Free agency was certainty interesting for the Bomber this year. In fact, I would say it was more interesting that other recent years.

Winnipeg let players walk, and signed numerous new players; where in past years they worked on keeping the group together. Also, all of this was happening without any offensive coordinator, and in a year that Winnipeg would host the Grey Cup.

Amongst the names of players choosing to walk was Kenny Lawler – I feel like we have seen this story before where he left for more money and played on a terrible team. However, this time he chose to go to Hamilton. We will see how that works out for him.

When asked about this Kyle Walters said, “(Lawler’s price) was above what we thought and above what we could do.” Walters further went on to say that Kenny in an unbelievable football player, and he praised Lawler’s commitment to the community. However, he relented that as he looked around the receiver room he prepared to shell out that kind of money to keep Lawler in Winnipeg.

The club lost three proven starters in free agency in receiver Kenny Lawler and guard Liam Dobson — both to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats — and Canadian cornerback Tyrell Ford to the Edmonton Elks. Three spot starters along the defensive line — tackle Miles Fox and ends TyJuan Garbutt (Hamilton) and Celestin Haba (Toronto) — have all moved on as has linebacker Brian Cole II (Hamilton). The team also cut ties with veteran receiver Drew Wolitarsky (Hamilton) and linebacker Adam Bighill (currently a free agent) while receiver Ontaria Wilson has signed with the New York Jets.” – source

That is a change in philosophy from 2024 where Winnipeg paid big bucks to big time receivers and filled out the rest of the crew with cheap contracts from young players. But with Schoen and Lawler missing parts of the 2024 campaign, some would argue that philosophy did not work. And one could argue that it also did not work in the other 2 years they lost in the Grey Cup. Yes, they got to the big game, but that is not the goal. So in 2025 Walters is taking a more well rounded approach to the receiver group.

Yet not all the excitement was good. Somehow, GM Kyle Walters was surprised. And not in a good way.

“I’ll tell you, it was an interesting one. Like everybody, when you guys found out, when the PA released the statement about the cap, is when I did. It certainly was surprising and kind of caught most people off guard, I think,” – referring to the increase in the salary cap. All in all, the increase to the cap was about 400,000 dollars. That is a nice chunk of change if you are not wanting to get priced out. But they did not spend it. Maybe they are waiting to see how the season goes and will look to bring in some NFL castoffs if needed, and they are saving the money for that.

Where does this leave the 2025 Bombers? The fun part is that we get to find out together.

If you want the full Bomber’s article on Kyle Walters’ reflections, here it is.

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