The Winnipeg Blue Bombers don’t appear to have made any headway in contract negotiations with their two top pending free agents as Brady Oliveira and Dalton Schoen continue to hold out hope of earning an opportunity in the NFL.
“Brady and Dalton are still looking at NFL opportunities and aren’t really interested in committing that dollar value until they settle into or exhaust all NFL opportunities at the moment,” general manager Kyle Walters told the media via videoconference on Tuesday. “There’s been discussions but that’s not where their energy is focused right now.”
Walters indicated that the lack of movement on Oliveira and Schoen has inhibited progress on the rest of the club’s free agent list. The Blue Bombers still have 29 players currently set to hit the open market on Feb. 13, including 12 starters.
“Until you can get those (high price) guys locked up, it’s very difficult with the trickle-down effect of how much money is left,” said Walters. “Once those higher ones get settled — whether they come back or don’t come back — lock into a dollar value, then I think the rest of it should move along fairly quickly.”
Walters also confirmed that Oliveira has not had any NFL workouts, though it remains possible that one or more are still to come. The first day for CFL players to sign contracts south of the border was Monday as receiver Austin Mack inked a deal with the Atlanta Falcons after an all-star season with the Montreal Alouettes.
The Blue Bombers relied heavily on Oliveira and Schoen in 2023 as both players were named CFL all-stars. Oliveira was a finalist for Most Outstanding Player and won Most Outstanding Canadian after recording over 2,000 yards from scrimmage, while Schoen led the league with 10 touchdown receptions.
Walters isn’t ruling out the possibility of re-signing both players, though it remains unclear if that will be a possibility under the constraints of the salary cap.
“It’s just how the math all works out. You can kind of figure out any scenario you can make work, it’s just how do all the other pieces fit in and honestly, I’m not even sure what the final dollar value would be for those guys,” he said. “Ideally, yes, it would be great to have those two guys back but at this point, I can’t even guess what the probability would be.”
With free agency just over one month away, the Blue Bombers can’t afford to wait around forever for their superstars to commit to the CFL. Walters has a rough timeline in mind for when he’d like to make final decisions regarding his highest-paid free agents for fear of being left at the altar.
“It’s getting to the point now where it’s like, ‘OK, is this gonna get done or is it not because if it’s not, we really need to pivot and allocate funds elsewhere,’ so we’ll be getting to that point in the next few weeks. If there’s nothing done with the high-end guys, you don’t want to be left out in the cold, for lack of a better term, putting all your eggs into a certain basket if it doesn’t come through.”
Outside of Mike Miller, who was named Winnipeg’s special teams coordinator on Monday, Walters said none of the team’s players have indicated they plan to retire. This includes left tackle Stanley Bryant, who has expressed interest in returning for a fourteenth season in the CFL. The eight-time West Division all-star will turn 38 in May.
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