argonauts.ca
TORONTO — Chad Kelly is ready to take the helm for the Toronto Argonauts.
The 29-year-old took over the starting quarterback position in the off-season with the departure of veteran McLeod Bethel-Thompson to the USFL and will be tasked with steering the current champs in pursuit of another title.
A heroic performance in relief of an injured Bethel-Thompson late in last year’s Grey Cup gave Kelly a taste of what it’s like to play in a championship team. The then-backup pivot came into the game in the fourth quarter with the Argos trailing by six points and led a game-winning drive in the eventual 24-23 win over the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
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It hasn’t always been an easy journey for the veteran quarterback, though. Kelly started his college career with the Clemson Tigers in 2012 but ended up leaving in 2014 due to conduct detrimental to the team and transferring to East Mississippi Community College.
A 20-year-old Kelly led the Lions to a 12-0 record and a victory in the NJCAA National Football Championship, which led to another opportunity in D1 football with the Ole Miss Rebels in 2015.
After earning the starting job in Mississippi, Kelly went on to have a successful season, finishing with a 10-3 record and completing 65.1 per cent of his passes for 4,042 yards, 31 touchdowns and 13 interceptions.
An up-and-down senior season in 2016 – coupled with an unfortunate ACL injury – led Kelly to drop all the way to the seventh round of the NFL draft, where he was snatched by the Denver Broncos.
After four years in the NFL – and zero pass attempts –, the quarterback wasn’t sure he would ever get an opportunity to be the number one guy.
“Definitely,” said the quarterback in an interview with Donovan Bennet and teammate Henoc Muamba when asked if he thought he might never lead a team again during that period. “At that present moment when I was going through the stuff in Denver and then not really having a chance to even show what I can do in practice in Indianapolis.”
Kelly is the nephew of NFL hall-of-famer Jim Kelly, who himself had an unorthodox path to success, playing two years in the USFL for the Houston Gambler before joining the Buffalo Bills.
All that movement in his career made the young Kelly appreciate what he has now in Toronto.
“I’m super thankful to have a great group of guys around me that makes my job easier.”
His job is to lead the current champions to another title run with expectations sky high after the team beat the Bombers in Regina last fall.
It is not easy to replace a winning quarterback, but Kelly has been preparing for the weight of being QB1 his entire life.
“A guy who’s loving, caring, passionate about everything,” answered the signal-caller to his teammate when asked to talk about who he is.
“I love football, I grew up around it. This is all I live, breathe, speak, talk and eat. Everything I do is to better myself on the football field. There has never been a day in my life I didn’t think I want to get better in football.”
The Argos open their season against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Sunday at BMO Field in new uniforms and a new pivot under centre.
Kelly completed four of six passes for 43 yards and rushed twice for 21 yards in the Grey Cup (argonauts.ca)
Kelly can’t wait for that moment to arrive, if only to show the world that he deserves this long-awaited opportunity.
“My heart’s pumping right now,” said the signal-caller. “I’m ready to go right now talking about it. It’s going to be amazing. I’m going to have a whole bunch of family out there and friends.
“I just want to go out there and prove that I belong.”
Kelly spent his career with plenty of successful names at the position like Bethel-Thompson, Phillip Rivers and Case Keenum, to name a few. All the knowledge he absorbed also led to him spending time as an offensive coach at East Mississippi before signing with the Argos.
That amalgamation of experiences prepared Kelly to the journey ahead, but at the end of the day he knows his job is a simple one: get the ball into the hands of a talented group of players in Toronto.
“The thing I’ve learned from a young age is you just have to get the ball to the playmakers,” said Kelly. “That was the first thing I told my friends when I got here: these wide receivers are going to be great.”
The Argos earned a championship ring in part because of a plethora of targets in wide receivers Kurleigh Gittens Jr., Markeith Ambles, DaVaris Daniels, Tommy Nield and Dejon Brissett, not to mention running backs Andrew Harris and A.J. Ouellette. All that playmaking talent was complemented by a stingy defence led by Muamba that kept an explosive Winnipeg offence in check.
Kelly knows however that the most important thing when the Argos debut their powder blue uniforms on Sunday is not what happened last year, it is what happens next.
“I always had a saying that it doesn’t matter what you did last month,” said the starting quarterback. “Matters what you do right now.”
The quarterback will get a chance to start making his mark as a starter in Toronto on Sunday as the Argos unveil their championship banner at BMO Field against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats at 7:00 p.m. ET.
