The Toronto Argonauts granted full access to its draft “war room” to Argonauts.ca’s Mike Hogan. The only stipulations were that he not mention the names of any player not drafted by the Argos, nor the names of players that may have arisen in trade discussions.
It’s a day that can shape a CFL team’s future. Not one, but two drafts, each helping a club stock, or re-stock its level of Canadian and Global talent.
The Toronto Argonauts would enter the day with a total of eleven selections: two in the Global draft, nine more in the main draft.
Assistant general manager Vince Magri’s office would serve as the “war room” for the front office. Coaches and the rest of the player personnel department would meet in the space, located on the second floor of the Argo offices in the Coca-Cola Coliseum, located just east of BMO Field.
The first event of the day took place at eleven o’clock. Magri was joined in the room by general manager Michael Clemons, assistant general manager John Murphy, and special teams coordinator Mickey Donovan. The latter was there to give his input on a punter, or potential help elsewhere on specials.
The Argos would select a punter seventh overall, Jeremy Edwards, who will compete against John Haggerty, whose profile is eerily similar to that of Edwards. Both are 6’5” Australian punters with strong legs who trained at Prokick Australia before heading to Kentucky to play in the NCAA, Haggerty at Western Kentucky, Edwards at Eastern Kentucky.
The Argos second selection was in the 16th spot, where they chose Denzel Daxon, a native of Nassau, Bahamas who played at Illinois. He’s a 6’2”, 320-pound tackle who is particularly solid against the run. He signed a contract as an undrafted free agent with the Dallas Cowboys immediately following the NFL Draft.
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After that it was time to sit around and wait. The main draft wasn’t scheduled for some eight-and-a-half hours after the Global Draft concluded. This is always the hardest part of the day. Magri and Murphy worked the phones, both texting to and receiving texts from opposing teams’ personnel departments. The three second-round picks gave the Argos some ammunition if they wanted to move around in the draft, but as of 5:00 Magri told Argonauts.ca that nothing seemed too serious and he didn’t expect a deal to be made in the next three hours.
That plan of attack would change as the night progressed.
Magri also spoke to some NFL teams to check on what their intentions were for the players that they had either drafted or signed.
At 5:30 the brain trust would reconvene to talk about the No. 5 pick once again, as well as the strategy for the rest of the evening. It was a conversation they’d had several times already, but wanted to make sure everyone was still on the same page.
The entire contingent of player personnel and coaches grabbed some pizza at 6:30, knocking a few minutes off the clock, still an hour-and-a-half away from go time.
As the draft neared, the personnel department reconvened in Magri’s office along with head coach Ryan Dinwiddie. The other coaches were assembled in an adjacent boardroom.
Others on hand were videographer Josh White from the production team, and Chris Balenovich, the Argos manager of football media. A computer was set up in Magri’s office, broadcasting the proceedings to your humble typist, who was on the injured list and was unable to attend in person.
The club eschewed its normal routine of holding several mock drafts in the days and weeks preceding the draft, opting instead to do a handful. Instead, they would spend the majority of time homing in on the top five selections. The goal was to narrow its own list to the five players they’d be interested in choosing, knowing at least one of them would drop to slot five. At the same time, they were trying to determine which players may be chosen in the preceding four picks.
That almost seemed like a fool’s game at times, with the depth of players at the top of the draft, and the unpredictability of the teams selecting in the first four slots. That said, they’d do it anyway. After all, there was plenty of time to kill.
There was also a plan in place for the Argos cluster of three picks (24, 25, 27) in the third round. With some leeway, the plan was to twice take the best player available, while using one of the three selections on a “future”, a player who might not be immediately available to the team.
With many draft-eligible players being chosen in the NFL Draft or signing immediately afterward as undrafted free agents, the possibility of teams using an early pick on a future was higher than normal and added to the general drama leading up to eight o’clock.
As it got closer to the top of the hour there was more discussion about the fifth pick and which position they’d like to choose, if the draft fell the way they expected.
At 7:48 the Argos joined the league’s conference call. The speakerphone was on a table where Clemons and Murphy were sitting. Magri was at his corner desk, Dinwiddie sitting opposite him.
On the wall next to Magri’s desk was a giant white board. Across the top was written a list of player positions. Under each position was a list of player names in order of ranking at that position. The names were staggered in an overall ranking of players. Each player’s name was attached to a magnet, and as the player was selected in the draft the magnet would be taken off the big board.
With five minutes to go before the beginning of the draft, CFL associate vice-president of football operations Ryan Janzen came on the call and explained the rules. Each team would have six minutes to make its choice in the first round, five minutes in the second round, and three minutes in rounds three through eight. The team would email its choice to Janzen, who would then confirm the choice by phone. This procedure is used to make sure no selections are leaked to the media. Janzen would announce each pick on the conference call at the exact same time commissioner Randy Ambrosie was doing so on the TSN broadcast.
Edmonton was placed on the clock at 8:00 sharp, though the first pick wouldn’t be announced for another 12 minutes, giving the broadcast crew time to set up the draft and the first selection. Nobody in the Argos room batted an eye when the Elks selected Joel Dublanko as most assumed that would be the choice.
That would not be the case 11 minutes later when Ottawa selected Nick Mardner. Nobody was shocked when the Redblacks opted to choose a receiver, but those assembled in the Argos room were more than a little surprised it wasn’t Kevin Mital. The conversation in the office abruptly turned to the possibility of selecting the Laval product, as it seemed far-fetched at best that he would be available with the fifth pick.
The realization that the chance of drafting Mital was a possibility, if not a probability, led to a change in strategy.
The talk ramped up about choosing Mital or another one of the top five players on their list if both were still available. In a perfect world they’d be able to draft one of them at five, then package two, or perhaps all three of their third-round picks to move up far enough in the draft to select the other.
After Saskatchewan and Calgary made their selections both Mital and another one of the Argos targeted players were available, but which one to pick? They expected one of the players would be available but didn’t foresee Mital being a part of the equation.
So, which one to pick? Again, the plan was to select one, then try to trade up to get the other. Options were discussed, as was the impact each would have on the Canadian ratio and the salary cap.
“He could be the best player in the draft,” said Murphy of Mital. Dinwiddie said he liked the other option too, but it was more of a reach and agreed that Mital was more polished. Clemons suggestion was to take the player they were most comfortable with, then try to trade up in the draft, that way they were guaranteed to have their first choice if a trade didn’t materialize.
Again, the general manager’s advice would prove to be wise.
Magri emailed the receiver’s name to the league, which was confirmed by a quick return call from Janzen.
At 8:44 it was announced that Kevin Mital was an Argo, something the team didn’t think would be possible 20 minutes earlier.
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The work was far from over, as now the team was hell bent on moving up to be able to draft their other target. Several teams were contacted, numerous offers were made to those teams, each one involving multiple third-round picks.
Each offer was denied.
Inevitably, while the Argos were still making offers, the player they coveted was selected by another team, yet somewhat surprisingly the trade talks continued. The Argos had another player they desperately wanted but were worried he wouldn’t fall to their first pick in the third round, number 24 overall.
Again, their offers were denied, but in retrospect that wasn’t a bad thing as when their pick rolled around, Tyson Hergott, a defensive lineman from Waterloo, was somehow still available.
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The next picks came quickly, and the Argos had no qualms with being able to select offensive lineman John Bosse from Calgary, and defensive back Tyshon Blackburn from Alberta.
The draft after that was processional, with the club getting value with each selection. The most notable choice was a future. With the 48th pick the team selected massive Anim Dankwah, a 6’8”, 355-pound offensive tackle from Howard. Born in Ghana and raised in Brampton, Dankwah signed with the Philadelphia Eagles as an undrafted free agent over the weekend.
There’s also a direct Argo connection as offensive line coach Kris Sweet was Dankwah’s coach at Howard in 2021. Sweet made the phone call to his former player to let him know about the selection.
Like every other team in the CFL, the Argos were thrilled with the night’s haul of talent. Despite not having a second-round pick, members of the Boatmen’s brass are confident they did well and are anxious to see most of these players on the field when rookie camp opens in Guelph next week.
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