Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca
TORONTO — The Toronto Argonauts are set to have a new starting quarterback in 2023.
McLeod Bethel-Thompson informed fans on Twitter this afternoon that he will not play in the CFL this year. He confirmed a report from TSN’s Farhan Lalji that he will suit up for the New Orleans Breakers of the USFL this year.
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Dear CFL,⁰⁰I came to you 5 years ago dealing with the pain of a dream deferred. I was at a moment in my life where I felt I had self sabotaged my childhood dream away by losing sight of why I played the game.
— McLeodBethelThompson (@The_Real_McLeod) February 22, 2023
The 34-year-old enjoyed his best season in the CFL in 2022. In his first year as a starter, he led the league in passing yards, with 4,731 and made 387 of 589 passes with 23 touchdowns to 15 interceptions.
Most important for the five-year CFL vet, he steered the Argos to a win in the 109th Grey Cup, topping a favoured Winnipeg Blue Bombers squad that was in search of a Grey Cup three-peat.
Bethel-Thompson leaves the CFL having completed 1,125 of 1,683 passes for 13,261 yards and 70 touchdowns, with 49 interceptions.
Bethel-Thompson’s move will send Argos’ general manager Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons into replacement mode. He can look to last year’s backup QB, Chad Kelly as an option. The 28-year-old played a key part in the Argos’ Grey Cup win last season, stepping in for the game’s late stages after Bethel-Thompson had dislocated the thumb on his throwing hand.
Kelly made 4-6 passes for 43 yards, but more significantly kept the offence on the field with a big play on the ground. His 20-yard run helped set up A.J. Ouellette’s game-tying touchdown and the team took the lead with 3:40 left in the game with Boris Bede‘s convert.
While starting quarterbacks Trevor Harris and Cody Fajardo found new homes in free agency last week, there is an experienced starter that could be available to them. The Hamilton Tiger-Cats have Dane Evans under contract, but appear to have taken the QB spot in a new direction, with Bo Levi Mitchell as the team’s starter in 2023 and Matthew Shiltz recently re-upping with the team to play backup.
Whichever direction Clemons and the Argos take, the reigning Grey Cup champions will have a very different look in 2023.
