Courtesy: Evan Siegle, Green Bay Packers.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are still patiently awaiting the potential arrival of Canadian quarterback Taylor Elgersma, who could very well be the future of the franchise.
The team drafted the six-foot-five, 232-pound passer in the second round of the 2025 CFL Draft, though he would likely have be taken higher had he not been the subject of legitimate NFL interest. He ended up signing with the Green Bay Packers and showed well over three preseason games, completing 16-of-23 pass attempts for 166 yards, one touchdown, and no interceptions.
Despite his strong performance — the native of London, Ont. surpassed veteran third-stringer Sean Clifford on the depth chart — Elgersma was waived at the end of training camp and has remained a free-agent ever since. Though the Blue Bombers would have loved to sign the young quarterback this year, general manager Kyle Walters expects it’ll be at least a few more months before he considers signing his first CFL contract.
“I think (Elgersma and his agent are) just waiting like a lot of young players that get a taste of that NFL. I think he’s going to maybe hope throughout the course of the rest of the year that someone’s going to bring them in for workouts or sign them or things like that, so we’re still organizationally optimistic (he’ll sign with Winnipeg if the NFL doesn’t work out),” Walters told the media on Wednesday.
“I don’t think that’s going to sort itself out until after February 1 when all those future contracts get signed. I think that’s their prime objective, is to hold out and try to get another NFL shot and we’ll just kind of wait and see what happens.”
Elgersma’s camp echoed Walters’ sentiments when contacted by 3DownNation, confirming that Elgersma still plans to play up north if his NFL aspirations don’t pan out.
“My client is currently focused on pursuing the NFL, though we would be happy to sign with the Blue Bombers if and when all NFL opportunities expire,” said Fred Weinrauch, who represents Elgersma. “I spoke with Kyle during the Grey Cup and provided him with an update regarding Taylor. We are always in contact and have a great working relationship.”
Elgersma had a brilliant collegiate career at Wilfrid Laurier University where he completed 70.7 percent of his passes for 10,547 yards, 78 touchdowns, and 33 interceptions. His list of accolades is a half-mile long, including U Sports Athlete of the Year, Yates Cup Most Valuable Player, Uteck Bowl Offensive Player of the Game, two OUA all-star selections, two All-Canadian selections, two OUA Most Valuable Players, and the Hec Crighton Trophy.
The quarterback position has been heavily scrutinized in Winnipeg, where Zach Collaros has thrown 34 touchdown passes and 31 interceptions over the last two years. Chris Streveler likely won’t be back with the team after suffering a second torn ACL in as many years, while Terry Wilson turned in a relatively ineffective performance against Montreal the finish the regular season.
Though the future is never guaranteed, Walters seems to believe Elgersma is the type of prospect who could very well become a franchise quarterback at the professional level. One thing that may work to his advantage is that he’s already played a lot of three-down football, which could help ease his adjustment to the CFL.
“I saw him in Packers camp this year and he can sling the ball,” said Walters. “The expectations are we think he can be a real good football player in this league, but you have to temper those until he gets in a training camp and starts playing against this level of players on the Canadian field.”
“You see a lot of players with physical ability (come up from the United States) but he comes up here with a whole pedigree of Canadian football, which is a little bit different. He’s runs hard, he’s big, he’s athletic, he can zing the ball. He’s got it all, he just needs to get up here and get reps and play and play against this level of competition.”
Elgersma remains relatively young as he’ll turn 24 in March. He’s still relatively new to football — he only started playing in high school — but his ceiling remains high.
“(Young quarterbacks) want to come in and play right away and compete, but I think they understand there is a pretty steep learning curve that they need to go through, but you never know until you see it,” said Walters. “You’ve gotta get him up here and see how he processes and see how he picks up the playbook and go from there.”
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. Zach 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.