Bombers' SAM Shuffle: Smith Shelved, Griffin Back In as O'Shea Leans Veteran
Winnipeg's Week 20 depth chart tells a story about how Mike O'Shea's staff handles a must-win. Rookie Jaylen Smith — the 2025 second-rounder out of North Texas who had seized the strong-side linebacker job with seven starts and 46 tackles — was moved to the one-game injured list with a hip issue aft
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Winnipeg’s SAM linebacker is a 16-game platoon, not a solved position
Jaylen Smith (7 starts, 46 tackles) and Michael Griffin II (9 starts, 39 tackles) have split every game at strong-side linebacker this season. Smith’s tackle rate (6.6 per start) beats Griffin’s (4.3), but Smith’s hip injury hands the playoff-clinching start to the veteran Griffin. That’s a trust/experience call, not a production call.
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Ottawa's 0-16 Wreck Has a Scapegoat Problem — And It Ain't Bryson Barnes
Somebody has to say it about the Redblacks, so I will. Sixteen games, sixteen losses, and Friday night they hand the ball to Bryson Barnes — a rookie who wasn't the plan in August — while McLeod Bethel-Thompson, the veteran they brought in to stabilize that room, watches in a ballcap. That's not a quarterback decision. That's a front office covering its tracks. Here's what's actually happening inside that building: the MBT benching wasn't a football call, it was a CYA call. At 0-16 you don't want tape of your veteran getting carved up — you want tape that says "development." Same reason Justin Hardy, their most reliable target, is suddenly out of the lineup and former NFL guy Grant DuBose is eating his reps. Hardy didn't get hurt. He got managed. And the vets know it. Ten of Ottawa's six