Inside Look: Argos row together during CFL Draft
It was a different draft night than most for the Toronto Argonauts.
The team was without a first-round pick for the first time since 2017 and would have to wait to make its first selection until 16th overall. It would be the Argos lowest slot for a first pick since 2007 when their first selection didn’t come until pick 29.
It’s not as if the club was complaining. The Argos dealt their first-round pick, ninth overall, to the BC Lions in exchange for linebacker Jordan Williams, who was the league’s first overall pick in 2020.
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The Argos traded their 2023 first round pick to the BC Lions in exchange for 2021 Most Outstanding Rookie Jordan Williams (Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca)
Draft day started early, with Assistant General Manager Vince Magri and Director of Football Operations and National Scout Alex Russell arriving at exactly the same time – just after 7 a.m. ET – and able to walk together from the parking lot to the team’s office.
The duo would be joined by General Manager Michael Clemons in preparation for not one, but two drafts; the CFL’s Global Draft at 11 a.m. ET, followed by the main draft nine hours later.
There were a couple of ongoing trade discussions underway in regard to the main draft, while predictions were underway as to which player would fall to which team.
As the day started, the Argos had picks 16, 27, 36, 45, 47, 54, 63 and 72.
Just before 11 a.m. ET the group’s full attention turned to the Global Draft. It would be conducted via speaker phone, sitting on a table in Magri’s office. Magri would sit at his desk, Clemons and Russell at the table, with Russell making the team’s draft announcements.
Joining them in the room were Argos Digital Content Manager Aidan Miller and a reporter from Argonauts.ca.
The Argos would pick ninth, based on their Grey Cup win.
The personnel group was hoping to select placekicker Alfredo Gachuz Lozada, the leading scorer in the history of Mexico’s Liga de Football Americano Profesional (LFA). He will attend the minicamp of the Pittsburgh Steelers this month.
When the Argos time to choose arrived, the man atop their wish list was still available. Magri was happy their top target fell to them.
“The thing that jumps out at you is how strong his leg is,” he told Argonauts.ca. “He’s got a powerful leg, he’s been accurate historically playing in the LFA and he’s shown that he’s capable of doing all three (field goals, kickoffs, punting).”
The goal in the second round was to grab a player based on their athleticism. The player at the top of their list was Emmanuel Falola, a linebacker from Bristol. At six-foot-two, 230 pounds, he played for the Prague Lions in the European Football League.
Russell called him with the good news immediately after he was selected.
“He was fired up,” Russell said of the call. “He said he was in Prague watching online. He’s still kind of in shock.”
The entire Global draft lasted just 19 minutes. Then a very long waiting game began as the main draft didn’t begin until 8 p.m ET.
Russell and Magri left the office momentarily to grab a coffee while Manager of Football Media Chris Balenovich prepared the news release announcing the two newest Argos.
When the pair returned from the coffee run, they immediately dove into some “what if” discussions; trying to predict what may happen in the evening draft and how the Argos should react if certain situations presented themselves.
The first draft pick of the night would be no surprise as it was learned offensive lineman Dontae Bull was in Ottawa. When the Argos had the first overall pick in 2019, Shane Richards was flown to Toronto to surprise fans gathered at BMO Field for a draft party. The assumption was that the REDBLACKS were doing the same thing.
The Argos flew in first overall pick Shane Richards in advance of the 2019 CFL Draft to introduce him to the fans at BMO Field (Argonauts.ca)
Things became a little more intense for the Argos at around 3 p.m. ET when trade talk intensified with one team, while a separate deal was being discussed with another.
Clemons re-entered the room with Magri surgically attached to his iPhone, giving his thumbs a serious workout while exchanging texts. The discussion centered around one player being sent from one team to another for a draft pick, or a combination of that player and a draft pick being dealt for a pair of picks.
Neither team seemed willing to budge from its demands.
This conversation continued for roughly an hour-and-a-half before it appeared the teams would not be able to reach a deal, which would be the case as no trade would be made on this night.
The second potential deal was also a player for pick scenario but wasn’t as intense as the other discussion.
At roughly 6 p.m. ET the entire coaching staff walked across the parking lot from BMO Field to the Argos offices and set up in a large boardroom next to Magri’s office. They would be available to give their input should there be a choice to be made between two or more players. For all involved it was time to grab a bite and get ready for the show to begin.
At 7 p.m. the “war room” turned its attention to the upcoming selections, reminding each other how long each team had to make its selection in each round.
Discussion centered on two specific topics; they team’s possibilities for pick No. 16, and how early they should take long snapper Adam Guillemette. There was a bit of disbelief they were anxious about whether a specialist like him would be available in the third round, but that’s where they were hoping to get him; he was definitely a player they wanted badly.
There were two ways that those in Magri’s office could refer to the player rankings; one was a giant white board on the wall on the west side of the office, to the right of and in front of the assistant G.M.’s desk.
Directly across the room from that was a giant screen connected to Magri’s laptop. One window showed a giant grid that showed the draft order, another had the player rankings in order.
Across the top of the latter window was a list of positions, while down the left side were numbers in descending order. There was one name along each line, placed under his position. For example; if a running back named Michael Clemons was the team’s third-rated player, he would be the only name in the third row and located beneath the position marked RB.
The white board had similar rankings, with each draft eligible player’s name affixed to a small rectangular magnet. Those names were arranged in similar fashion to what was on Magri’s screen. After a player was selected, the magnet with his name would be removed and placed on another white board across the room, beneath a logo of the team that had selected him.
It made seeing the eligible players’ names and rankings very easy.
At 7:56 p.m. ET a conference call began, once again moderated by CFL Associate V.P. of Football Operations Ryan Janzen, the same man who conducted the Global Draft conference call. He explained the timing and timeout rules for each round.
Unless a deal was made, the Argos would still have to wait almost two hours before they would choose.
At 8 p.m. sharp Head Coach Ryan Dinwiddie joined the personnel group, walking next door from where his coaching staff had assembled. As a group they discussed the possibility of the trade that was potentially still doable.
Head Coach Ryan Dinwiddie and the Argos staff had to wait almost two hours to make their first pick in the 2023 CFL Draft with the 16th overall selection (Kevin Sousa/CFL.ca)
Like the Global Draft earlier that day, the picks would be made via a league conference call. During the television broadcast a team would email it’s pick to the league and Janzen would announce the pick seconds before CFL Commissioner Randy Ambrosie did likewise on TSN.
As Ambrosie announced Ottawa was on the clock with the first pick there was zero suspense in the Argos war room. The assumption about Dontae Bull proved to be correct.
As the picks continued, the comments flowed. Often someone would compliment on a team on a good or great pick, while other times eyebrows were raised and questions were asked, wondering how that pick would fit on a team’s depth chart.
The talk also continued about what would happen with pick No. 16 should more than one of the players the Argos liked still be available.
The highest ranked player on their board was receiver Jared Wayne from Pitt, but the Peterborough native had just signed a deal with the NFL’s Houston Texans, reportedly for over $200,000 U.S.
He would have been long gone before No. 16 if he hadn’t signed the Houston deal, but there was a decent chance the Argos would take the risk if things didn’t fall the team’s way with a handful of other players that would be available this year.
There was one player the team desperately hoped would fall to No. 16.
He didn’t.
After that player was selected there were some well-placed expletives in the room. There was no time to sulk and the group quickly looked at Plan B. There were still multiple players available that the group liked a lot, and not just Wayne.
Magri sent out another feeler about moving up from No. 16, but the team he contacted wanted to keep its pick.
There was discussion about whether they wanted to choose a player who could make the roster immediately, or Wayne, who was a better talent but could only help them in the future, even if it would be a year or two away.
Remember, the Argos selected offensive lineman Ryan Hunter with the last pick of the first round of the 2018 draft and he didn’t arrive in Toronto until September of this year, helping the Argos win a Grey Cup.
A couple of the other players considered for that spot were also selected before No. 16, so the choice became rather simple. While it was frustrating that they would not be seeing their top pick this year, there was also unanimous agreement that the Wayne pick was the smart one, especially since the next pick belonged to Ottawa and it was felt the Redblacks would use it on Wayne as a territorial selection.
One hour and 49 minutes after the TSN broadcast began, the Argos finally were able to make their first pick and selected Jared Wayne.
Pittsburgh wide receiver Jared Wayne had a breakout year in 2022 with 1,063 receiving yards and five touchdowns for the Panthers (University of Pittsburgh)
“It was one of those no brainers,” Dinwiddie told Argonauts.ca after he made a phone call to Wayne. “The guy is going to be a dynamic player if we get a chance to see him. He was number one on our board. We feel good about our Canadian depth and we feel in the long term he’s going to make us a better football club. It was a chance to gamble a little bit and find a dynamic player.”
There would be less of a wait before the second pick, 11 slots after the one they had used to select Wayne. They also knew exactly who they wanted.
While the team continued to think about making a move to add a pick, they were again in strong agreement that they wanted to select Guillemette no later than Round Three. It’s not like they were unhappy with current long snapper Maxime Latour, they just identified Guillemette as someone special.
There was an anxious moment when Edmonton selected long snapper Luke Burton-Krahn at No. 23. Would a team be tempted to take another specialist in the next three picks? Fortunately, the answer was no and the Argos had a player they desperately wanted.
“Max (Latour) has done a great job for us,” Magri told Argonauts.ca. “Adam has had a great career at Holy Cross. He reminds us a lot of the guy that snapped here for a long time (Jake Reinhart); he’s accurate, he’s crisp, he’s a good athlete, he’s got a good head on his shoulders. He’ll have a chance to come in and compete and potentially make us a better football club.”
The rest of the night went rather smoothly, thanks to the thousands of hours spent watching video, travelling to watch a player live, assessing the Combine results, reflecting on interviews, doing mock drafts, and the lengthy process of ranking the players.
The later round picks came fast and furious, usually coming just a few seconds after the previous team had made its choice.
Most of the players the Argos chose were in the area the team had them ranked; while the biggest value pick became Queen’s receiver Richard Burton. The team had a third-round grade on him, but he was still on the board when the Argos used the 47th pick to select him in the sixth round.
Overall it was a good night for the Double Blue.
“We not only tried to pick the best player available, we tried to find the best fit for our team,” Clemons told Argonauts.ca following the draft. “Our Canadian talent is probably the strength of our team, so we were able to look to the future, as well as make a couple of very savvy picks by our personnel team based on need.”
It was now closing in on 11:00 and an extremely long day had come to an end. The emotional swings were many on this day, but the exceptionally hard work of the front office had paid off.
The rookies, aside from Wayne, should all be at training camp beginning next week.
