CFL: Bombers Make No Big Moves and Focus On Youth

Rookie training camp opens on Wednesday morning for the Blue Bombers, but Canad Inns Stadium isn’t the site of some reality-TV show named Extreme Makeover, Winnipeg Edition. There have been no huge signings and no Earth-shattering trades as have taken place with other teams — most notably in Edmonton, Hamilton and Toronto.

General manager Joe Mack has made almost no moves for veteran CFL players: that’s been the case for a second year in a row. He and head coach Paul LaPolice have insisted on focusing on the young core of players already on the Bombers and how they have matured. However, the players they’ve let go could come back to haunt them.

Wide receiver Greg Carr signed with the Eskimos, while linebacker Joe Lobendahn ended up in Calgary. Odell Willis said and did some dumb things, but he was also one of the league’s sack leaders and a mainstay of last season’s “Swaggerville” defense that took Big Blue all the way to the Grey Cup game; now Willis is in Saskatchewan and likely more motivated than ever to do well. Offensive lineman Brendon LaBatte is there, too. Running back Fred Reid remains a free agent.

On the plus side, they’ve picked up Canadian defensive tackle Ryan Lucas from the Alouettes (the lone CFL vet they’ve brought in) and a handful of imports: running back Chad Simpson, defensive lineman Alex Hall, defensive back Demond Washington and linebacker Terrell Parker. On the eve of camp, the team signed import receivers Isaac Anderson and Victor James.

Non-import draftee offensive lineman Tyson Pencer is also expected to be signed, sealed and delivered at some point. Non-import receiver Johnny Aprile will get a long look on special teams.

Has the club become better? LaPolice swears it has. “We’re continuing to make changes to help us improve,” he said in an interview published in the Globe and Mail. “I think people’s decisions are based not on how good they did in the off-season [but] … on how they do at the end of the season.”

Regardless of how they do as a team, the Bombers already have a big demand for season tickets. Last season the club sold just over 21,000, and president Garth Buchko said the amount topped 22,000 for 2012 before they were available to the general public. Part of that can be attributed to the new stadium: Investors Group Field, located at the University of Manitoba, will open in September.

So the fan base seems to believe in what the Bombers are doing. It still places a lot of pressure on LaPolice and the club to perform, because it’s been 21 years between Grey Cup wins. Falling short again this year will set a team record which will be tough to bear.