pro sport, but the group we’ve assembled, the group that’s all thinking the same way, believe that we’ve got a lot of legs left in this so it would be fun to be a part of.”
This narrative – the push for continuity and the chase for redemption in 2023 – comes in at #1 in our Blue Bombers ’22 In Review look at the Top 5 stories of the year. It’s not just because of how the 2022 season ended, but how it will shape what the Blue Bombers look like in 2023. And fuel them, too.
“We know how good we are and what we have in that locker room and the special things that are still yet to come,” said linebacker Adam Bighill, one of the eight players who have already officially re-signed, along with guard Pat Neufeld, defensive linemen Willie Jefferson and Jake Thomas, defensive backs Winston Rose and Desmond Lawrence, linebacker Kyrie Wilson and long-snapper Mike Benson.
“I still want to be a part of that and that’s the ‘unfinished business’ – there’s a lot of good things still yet to come and I’m looking forward to those things.
“We’ve seen what our group can do up to this point. I’d expect guys to still bring it. I don’t think we’re near that end of the road yet by any means. It didn’t show this year, and I don’t expect it to show next year.
“But it’s something we realize that it’s more towards the end of the road than it is the beginning, just based on the makeup of our roster. But with that being said, there’s a lot of good football ahead of us to be played by our squad and a lot of our veterans. And that’s really all we need to focus on is next year and what’s in front of us.
“We’ve got a lot of the guys so far ready to come back and do it again and put ourselves in a good position to make another Grey Cup run.”
The Blue Bombers were impacted after the 2021 championship by several significant departures. Receiver Kenny Lawler and kicker Sergio Castillo left for Edmonton, defensive tackle Steven Richardson for B.C., defensive back Alden Darby, Jr. – who was later reacquired in a trade – for Hamilton and Darvin Adams for Ottawa in free agency. DeAundre Alford, Drew Desjarlais and Jonathan Kongbo headed for the NFL.
Good organizations always draw that kind of attention from other teams and other leagues.
But the Blue Bombers have built something special over the last few years, and that can be the most attractive calling card of all in potential negotiations. Two voices related to that, as we close our year-in-review series.
First, an emotional Brady Oliveira from a morose Blue Bombers locker room after the Grey Cup loss:
“Look around this locker room, you’re going to see a good majority of familiar faces who are going to be back next year,” said Oliveira, tears in his eyes. “We know what we’ve got in this locker room. Guys want to come back and if we can keep these guys together that chemistry is already there, that confidence is already there, and it builds every season if there’s not a lot of turnover.
“We’ve got the best quarterback in the league. We’ve got the best offensive line in the league. We’ve got great players all around who want to be back next year and make another run for the Grey Cup.”
And, finally, a bigger-picture from Thomas – the longest-serving current Blue Bomber – after he re-signed earlier this month.
“You always want to turn something into a lesson,” he said of the Grey Cup loss. “It just goes to show that no matter how good you think you’ve been, you’ve got to play your best game when it matters the most. I don’t think anyone wants to let something like that slip again. Hopefully we can sign a ton of guys back, get some new guys and take another run at it.”
