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<\/p>\nA pending free agent, Pickett said the slow nature of contract talks with Ottawa contributed to his departure.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThe biggest thing is the negotiation was real slow, almost to none,\u201d Pickett said during a video conference Friday. \u201cAlmost like they were indecisive about if they wanted me to be there or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI took a pay cut and understood all that but I came back and did exactly what I said I was going to do. I was ready to go the first day of camp, I didn\u2019t miss one practice, I didn\u2019t miss one game the whole season and was arguably one of the best players on defence for them. When that (slow negotiation) happened, we hit them up and talked about it and we mutually parted ways.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickett was the East Division\u2019s top defensive player in \u201923 playing for then Toronto head coach Ryan Dinwiddie, who became Ottawa\u2019s head coach\/general manager this off-season. But Pickett, a divisional all-star the last three years, said his discussions were with Shawn Burke, the Redblacks\u2019 vice-president of football operations.<\/p>\n
If talks with Ottawa were slow, discussions with Toronto heated up immediately following Pickett\u2019s release. The Argos were one of four teams interested in Pickett but he said they outdid the others.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight when it was news that I was released, Pinball (Argos GM Mike Clemons) hit me up literally 30 seconds later,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cI talked to him, I talked to coach Quick (defensive co-ordinator Greg Quick), I talked to coach Miller (head coach Mike Miller).<\/p>\n
\u201cThe other teams, it was kind of sporadic throughout the day. With all due respect to them, I liked that Toronto did everything back to back to back and I knew the interest level was high there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickett established career highs in tackles (105), special-teams tackles (19), sacks (six), and a forced fumble in \u201923. He was also a CFL and East all-star in helping Toronto post a CFL-best 16-2 record before losing 38-17 to the eventual Grey Cup-champion Montreal Alouettes in the division final.<\/p>\n
Pickett\u2019s deal with Toronto is worth $191,000 in hard money and includes an $80,000 signing bonus. It has a total value of $202,000.<\/p>\n
This marks Quick\u2019s third coaching stint with Toronto but first as defensive co-ordinator. He was Montreal\u2019s linebacker coach when Pickett began his CFL career there (2021-22) and Pickett said Quick\u2019s presence with the Argos also factored in his decision.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a very good coach,\u201d Pickett said. \u201cWe were on the phone for like 35-40 minutes and I listened to his philosophy, what he sees, where he wants to take the defence and how he plans to utilize me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickett also reunites with Canadian linebacker Cam Judge as the two were teammates at UCLA (2014-16). Any other year, they\u2019d flank standout middle linebacker Wynton McManis but he\u2019s a pending free agent.<\/p>\n
Re-signing McManis remains a huge off-season priority for Clemons. Pickett plans to do his part in trying to convince McManis to stay.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s my dog right there,\u201d Pickett said \u201cWe always talked when I was in Ottawa about possibly playing together again and the opportunity is there right now.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know (contract negotiations) is a tough process to go through having gone through it myself. If everything aligns \u2026 we\u2019ll be back playing for the Double Blue and that would be exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
More importantly, Pickett is in a much better place now to tackle his off-season preparation.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited about this off-season because last year I had to relearn how to do stuff coming off that injury,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was a scary one, for real.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving forward, it\u2019s just putting in that same level of work. But I\u2019m in a way better position where I am right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pickett has appeared in 79 career regular-season games, registering 337 tackles, 66 special-teams tackles, 14 sacks, five forced fumbles and four interceptions.<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dan Ralph, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A pending free agent, Pickett said the slow nature of contract talks with Ottawa contributed to his departure.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414097,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-414096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414096"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414096\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414097"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}