The Canadian Football League today announced the six team winners for the 2024 Most Outstanding Player Awards.
The voting was conducted by members of the local chapter of the Football Reporters of Canada (FRC) and the league’s head coaches.
The following players are the Blue Bombers’ nominees for the league awards:
- Most Outstanding Player: running back Brady Oliveira*
- Most Outstanding Canadian Player: running back Brady Oliveira*
- Most Outstanding Defensive Player: cornerback Tyrell Ford
- Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman: left tackle Stanley Bryant*
- Most Outstanding Special Teams Player: placekicker Sergio Castillo*
- Most Outstanding Rookie: receiver Ontaria Wilson*
*Indicates unanimous selection
Most Outstanding Player/Most Outstanding Canadian:
Brady Oliveira is the Blue Bombers’ MOP and MOC winner for a second straight season, a year after was named the CFL’s top Canadian and the runner-up to Toronto’s Chad Kelly for the MOP award.
The Winnipeg product is chasing a second consecutive league rushing title with one game remaining in the regular season. He has 1,318 yards rushing as part of his third consecutive 1,000-yard campaign and leads the CFL in yards from scrimmage with 1,783 yards, including 465 yards receiving on a career-best 54 receptions.
Just five years into his career, Oliveira is already eighth on the Blue Bombers all-time rushing list with 4.282 yards. He was selected by the Blue Bombers in the second round, 14th overall, in the 2019 CFL Draft.
Most Outstanding Defensive Player:
Tyrell Ford is in the midst of a stellar season with the Blue Bombers, his second with the club and first as a starting corner.
He leads the club with seven interceptions, one shy of league-leader Rolan Milligan, Jr. of the Saskatchewan Roughriders with one game remaining, and has added 47 defensive tackles, four more on special teams and has 10 pass knockdowns, tied for second-most in the CFL.
Ford was the Blue Bombers’ first pick, 13th overall in the 2022 CFL Draft.
Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman:
Stanley Bryant, already the most-decorated offensive lineman in CFL history, Bryant has once again been named the Blue Bombers best, now for a sixth time (2017-22, 2024). A four-time winner of the CFL’s Most Outstanding Offensive Lineman award and seven-time CFL All-Star, Bryant continues to man the left tackle position for a Blue Bombers offence that features the league’s rushing leader in Oliveira and quarterback Zach Collaros, who is second in the CFL in passing yards.
Bryant joined the Blue Bombers in 2015 after spending five years with the Calgary Stampeders, where he had been named that club’s top lineman twice (2011, 2013).
Most Outstanding Special Teams Player:
Sergio Castillo has connected on 80.7 percent of his field goal attempts (46 of 57) marking a new career high. Castillo leads the CFL with nine field goals made from 50-plus yards, a new single-season CFL record.
This is Castillo’s second team nomination as a member of the Blue Bombers and third of his career. The 33-year-old was named the Most Outstanding Special Teams Player with the B.C. Lions in 2019, the same season he was named to the CFL All-Star Team.
Castillo is in his third stint with the Blue Bombers, having first signed with the club in 2015, and rejoined the team via trade in October of 2021 before being scooped up as a free agent last year.
Most Outstanding Rookie:
Ontaria Wilson currently leads the club in receiving yards with 943 yards on 63 receptions and for three touchdowns in his first season with the team. He needs 57 yards receiving in the regular season finale to reach the 1,000-yard mark and join Dalton Schoen (2022) and Chris Matthews (2012) as recent rookie receivers to eclipse that mark.
A Florida State product by way of Ashburn, Ga., Wilson was signed late last November after attending training camp with the Los Angeles Chargers.
The next round of voting for the CFL awards will see the West and East Division winners announced, followed by the CFL’s Most Outstanding Player Awards announced during Grey Cup week in Vancouver.