he believes Kelly will be able to return to his M.O.P. form from the 2023 season<\/a>, restoring a career trajectory that has been derailed by suspension and injury. Top target Damonte Coxie, who has worked out with his quarterback regularly throughout the offseason, thinks that is an accurate assessment.<\/p>\n\u201cDefinitely. I believe he\u2019s gonna get there because Chad is one of those guys that you tell him no, he\u2019s gonna find a way to do it,\u201d he explained. \u201cI believe that wholeheartedly, and I think he\u2019s locked in to a point where everything else really doesn\u2019t matter but football. He\u2019s calling, he\u2019s ready to go throw every other day. We are already throwing every day. I think he gonna be ready, man, I do. I\u2019m excited for him. It\u2019s all a mindset and with him, when he flips that switch, ain\u2019t no turning it off.\u201d<\/p>\n
When Toronto opens the regular season on Friday, June 12, in Montreal, it will mark 580 days since Kelly last played a meaningful game. Perhaps more importantly, the milestone will occur on the same field where he suffered his injury, potentially bringing back painful memories.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, Coxie has little concern regarding Kelly\u2019s mental state entering that contest.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think Chad\u2019s already past it. Honestly, I think at this point it\u2019s more of him proving to himself,\u201d he said. \u201cI think the hurdles that he faced, he\u2019s over them. I think he\u2019s more at a point where he\u2019s even come to peace with the situation. He sees the line, the starting point. The season\u2019s getting here, it\u2019s time to lock back in. We had a long time off, he had a long time off, and I think he\u2019s ready.\u201d<\/p>\n
For his part, Kelly acknowledged that patience will be key as he readjusts to game speed, though he stopped short of examining the emotional toll that his return may exact.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to just let the game come to you. Take what the defence gives you and use your strengths to your strength,\u201d he said. \u201cI know what I can and can\u2019t do, and I know how to manage the game from a quarterback\u2019s perspective. Getting these guys the ball makes my job a lot easier, so that\u2019s what I\u2019m looking forward to doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
That excitement is mutual, and his receivers don\u2019t seem to think he has any reason to hold back.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s a professional. There\u2019s no need to be going out there being nervous or passive or whatever,\u201d Polk insisted. \u201cAll the work you\u2019ve put in, that\u2019s the preparation, and when you\u2019re prepared, you\u2019re gonna play like it. He should have no doubt in his mind that he can go out there and be Chad Kelly again.\u201d<\/p>\n
All CFL training camps are scheduled to open on May 10. Toronto will play its first preseason game against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Saturday, May 23, then its first regular-season game against the Montreal Alouettes on Friday, June 12.<\/p>\n
In 2025, Toronto finished third in the East Division standings with a 5-13 record, missing the playoffs for the first time since 2019. Mike Miller was promoted to the role of head coach following the departure of Ryan Dinwiddie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been close to 18 months since Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly last played a professional football…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":580987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,100127,22069,49,48,7028,521,522,520,14975,22071,527,5718,2002,57836,16850,82,3302],"class_list":{"0":"post-580986","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cfl","8":"tag-3down","9":"tag-3downnation","10":"tag-argonauts","11":"tag-argos","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-canada","14":"tag-canadian","15":"tag-canadian-football-league","16":"tag-canadianfootballleague","17":"tag-cfl","18":"tag-chad-kelly","19":"tag-damonte-coxie","20":"tag-football","21":"tag-injury","22":"tag-league","23":"tag-makai-polk","24":"tag-recovery","25":"tag-sports","26":"tag-toronto"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580986","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=580986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/580986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/580987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=580986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=580986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=580986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}