Winnipeg Blue Bombers’ general manager Kyle Walters doesn’t seem thrilled about how the CFL tweaked its roster rules this offseason, particularly with its adverse effect on late-round picks.
In the 2024 CFL Draft, Winnipeg selected Ethan Kalra and Michael Vlahogiannis, a pair of offensive linemen out of Waterloo and McGill, respectively. Both blockers attended camp in with the Blue Bombers before returning to U Sports for their final collegiate seasons.
Typically, Kalra and Vlahogiannis would be getting ready to return to Winnipeg for training camp in 2025 having spent the past year continuing their development, giving them a better shot to make the team the second time around. Instead, both players are sitting at home unsigned and won’t be back in Bomberland due to a subtle tweak in the league’s roster rules.
This offseason, the CFL Players’ Association reread the rules about training camp roster sizes, specifically the ones dictating which players are “counters” and “non-counters.” Historically, players who play an extra year of U Sports were granted “non-counter” status for their second CFL training camps, meaning they don’t count against 85 or 75-man roster limits. As of 2025, that’s changed – they’re counters.
“They didn’t change the rules, they just reread the proper clarification as far as who’s a non-counter and who’s a counter. In years prior to this year, (players like Kalra and Vlahogiannis) who were drafted and went back to school, 100 percent they’d be coming to training camp as non-counters. It really changes it for those guys and it stinks for kids like that,” Walters told the media this past week.
“We’re not able to, with the structure of our training camp roster, add two Canadian linemen that count as contracts anymore. It’s disappointing, but, by the letter of the law, it’s being interpreted properly. It just hadn’t been prior to this, so I think it stinks for guys like that.”
It’s true that many late-round picks who have gone back to school never end up making an active CFL roster, though there are also lots of players who have.
According to 3DownNation contributor JC Abbott, 31 of the players selected in the 2023 CFL Draft finished their U Sports eligibility that same year. Of those players, 10 made CFL rosters in 2024 and dressed for regular-season games.
One notable example is Anthony Vandal, who was the last pick of the 2023 CFL Draft out of the Université de Sherbrooke. He attended training camp with the Argonauts before returning to the U Sports ranks with the Vert et Or and, in 2024, he made Toronto’s active roster and started 12 games, including the East Final and Grey Cup.
If the CFL’s roster rule had been tweaked one year earlier, it’s possible that Vandal never would have gotten a chance to make Toronto’s roster, much less become a starter and Grey Cup champion.
This rule change could have a subtle effect on the way in which teams draft moving forward, or, at least least, make them less likely to sign late-round draft picks right away.
Walters indicated that Alberta offensive lineman Iwinosa Uwubanmwen, Winnipeg’s eighth-round pick in this year’s draft, won’t be signed or brought to training camp this year. Instead, he’s a project for 2026. As he’ll have never previously attended a professional training camp, Uwubanmwen will still be granted non-counter status.
On one hand, this seems like a reasonable compromise. On the other, it’s providing fewer opportunities for late-round players to develop. In the case of Uwubanmwen, attending training camp with Winnipeg this year would have not only helped the Golden Bears upon his return to U Sports, but also made him better equipped to make the roster next year.
Regardless, none of this is a help to players like Kalra and Vlahogiannis, who are currently without professional opportunities. One might even say that stinks.
The post Blue Bombers’ GM Kyle Walters: CFL’s tweaked roster rule ‘stinks’ for late-round draft picks appeared first on 3DownNation.
