For some teams, it’s the gateway to a rebuild. For others, it’s a chance to do some fine tuning. For the Toronto Argonauts, it’s the chance to maintain a championship calibre roster.
On Sunday at noon the hounds will be released. CFL teams will enter a week-long window where they can legally contact players who are eligible to become free agents at noon on Tuesday, February 14. According to their general manager, the Argos don’t think they’ll be major players in free agency this season.
“We look at free agency this year as being different from a year ago,” Michael Clemons told Argonauts.ca. “A year ago, we were looking to top off. We had finished in first place and not gotten to the Grey Cup. We felt that we had a good nucleus and with that nucleus we needed to add a few pieces to it. You saw some big-name veterans that came along with that; like Ja’Gared Davis, like Andrew Harris, like (Brandon) “Speedy” Banks.”
It obviously worked. Despite losing more man games to injury than any other team in the league, the Argos finished 11-7, won the Eastern Final against Montreal, then defeated Winnipeg to claim the organization’s 18th Grey Cup.
So how will this year’s free agency period be unlike 2022’s?
“This year will be a little bit different in that some of those young players that we’ve got here are now coming to the point where they are free agents,” said Clemons. “We announced the re-signing of Robbie Smith a few days ago. So rather than needing to top off we’re more in a reset mode. Yes, we won a championship and all of that, but now, how do we quickly reset so that we can be competitive enough to defend this Grey Cup championship?”
Before going outside the organization to look for help, the Argos have a fairly high number of players they’d like to get back into Double Blue this season. Perhaps the most notable name is that of receiver Kurleigh Gittens Jr., who led the Argos in receiving and was named the team’s and East Division’s Most Outstanding Canadian.
“The work is being done with (the pending free agents) already,” Clemons explained. “We’ll see several signings before free agency occurs.”
Spending wisely on free agents was a major reason why the Argos won their 18th Grey Cup last November. Five starters on offence and six more on defence came to the team via free agency. High profile players like Harris, Davis, and Banks chose to come to Toronto last year, but so did relatively unsung players like all-star centre Justin Lawrence and Markeith Ambles, who finished second on the team with 72 catches.
There is also one thing different this year that complicates negotiations; the team won the Grey Cup. When any team wins a championship, it gives those players an added sense of confidence and self-worth when headed into negotiations. Teams play to win, and when they do, the players want to get paid.
“I think in life we all want to be recognized for the values that we bring,” said Clemons, who knows what it’s like to go through a tough contract negotiation from both the player’s and manager’s perspective. “We want to recognize them for that. It is a little bit tough trying to balance it all. We’ll have to go younger in some areas, that’s just a part of it all. Ultimately that means that some players won’t be back with us again, but I don’t think there’s a season in professional football where the exact same team has ever come back the next year.”
A perfect example would be the 1996 Grey Cup champs. Led by Clemons and Doug Flutie, it was one of the best teams in CFL history. Still, there was an influx of new blood the next year. One of those unknown players who cracked the 1997 roster was future hall-of-fame receiver Derrell “Mookie” Mitchell.
The free agency negotiation window begins this Sunday, then teams will have one week to speak with any potential free agents and present them with a formal offer. That window closes at noon the following Sunday. Teams will then have until 10 a.m. on Tuesday February 14 to make an offer to their pending free agents, including a copy of that offer being filed with both the league and the CFLPA.
Pending free agents have until noon to accept any of the offers made by their team, or another team, or if they choose to, become free agents. All of the offers made to a player are officially withdrawn at noon.
Then, the fun starts, though from the sounds of things, the Argos won’t be major players. That could change, of course, based upon how successful they are at re-signing their own players.