Bombers shuffle QB deck, acquiring Brian Brohm from Hamilton and releasing Justin Goltz

Every CFL team appears to have a starting quarterback in place now, but there are still plenty of interesting moves happening further down teams' depth charts—and as last season demonstrated, those positions can matter, given how many opportunities can be available for backups now. One notable move on that front came from Winnipeg Monday, with the Blue Bombers picking up quarterback Brian Brohm from Hamilton in exchange for a conditional pick in the 2015 draft, then releasing Justin Goltz. Winnipeg appears to be planning on starting recent acquisition Drew Willy this coming season, so the Brohm move isn't going to make a ton of headlines, but it still could be important for them for this year and beyond if Willy falters or gets hurt.

Brohm hasn't accomplished much in the CFL just yet, appearing in just one exhibition game with the Tiger-Cats last season before spending the rest of the year on the injured list, but he's certainly an interesting prospect. He shone for Louisville in college, leading the Cardinals to their first BCS victory ever in the 2007 Orange Bowl, and he was taken in the second round of the 2008 NFL draft (56th overall) by Green Bay. He then went to Buffalo and got a chance to start for the Bills, but eventually fell out of favour and wound up in the UFL. That led to him joining Hamilton at the start of last season. Brohm has a lot of football experience under his belt across North America, but he's also just 28, so he could still have some promising years ahead. We'll see if he ever gets a chance in Winnipeg, as the Bombers appear to like what they have in Willy and also have another interesting prospect in Max Hall, but the team seems to be high on him. They also know him well, as new Bombers' assistant general manager (and famed former CFL quarterback) Danny McManus was scouting for Hamilton last year and helped bring in Brohm. Here's the key part of what Winnipeg general manager Kyle Walters told Kim Babij-Gesell about Brohm in a BlueBombers.com video:

Walters said Brohm will compete with Hall to back up Willy, part of the team's overall approach of creating training camp battles:

The acquisition of Brohm led to the release of Goltz, and it might spell the end of his CFL career. The former Occidental College quarterback is just 26, and he has shown some potential at the CFL level in the last four seasons, so another team might be willing to pick him up and take a shot on him, but his stats are far from spectacular. He got more playing time in 2013 than he ever had, but didn't really impress once he did, completing just 55.5 per cent of his passes for 886 yards with two touchdowns and seven interceptions. Goltz does have a nice mix of relative youth and CFL experience, but unless someone thinks he's dramatically better than what he's shone thus far, it's going to be hard for him to get much of another chance. Meanwhile, Brohm may never find CFL success either, but he's an intriguing prospect, and one Winnipeg seems willing to take a chance on. They didn't give up much, either; Hamilton's quarterback depth chart was also crowded with Zach Collaros, Dan LeFevour, Jeremiah Masoli and Stephen McGee, so a conditional pick for Brohm sounds about right. Moves like this down the depth chart may never wind up impacting many games, as if Willy can seize the starter's job and stay healthy, the backup's identity won't particularly matter. However, last year showed just how important quarterback depth can be, and the Bombers are betting they've improved their depth by bringing in Brohm. We'll see if they're right.