{"id":129614,"date":"2026-07-14T21:05:11","date_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:05:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/129614\/"},"modified":"2026-07-14T21:05:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-14T21:05:11","slug":"mike-oshea-zach-collaros-working-to-return-for-winnipeg-blue-bombers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/129614\/","title":{"rendered":"Mike O’Shea: Zach Collaros ‘working’ to return for Winnipeg Blue Bombers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSamantha Keen\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

It remains unclear when Zach Collaros will return to the field for the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, according to head coach Mike O\u2019Shea.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s working, but we\u2019ll see,\u201d O\u2019Shea told the media on Tuesday<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019ve got time left.\u201d<\/p>\n

The veteran coach indicated he has little say in the timeline for the quarterback\u2019s return from injury, saying it\u2019s mostly up to head athletic therapist Alain Couture and Collaros himself.<\/p>\n

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The 37-year-old was as a non-participant in practice last week due to a neck injury. He was listed as questionable for Winnipeg\u2019s game against the Toronto Argonauts but did not play and was moved to the one-game injured list.<\/p>\n

Dru Brown started in place of Collaros and completed 80.6 percent of his passes for 339 yards, one touchdown, and one interception in a 30-21 win.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought (Brown) was excellent,\u201d said O\u2019Shea. \u201cHe delivered the ball well and on time. He made some creative plays. I thought he was excellent \u2014 the numbers show that, too. He made good decisions, he made them quickly, and I thought he handled the emotion of playing the game quite well.\u201d<\/p>\n

As impressed as the veteran coach was with Brown\u2019s performance, he indicated it will not affect the team\u2019s decision for when Collaros will retake the starting role.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think that enters into it. I think we know we have a good quarterback room. We made a trade for a reason. We\u2019re going to stick to our process on how we make decisions and how we\u2019ve made decisions all along,\u201d said O\u2019Shea.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s awesome that Dru went in and won the game and we know he\u2019s quite capable \u2014 that\u2019s why we traded for him. How things play out or unfold with regards to the rest of the room, it\u2019s always wait and see how it unfolds.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brown was acquired from the Ottawa Redblacks late last month. Ryan Dinwiddie, Ottawa\u2019s head coach and general manager, later told the media Brown became \u201ca little bit of a distraction\u201d<\/a> for the team, and suggested he lacked arm strength<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old passer has taken the high road since, wishing the Redblacks the best<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Blue Bombers are set to visit the nation\u2019s capital this weekend, though O\u2019Shea indicated that won\u2019t play a factor in the team\u2019s decision of who will start under centre.<\/p>\n

However, if he is called upon, O\u2019Shea expects Brown will handle the situation well.<\/p>\n

\u201cI imagine a lesser-prepared, lower-E.Q. guy might let it get to him or might let it affect his emotion one way or another,\u201d said O\u2019Shea. \u201cI imagine Dru will probably stay pretty even-keeled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Collaros suffered his injury early in the second quarter of the team\u2019s 14-13 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in Week 5. It occurred when strong-side linebacker Reggie Stubblefield came unblocked on a blitz and sacked Collaros for a seven-yard loss.<\/p>\n

The six-foot-one, 218-pound passer has completed 71.8 percent of his passes for 985 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions through four starts this season, posting a 2-2 record.<\/p>\n

The Winnipeg Blue Bombers (3-2) will visit the Ottawa Redblacks (0-5) on Sunday, July 19 with kickoff scheduled for 7:00 p.m. EDT. The Blue Bombers are coming off a 30-21 win over the Toronto Argonauts, while the Redblacks lost 40-17 against the Edmonton Elks.<\/p>\n

The weather forecast in Ottawa calls for a high of 27 degrees and a mix of sun and cloud. The game will be broadcast on TSN and RDS2 in Canada, CBS Sports Network in the United States, and CFL+ internationally. Radio listeners can tune in on 680 CJOB in Winnipeg or TSN 1200 in Ottawa.<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Samantha Keen\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. It remains unclear when Zach Collaros will return to the field for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":129615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[349,350,1894,1895,351,352,41182,25231,354,12837,12838,84,16157],"class_list":["post-129614","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-winnipeg","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-blue-bombers","tag-bombers","tag-canadian","tag-cfl","tag-collaros","tag-dru-brown","tag-football","tag-qb","tag-quarterback","tag-winnipeg","tag-zach-collaros"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/129615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}