There was a jackhammer and a crew from Muddruckers hard at work at the entrance to the Bomber Store at the stadium, Monday, with the statue of Bud Grant looking nervously on.

The home of Winnipeg's CFL team obviously still needs some work.

As for the team itself, current head coach Mike O'Shea is convinced the roster he settled on over the weekend is better than the one that posted an 11-7 record last year.

“We had a lot of depth at camp, some great competition, and our team's going to be better for it,” O'Shea said in his first media session since after Thursday's pre-season finale.

To get there, though, he had to take a jackhammer to some dreams.

Aside from having to regularly meet with local media types, the worst part of a head coach's job is still calling a player into his office and telling him it's time to pack his bags because he's not good enough.

Try doing that a dozen times in a single day.

“Obviously decision-making time becomes difficult,” O'Shea said. “There's just little things that separate one guy from the next. And you're dealing with real people that have real dreams that maybe change when they finish talking to me.”

Some are fresh out of college, some might be at their last pro stop.

One was supposed to be a key receiver this season.

Kenny Stafford signed a two-year contract with the Bombers in January, hoping to put down some roots after a nomadic first four years in the CFL.

Over the weekend he was cut loose after two pre-season games in which he didn't catch a single pass.

The reason? Two, actually: Old Reliable, aka Clarence Denmark, and flashy newcomer L'Damian Washington.

“There were just a couple of guys that their play was pretty elevated and they ended up winning jobs,” O'Shea said. “I don't think it was anything that Kenny did or didn't do. It's a matter of a guy like Denny and Washington stepping up pretty good.”

The performance of the receivers in the pre-season probably made that decision an easy one.

Denmark just keeps making plays, while Washington is a mouthwatering combination of speed, size and hands the Bombers just couldn't release.

Of course, seven NFL teams and the Edmonton Eskimos, briefly last fall, have also had a look at Washington, but the 26-year-old has yet to find a football home.

He quietly joined the Bombers a few days into training camp.

“He came in a few days late and picked everything up very quickly,” O'Shea said. “And just that intrigue... his physical stature and athleticism is a pretty good combination.”

Finding the right combination for the Canada Day season-opener in Regina is now Job 1.

Injuries always play a role – dime back Moe Leggett will try to ease his way back from injury this week, while first-year receiver/kick returner T.J. Thorpe is “at least a couple weeks” away – and O'Shea sounds like someone who's still undecided at a couple of spots.

“There's still some interesting things that could play out,” he said. “We still have maybe a couple more decisions to make.”

Canadian Sam Hurl looks to be the starting middle linebacker, although O'Shea wouldn't confirm it, other than to say Hurl had another good camp.

The boss did express his displeasure with the team's lack of discipline in the pre-season, vowing to address it.

“We took too many penalties, overall,” O'Shea said. “I'm not singling guys out for penalties. We handle that in-house. There were far too many penalties in the pre-season, and we'll fix all that.”

As for a defence that leaked considerably the last two weeks, O'Shea shrugged off any concerns, saying a lot of players were moving around.

Stopping the other guys, you'll recall, was an issue last season.

“We've done a good job of addressing and improving the entire team,” O'Shea said. “That's not just players and personnel. It's systems and concepts, it's the way we plan – all that.”

One thing he hasn't improved: the difficulty in letting players go, especially those he's been around for a while.

Four training camps into this gig, he's thinking that may never get easier.

“I hope it doesn't.”

pfriesen@postmedia.com

Twitter: @friesensunmedia

Bombers ponder Week 1 bye

To bye, or not to bye?

That is the question facing the Blue Bombers, as they'll be the only CFL team not playing, Week 1.

Advantage, or disadvantage?

“Getting to watch film and them not watching us would I guess be an advantage to us,” coach Mike O'Shea said. “But we're also not going to be hitting this week or tackling and things like that. We've got to make sure we take care of the little details that we need to take care of.”

To that end, the Bombers, who were off on the weekend, will practice Tuesday through Friday this week.

That's a far cry from the long holiday players would get if the bye week happened a month or two from now.

“It's too fresh out of camp for me to think they can all basically go home for a week and come back and pick up,” O'Shea said. “If it was mid-season it's a different story.”

Other teams, of course, have gone through this: Saskatchewan last year, B.C. in 2015 and the expansion Ottawa Renegades the year before that.

All three lost the next week.

O'Shea says he hasn't picked anyone's brain to try to find the best approach.

“It's just different,” he said. “There are a lot of things good about it. You've just got to find the right plan. Until you do it once, you're not really going to know if it was the right plan or not. We'll see how it turns out.”

Winnipeg opens the season in Regina, Canada Day.