Mike O'Shea could have been 'better support system' for Winnipeg Blue Bombers offence

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are searching for answers about what went wrong after falling short of the Grey Cup for the first time since 2018. When asked if there was anything he wished he’d done differently this year, head coach Mike O’Shea said he should have been more involved in one particular phase of the game.

“I think I absolutely could have been a better support system for the offence. I’m not going to design plays, but I think I could have been better with them and helped him out a little more,” he told the media in Winnipeg on Monday.

“Do I pop my head into more meetings? … Through training camp when you’re short (staffed), do we find a guy to come in and help? All sorts of things throughout the course of season where I look back and go, ‘I probably could have responded differently.'”

Jason Hogan was promoted from running backs coach to offensive coordinator in January following a search that was hardly exhaustive. The young coach drew rave reviews from Brady Oliveira — the star running back thanked Hogan no fewer than three times in his M.O.P. acceptance speech in Vancouver last year — and had a reputation for being an exceptionally hard-worker.

Critics questioned why a veteran team would choose such a young offensive coordinator, though Jarious Jackson was added as quarterbacks coach following a stint as the interim head coach of the Edmonton Elks. Unfortunately for the Blue Bombers, the veteran bench boss was unable to report to Winnipeg until the regular-season due to personal reasons, leaving Hogan without his mentorship for all of training camp.

Shortly after he was hired, Hogan indicated he wanted to keep his scheme simple while also incorporating exotic plays and trickery. This was music to the ears of many fans in Winnipeg who felt the offence had grown stale over the course of Buck Pierce’s tenure, ranking seventh in scoring, sixth in net yards, and tied for fifth in yards per play in 2024.

The results under Hogan this year were slightly better relative to the rest of the league as the offence finished sixth in scoring, fifth in net yards, and fifth in yards per play. The raw numbers tell a different story, however, as Winnipeg regressed year-over-year in net yards, yards per play, and sacks allowed.

The biggest challenge came in the passing category as Winnipeg averaged only 235.0 yards per game — the fewest in the CFL. In his end-of-year media availability, franchise quarterback Zach Collaros said the offence didn’t play “good football” in 2025, which left him feeling disappointed and frustrated. He claimed the team repped plays during training camp that were never called during the regular season and suggested the offence never mastered any concepts they could rely upon with a game on the line.

“That’s the way he feels and you have to respect that — Zach is super smart, one of the best quarterbacks to ever play in our league, so that’s a conversation that I would have with him. I think there are some things that happened in training camp that made it a little more challenging, that’s for sure. We were missing a piece on the staff for training camp, really, and that would have been another added voice and another set of eyes that we were counting on that we just couldn’t get here,” said O’Shea.

“I wouldn’t be a head coach if I didn’t look into (Collaros’ concerns), but that’s a much longer study. … I think the players all know when they say those things that I’m the one who has clean all that mess up. I also think there was some frustration in their own level of play, too — they wanted things to go better, and it wasn’t quite looking the way they wanted it to look, or what they expected.”

One of the issues that plagued Hogan was messaging. He threw Chris Streveler under the bus in August after the dual-threat passer threw an interception in the red zone, something that felt decidedly un-Bomber-esque. O’Shea has been Winnipeg’s head coach for eleven seasons and never criticizes individual players in the media. Hogan did so within his first few months.

It’s unclear if Hogan or any of Winnipeg’s assistant coaches are under contract for next season — when asked, O’Shea claimed he couldn’t recall — but it seems unlikely given that O’Shea himself is currently without an extension. When asked if Hogan showed enough to return as the team’s offensive coordinator next year, O’Shea seemed positive while also wanting to do a deeper dive on how things transpired in 2025.

“He’s one of the hardest-working guys you’ll ever be around, so yeah, he deserves the opportunity to have that conversation for sure and to come back — but, once again, that requires more study and more conversation and some certainty.”

As for the criticism from fans who worry about the team’s perceived decline, O’Shea appreciates their passion and concern.

“They’re absolutely entitled to their opinions. I think if they were in (the team facilities) every day, they would be less concerned. If they take a look at the fight from the start of the third quarter (in the East Semi-Final), they would be less concerned,” said O’Shea.

“They know the guys got it in them, they take a lot of pride, and they put a lot on themselves to put in the work. They’re not thinking about putting up a good product, they’re thinking about playing really well, and I think the fans can recognize that the guys play hard. Mistakes happen, but they play hard all the time.”

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers finished fourth in the West Division standings in 2025 with a 10-8 record, qualifying for the playoffs as the crossover team before losing the East Semi-Final to the Montreal Alouettes. Collaros threw for 3,048 yards, 17 touchdowns, and 16 interceptions over 13 regular-season games, going 6-7 as a starter.

The Blue Bombers ranked fifth in net offence, third in net defence, and eighth with a turnover differential of minus-eleven. The club’s leading rusher was Brady Oliveira with 1,163 yards, leading receiver was Nic Demski with 1,001 yards, and leading tackler was Tony Jones with 104 tackles. Winnipeg ranked first in attendance with average crowds of 32,343, which was a 3.7 percent increase from the previous year.

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