Hogan: Kongbo Living Up to Expectations

Free agency can be a funny thing.

While fans and media focus on the higher profile players on the market, some of whom have passed their best-before date, organizations will mine the list of available talent, digging for a valuable nugget amid a mound of fool’s gold.

Enter Jonathan Kongbo.

The defensive end has been a player whose production has never matched his talent. Fast and physical, the fifth-year CFLer – sandwiched around NFL stops in Denver and San Francisco – had his most productive season last year with Edmonton, registering a team-high four sacks. A decent season to be sure, but it still left people who recognize his potential wanting more.

Enter the Toronto Argonauts.

When Argonauts.ca spoke with director of player personnel Jim Barker on the eve of the league’s negotiation window, he surrendered a list of five names that composed the team’s top targets. Surprisingly, Kongbo’s name was the first one out of the veteran talent evaluator’s mouth.

He was a player the team desperately wanted. When the window opened, the organization’s first calls were to Kongbo; the first to the player was from head coach Mike Miller, the second from general manager Michael Clemons, the third from Barker to Kongbo’s agent.

Within a couple of hours, the primary target had agreed to terms. Four months it looks like its mining expedition hit paydirt. Kongbo has two sacks in his first three games and has added a physical presence that has made him an important acquisition.

“This is the first pro team that has believed in my ability and my talent to the fullest,” he told Argonauts.ca. “They’re allowing me to play free football and trust what I see out there. To me, that means a lot. That’s why I feel like I owe this organization everything that I’ve got, because of the belief they’ve given me that no other team has.”

His biggest fan is defensive line coach Demetrious Maxie. He and Kongbo were in Edmonton last year and the coach saw the potential in the player; he was good last year but there was still a lot more there. When Maxie returned to Toronto and saw the defensive philosophy new defensive coordinator Greg Quick was going to employ, he pounded the table for Kongbo, imploring the organization to reunite the pair.

Kongbo’s strengths as a player are what Quick and Maxie want from their defensive linemen, players who have the ability to get into the backfield and disrupt the play. But that’s not the only thing Maxie sees in Kongbo, he likes what he brings to the group’s dynamic.

“Because of his energy and his approach to the position,” Maxie told Argonauts.ca. “I thought that’s what we needed, especially for the younger players, a veteran player that was shunned a number of times. When I met him in the spot we were last season, I thought he would be a great asset for what we needed.”

He has been, though Maxie’s desire to make him a leader of the group may take some of Kongbo’s earlier teams by surprise. He was traded by his BC Lions just two weeks after signing with them, with reports at the time saying he wasn’t happy with his role there.

But Kongbo has shown leadership qualities in a group that also features Ralph Holley, who possesses a more outgoing personality than perhaps anyone on the team not named Damonte Coxie.

It’s a role Kongbo is more than comfortable with.

“To be honest, I’ve always felt like that throughout my career,” the University of Tennessee product explained. “I’ve always been a guy who leads by example. I try not to be too vocal per se, but just doing the right things; showing up, doing what I’ve got to do as a pro. I think guys tend to gravitate toward that. It’s definitely been amplified on this team.”

He’s played well, and after last week’s win in Regina he was presented with the defensive game ball, which allowed him the opportunity to emotionally speak to the team about how grateful he is to be where he is on his football journey.

Kongbo, who grew up in Surrey, B.C., has come a long way from the city in which he lived for the first five years of his life, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo, a city best known in sporting circles for being the site of “The Rumble in the Jungle,” the legendary 1974 fight between Muhammad Ali and George Foreman.

It’s a perfect hometown for a player who has become a heavyweight on the Argos defensive line.