THE CANADIAN PRESS
TORONTO — Exciting changes are sweeping the Toronto Argonauts franchise this off-season, but don’t expect that to change Jim Barker’s on-field blueprint.
New ownership and a new stadium to play in will give the storied team a different look in 2016 as Larry Tanenbaum and Kilmer Sports Inc. move the Boatmen into their new digs at BMO Field, while the city will host the 104th Grey Cup next November.
Yet with the Argos primed to make a big splash off the field, the team’s general manager isn’t about to do anything rash. Barker said the Argos will take a patient, calculated approach to the off-season and especially free agency come February.
“I’m not a guy that believes in building a team through free agency,” Barker said at the Argos’ first off-season availability last Friday. “I think you overpay for players in free agency.”
This year’s free agent class in particular is loaded with high-end talent, so for a team reinvigorated and looking to start off a new era on the right foot? Spending big in free agency and landing some of the CFL’s biggest stars sounds appealing.
The Argos currently have 26 players slated for free agency after agreeing with Ricky Ray and Ricky Foley on extensions last week, giving Barker plenty of flexibility both with his roster and team’s salary cap.
Yet the veteran GM is more focused on re-signing his own players and building continuity than spending big on free agents. Jermaine Gabriel, Cory Greenwood, Cleyon Laing and Thomas Miles all nationals, lead the list of free agents on the Argo defence. On offence, meanwhile, star receiver Chad Owens and quarterback Trevor Harris are currently unsigned.
“We would love to re-sign all of our guys and not worry about anything else, and that’s the approach we’re taking for the next two months until free agency hits,” said Barker. “At that point we’ll look at our roster and we’ll see where we are and what we need to plug in to fill gaps for players that have decided to go and opted to go for more money somewhere else for other reasons.”
The Argos may be cap flexible with so many free agents going into the off-season, but the key thing for Barker is to keep things that way by spending smart. Barker said free agency has a way of overvaluing players – that the Argos are only going to spend what’s right for them, not what the market dictates.
“We have a salary cap and a structure that we believe in and we adhere to,” said Barker. “Players every year are going to go and test the market and some will come back here, and some will go on. That’s the nature of our league with the cap the way it is.
“Obviously players, when they become free agents, their value goes to whatever they and their agent deem it to go to,” he continued. “We have to make decisions for us.
“We have a value on [each player] and sometimes it’s not the same and they have to go out and [test the market].”
Barker’s approach to the Argos’ roster makes sense. Building a team to sustain long-term success isn’t about making the biggest splash, it’s about careful spending, smart cap management and an emphasis on young Canadian talent.
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That aspect has never changed for the veteran executive, whether the Grey Cup is in Winnipeg, Vancouver or at home in Toronto.
“Since 2010 when I took this job, what drives me every day is getting the Argonauts to the Grey Cup,” said Barker, “whether it’s in Toronto or wherever it happens to be.
“Everything that we do in this organization that we’ve done since then has been about winning Grey Cups.”
So far Barker’s off-season plans are coming to fruition. At the top of the agenda was the Argos’ quarterback situation with both Ray and Harris primed to hit free agency, and he checked the position off his list with the extension of Ray.
Ideally, Barker added, the team would bring back Harris to compete with Ray for the starting quarterback position. But at the very worst the Boatmen have a high-calibre starting quarterback for 2016.
Before that, the Argos were able to address their defence with the addition of Rich Stubler as defensive coordinator. Stubler was a defensive mad scientist in his five years in the position with Toronto from 2003-2007, while his defence heled the Stampeders win a Grey Cup in 2014.
On Wednesday the Argos announced a three-year extension for hometown defensive end Ricky Foley, while Barker said last week he’s also hoping Andre Durie, another York University graduate, will return for the Argos on a re-structured contract next year as he looks to bounce back from an injury-shortened 2015.
“From signing a Ricky to Rich Stubler coming in, it’s all about winning Grey Cups,” said Barker. “The fact that it’s in Toronto, we went through that in 2012 and got hot at the right time and it was an exciting time for the city.
“Our job is to duplicate that,” he added. “To come back and put together a team that can do that and win the Grey Cup.
“It’s no different this year than it’s been every other year, everything we do is about winning the Grey Cup.”
