There are a lot of reasons to expect that the Bombers' offence is going to look different in 2026.
You have new, and probably upgraded receivers. There is a new offensive coordinator. And the quarterback room is going to look different. On the surface, none of that necessitates that the Bombers do better offensively. But when you drill down on each of those areas, it becomes a bit more apparent.
New Receivers
In 2025 the Bombers only had one receiver in the Top 20 and that was Nic Demski in the 10 spot. This is a problem that I already saw and called out in late July of 2025. The trend was painfully obvious at that point, and it is nice to see that the Bombers have addressed that issue.
Compare that to how Winnipeg lined up in the Eastern Semi-Finals and I think this year is an upgrade.
And now here is their depth chart for the first pre-season game.
Is it a huge upgrade? I am not convinced that it is. I do not look at the Bombers' receivers and think, "Wow! Look at that star power." But to be fair, part of the reason for that is based on the fact that the receivers that are coming back from 2025 did not put up huge numbers. Is that because they reached their ceiling, or is it another reason.
Offensive Coordinator
This should say everything we need to know.
In a normal year, this would be more like a 'nothing to see here.' However, after 2025, these comments are very telling.
"Training camp was tough this year, kind of a weird situation that we were put in," Collaros said. "Repped a lot of things that we didn't rep during the season. I didn't get a lot of reps with guys who were playing." That was what Paul Friesen reported last year.
Further to that, I wrote,
"Why Call That Play?
With one last play to try and find a miraculous way to win, the Bombers do what? They run the ball with Oliveira. Now, even I who has been on the Bombers all year for not running enough thinks that is a terrible play call. What you do in that situation is you toss up a long bomb and hope for a pass interference penalty. If that occurs, you get one more play at the spot of the foul, because the game cannot end on a penalty. Sure, the odds of that working are slim…but they are better than a run play. We might have to start calling these plays, ‘Hogan head scratchers.’
That play call makes a lot more sense if we reflect again on what Collaros said, "What can we, on second-and-six, second-and-five, with the game on the line, what are we going to call because we know we can execute the play? I don't know if we had that this year."
Taking that into account, then we can hardly be surprised that Collaros took a pass at answering the question about the 2026 season, right after the Eastern Semi-Final." (Source) So you have to believe that Collaros is not mincing his words, and actually means what he is saying.
And finally, that brings us to the quarterback room.
Quarterbacks
Call it a boondoggle. Call it a massive mistake. Call it an effort in futility. Call it whatever you want, but the point remains that the Bomber had no competent back up quarterback in 2025.
If there is one thing the Bombers need to get right it is who their number 2 quarterback will be.
There was a lot of thought that if the Bombers could get Elgersma to come up north that he would be immediately slotted in as the back up quarterback to Collaros. Late March I wrote, "Streveler Retires? MBT on Bombers’ Radar; Bombers Still Lack #2 Quarterback" Anyone could see that the Bombers did not have a bona fide back-up. We all saw the debacle in the 2024 Grey Cup.
And then in 2025, right after Collaros got injured I asked the question, "Collaros Out! Which Streveler Will We See?" The answer to that was all to familiar. We would eventually see a Streveler that still could not throw the ball; and now one that could not run (after his reconstructive surgery). Yet, somehow the Bombers were unable to bring themselves to play Wilson?!
Then, late in September of 2025, the Bombers pull out a win...even with this quarterback stat line:
So something had to change in 2026. And while it may not be how the Bombers planed it, the did get Elgersma on their roster. That alone is an upgrade from 2025. And while there is some debate on who the number two quarterback is going to be, I am quite certain we will see a lot of Perkins and Elgersma in the pre-season. In 2025 we did not know who that back up quarterback was going to be because...there was no good option. This a much better position for the Bombers to be in for 2026; not knowing who the number two quarterback is because there are a couple of decent options. I will take that all day long!
I am Wildly Surprised To See...
Scroll backup to the depth chart for the pre-season game. After all I have said, there is one thing that I find very peculiar. It is that Wilson is listed ahead of Perkins. Make that make sense. I can only come up with two thoughts. Either Perkins is so bad that he is worse than Wilson (who was apparently worse than Streveler in 2025). Or the Bombers are giving one last look at Wilson; giving him one more chance to show something before Perkins leap frogs him.
What do you think? Let me know in the comments section wherever you are reading this. Catch all my articles here.