He was not mentioned by fans and media often, if at all, when discussing CFL free agency, but Jonathan Kongbo was definitely on the mind of the Toronto Argonauts.
In a pre-free agency chat with director of player personnel Jim Barker, Argonauts.ca asked which players were on the team’s shopping list. The first name Barker mentioned was that of the 29-year-old defensive end, one of just five players the Argos had as primary targets.
“It surprises me a little bit,” Kongbo admitted to Argonauts.ca when informed of that priority list. “That’s just because I feel like in my pro career I’ve never really gotten a fair shot. I had the best season of my career last year, so hearing that just encourages me more than anything. So now I have to make good on what they think of me and really put a good product on the field.”
The first phone call made by the Argos when the free agency negotiation window opened was to Kongbo, made by head coach Mike Miller. Then general manager Michael Clemons called to reiterate how much they wanted him in Double Blue.
Kongbo said that choosing the Argos was an easy decision.
“If you read my scouting report, it always talked about my extreme amount of potential, ‘He has all the talent in the world.’ I’m at that point where I can put it all together; mentally, spiritually, physically, I can put my best product on the field. So when the Argos reached out to me, and with the opportunity they were willing to give me, it was too good of an opportunity to pass up. It was a really, really easy choice.”
The 6’4”, 260-pound defensive end will be reunited in Toronto with defensive line coach Demetrious Maxie, both of whom were with the Edmonton Elks last season. It would be hard to imagine that even the player’s family could be bigger fans of Kongbo than Maxie, who is eager to get even better results this season under new defensive coordinator Greg Quick.
“The system is going to make him better and more hungry” Maxie told Argonauts.ca. “In Edmonton we (the defensive line) were role players up front, so we couldn’t showcase the talent that we had, but we did what we needed to do in order to get the most out of what we needed for the defence.”
Maxie was now on a roll, extremely excited to talk about what he sees the fast, physical lineman accomplishing in Toronto.
“With him in this system, what we plan now is going to showcase his ability to get after the quarterback or the ball carrier,” said Maxie. “He’s going to get more reps. We’re going to reset the line of scrimmage and we’re going to get vertical and play quick and fast.”
A strong relationship between player and positional coach is not essential, but it can go a long way toward bringing out the best in an athlete. As much as Maxie loves coaching Kongbo, the feeling is mutual.
“In a pro sports journey, it’s all about finding coaches that believe in you and bring out the best in you,” said Kongbo. “When I first got with Coach Maxie we immediately cooked. He allowed me to play my game, and in retrospect it allowed me to really excel.”
Sometimes a strong relationship develops without either party understanding why, but the Democratic Republic of Congo born, Surrey B.C. raised Kongbo can pinpoint why he’s responded to his mentor.
“What Coach Maxie does well, and I think differentiates him from other coaches I’ve worked with personally around the league, is his ability to understand all of his players. You have to speak to certain guys some ways. You have to know how to push some guys, you have to know how to pull some guys back. That’s one thing he does really well. When I found out he was going to Toronto it really piqued my interest.”
After graduating from the University of Tennessee, Kongbo was the fifth-overall selection by Winnipeg in the 2019 CFL Draft. He’s bounced around the league since, while also spending one year with the Denver Broncos.
He’s hoping the team hopping has stopped.
The Argos have penciled in defensive end as a potential “Canadian” position with Kongbo and 2025 first-round pick Jeremiah Ojo rotating at that spot, with the veteran being the starter.
Kongbo is thankful for the team’s belief in him.
“It means the world, honestly. This is the first time in my pro career a team has given me this much confidence and I will not let the Argos down. It means so much more with everything that happened to me earlier in my career, then having to come back to the league and prove myself, to finally have an organization to see me for who I am and not what’s been said about me means the world to me.”