WINNIPEG – The Winnipeg Blue Bombers announced on Monday changes to the coaching staff for the 2026 Canadian Football League season.
Tommy Condell has been named the club’s new offensive coordinator, and Jake Thomas will be transitioning from his playing career to become the team’s defensive line coach, replacing retiring coach Darrell Patterson. Jason Hogan will return in 2026 as the club’s running backs coach, a role he previously held from 2022-2024.
Condell joins the Blue Bombers after spending the last two years as the offensive coordinator with the Ottawa REDBLACKS and brings 15 years of Canadian Football League coaching experience with five different teams.
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Condell began his CFL career with the Blue Bombers in 1997 as the special teams coordinator on Jeff Reinebold’s staff and has experience in the league with the Ottawa Renegades (2004-05), Saskatchewan Roughriders (2006), Hamilton Tiger-Cats (2014-15; 2020-23), Toronto Argonauts (2017-18) and REDBLACKS (2024-25).
He was part of the coaching staff that helped lead the Argos to the 105th Grey Cup championship (2017) and served as the offensive coordinator with the Roughriders in ’06, with the Ticats from ’13-15 and again in ’21-23 and the Argos in ’18 before joining the REDBLACKS in the same capacity in ’24.
His coaching resumé also includes stints with Illinois Wesleyan (1995), Albany Firebirds (1996), Hamilton Continentals (1996), McNeese State (1998-99), Stephen F. Austin (2000), Louisiana-Monroe (2001-03), Southeastern Louisiana (2007-09) and Cornell (2010-12).
The REDBLACKS ranked eighth in offensive points in 2025 as starting quarterback Dru Brown missed nine games and Ottawa started four different quarterbacks. Ottawa finished the year ranked fifth in passing yards per game (269.3) and sixth in rushing (93.6). In 2024, the REDBLACKS finished second in passing yards per game (303.1) and ninth in rushing (83.7) as Brown threw for a career-best 3,959 yards in his first year as their starter.
During his days in Hamilton, the Tiger-Cats finished first in scoring and second in passing in 2019 and fourth in scoring and passing in 2019. He also worked with Zach Collaros in Hamilton in 2014-15, when he first emerged as a CFL star quarterback.
Thomas steps into a new role as the defensive line coach after a superb 13-year career with the club that saw him play in 223 regular season games and five Grey Cups, serving as a key member of the championship teams in 2019 and 2021.
His 223 career games rank fourth highest in Blue Bombers history after only Bob Cameron (394), Troy Westwood (293) and Chris Walby (249).
Selected by the Blue Bombers in the fourth round, 29th overall, of the 2012 CFL Draft, the Acadia University product transformed into a reliable starter and respected leader who spent hours in the film room and now transitions to coaching after a career in which he posted 33 sacks, 196 tackles, five forced fumbles and one interception.