It\u2019s still somewhat hard to fathom. A year after winning the Grey Cup, the Toronto Argonauts posted a 5-13 record in 2025, one of the worst marks in team history. The work is underway to cleanse the pallet and return the team to a championship level.<\/p>\n
The roster is currently under reconstruction. Michael \u201cPinball\u201d Clemons oversees the operation as the club\u2019s general manager, but much of the heavy lifting is done by director of player personnel Jim Barker, though he\u2019s certainly not alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a team effort,\u201d Barker told Argonauts.ca. \u201cEverybody has connections. They\u2019ve all contributed in terms of putting forth players they know are out there. It\u2019s our job to organize it all and go out and try to put together a roster that meets everybody\u2019s needs.\u201d<\/p>\n
While jumping on a player like strongside linebacker Adarius Pickett is obvious, what\u2019s the conversation like when a player like running back\/returner Peyton Logan becomes available? He had some memorable moments in Calgary, fewer of them last year in Winnipeg. Logan was released by the Bombers on January 15 and signed by the Argos four days later.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe saw he was released, looked at our roster and wondered where he would fit,\u201d Barker explained. \u201cOne of the biggest things is that we have to see a direct line (for a roster spot) for a veteran player. I called Huf (Senior Advisor John Hufnagel), who had him in Calgary, and talked to him about Peyton. (Head coach) Mike Miller knew who he was and watched some film, and so did (special teams coordinator) Mickey Donovan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always a collaborative effort,\u201d Barker continued. \u201cI\u2019m in touch with Pinball regularly, he\u2019s the boss of the whole show and we don\u2019t do anything without his approval. We\u2019ve had as many guys come up in conversation and we say no; he wouldn\u2019t make us better. As soon as we had a consensus on Peyton, I contacted the agent and we did the contract.\u201d<\/p>\n
The player personnel department has expanded in number this year. Barker and Hufnagel bring a total of 10 Grey Cup rings to the operation, while there are three younger bodies in the building, bringing more opinions to the table while they learn from two of the best in the personnel business.<\/p>\n
Marcus Grandison added scouting responsibilities to his video work last year and is busy preparing for the CFL draft, while also accompanying Barker to Thursday\u2019s American Bowl college all-star game in Lakeland, Florida. There are two other newcomers who have already been in the United States looking for potential new Argos.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve hired Afram Jolak from the league office, who has a lot of experience with contracts and league procedures,\u201d said Barker. \u201cHe\u2019s currently at the East-West Shrine Game in Dallas. Our other young guy is Nate Bickford, who\u2019s been in operations in BC and Ottawa. He\u2019s seen CFL teams and what they do and he\u2019s now in player personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
There\u2019s a lot of work to do. Barker concedes that nobody is happy with the current state of the roster, though there are several months to rectify that through trades and free agency.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to be better,\u201d said the personnel director. \u201cWe have a plan. We\u2019ve got a staff that\u2019s experienced with these kinds of situations. It\u2019s just a question of bringing it all together in terms of personnel.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that kind of challenge that excites Barker, who won a Grey Cup in his second season as Argo GM in 2012. There are many core pieces in place now, but there\u2019s still some heavy lifting to do in certain areas.<\/p>\n
Does that mean the Argos will be active players in free agency?<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s some players that we\u2019d like to get,\u201d said Barker, noting the cautionary tale that there\u2019s a tendency to overpay players in that process. \u201cEvery team has a value on a player. We say that if we can get him at this amount, it makes us a better football team. We\u2019re not often going to exceed that to get into a bidding war. There\u2019s the occasional player you\u2019re going to go out and get whatever it costs. We could sign three guys, we could sign nobody, we could sign five; it just depends on who comes to us at the right price.\u201d<\/p>\n
Barker is thrilled to be back with the Argos as a key component in the rebuild, knowing that with the right additions the club will be competing for its 20th Grey Cup title come November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s still somewhat hard to fathom. A year after winning the Grey Cup, the Toronto Argonauts posted a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":430009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-430008","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\/430008","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=430008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/430009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}