2026 Winnipeg Blue Bomber Salaries

[Jesse]

So many/some think we aren't looking like we'll be over cap for '26?

Just like any other time we have this discussion, we just don't know.

Like with Brady, his 290k salary seems nuts, but if we gave him a 100k signing bonus and 50k is marketing money, he's only 140k against the cap.

Wilson has signed 2 different contracts since coming back midway through the year, who the heck knows how much is against the books for 2026?

With the OL, if we replace random American making 70k with Broxton's 250k, we're increasing our spending by 180k, but the salary cap is also over 600k more than what we spent last season.

There are just so many more variables that we're not privy to. The rising cap and our ability to sign players to last years cap certainly makes it believable that Walters can make it fit. But it's just impossible to know.

[TBURGESS]

You're trying to spin it the other way. lol

I'm not trying to spin anything.

Facts: 
No one around here knows how much 2025 SMS we had available.
Players signed in December's bonus money would first go to the available 2025 SMS until it was eliminated, then it would go to 2026.

Example: 
If the remaining SMS was $10, then almost all of the bonus money would go to 2026's SMS. 

Therefore:
Players signed in December's bonus money may or may not have been in the 2025 SMS. 

[theaardvark]

I truly hope they blew up the 2025 $SMS and every $ for $ match as well.  I'd like to see us having spent $99,999 over the cap for 2025.

[Blue In BC]

I truly hope they blew up the 2025 $SMS and every $ for $ match as well.  I'd like to see us having spent $99,999 over the cap for 2025.

It was a bad idea last year and it would have been a bad idea this year or any year.

[Blue In BC]

I'm not trying to spin anything.

Facts:
No one around here knows how much 2025 SMS we had available.
Players signed in December's bonus money would first go to the available 2025 SMS until it was eliminated, then it would go to 2026.

Example:
If the remaining SMS was $10, then almost all of the bonus money would go to 2026's SMS.

Therefore:
Players signed in December's bonus money may or may not have been in the 2025 SMS.

We all know and understand the math but we're talking probabilities. It's been mentioned that every off season teams re-sign potential free agents before the end of the year. They seldom go over the SMS as a result.

History suggests we used a lot of 2025 SMS room since it was also a bigger increase that we didn't know about early enough to spend in free agency or re-signing players.

[Throw Long Bannatyne]

We all know and understand the math but we're talking probabilities. It's been mentioned that every off season teams re-sign potential free agents before the end of the year. They seldom go over the SMS as a result.

History suggests we used a lot of 2025 SMS room since it was also a bigger increase that we didn't know about early enough to spend in free agency or re-signing players.

History also suggest Walters does not intentionally overspend his budget, if he doesn't spend it all during the season it makes it easy to spend what remains on contracts and bonuses for the following season.  Home Grey Cup games make no difference to him, every year he takes the same approach.