Ryan Dinwiddie Toronto Argonauts
The Toronto Argonauts missed the playoffs for the first time since 2019 due to the absence of franchise quarterback Chad Kelly, who was unable to play the entire season due to a broken foot suffered in last year’s East Final.
However, despite hindsight, it doesn’t seem like head coach Ryan Dinwiddie would have handled the situation any differently.
“I think there were a lot of unknowns going into it. I think we did our best going into it. Obviously, we have to take care of the player first, but we also have to take care of the organization moving forward for the future.” Dinwiddie said during his year-end media availability.,
“Last week, he was moving around a lot better than he was. As far as physicality, he’s shown a lot of development as far as his legs. I didn’t think he was dynamic enough to play his game. I thought Nick (Arbuckle) stepped up and did a lot of good things for us, so I’m really happy with quarterback one, quarterback two and we’ve got a lot of young guys there.”
Dinwiddie repeatedly suggested throughout the season that Kelly was not far from re-entering the lineup, It wasn’t until late July that he was called “week-to-week” The bench boss also denied at the time that Kelly had suffered a concussion, although general manager Mike ‘Pinball’ Clemons suggested the opposite while speaking to the media on Sunday.
“(Kelly’s recovery) was going smoothly for a while, and then there came a period in the summer when we realized there were some things that weren’t going as fast as we hoped they would,” he said. With that said, I don’t think you’d want to count him out too easily if there looks a good chance he’ll be back for at least the first third of the season.”
The Argonauts placed Kelly on the six-game injured list in late July, where he spent the remainder of the season. He spent the first seven weeks of the year on the one-game injured list, a strong indication that the team thought there was a reasonable chance he would be ready to play by the middle of the summer.
In the end, Nick Arbuckle finished 5-10, throwing for 4,370 yards, 26 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. The 32-year-old, who led the Argonauts to a Gray Cup victory last year after Kelly’s postseason injury, set all new highs in his career and broke his previous single-season best of 11 touchdown passes.
It’s clear the Argonauts expect Arbuckle to return behind Kelly next season as Clemons said the team has “two solid quarterbacks for next year.
Third-year CFL quarterback Jarrett Doidge made three starts for the Argonauts, throwing for 905 yards, four touchdowns and seven interceptions. Rookie passers Tucker Horn and Max Duggan also saw limited action, the latter of whom threw a touchdown pass in Toronto’s season-ending loss to the Calgary Stampeders.
Dinwiddie, who played five seasons in the CFL at quarterback with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Saskatchewan Roughriders, likes what he sees from his team’s passers.
“I feel good about that position group,” he said. “If we could get all those people back to camp, I would be very happy.”
The journey from winning the Gray Cup to missing the postseason the following year is never easy. While it’s clear Dinwiddie isn’t happy with how things turned out, he’s also trying to keep perspective on how things turned out in 2025.
“This year was disappointing, but at the same time, we have to keep an eye on it,” the 44-year-old said. “We’ve had injuries, all that stuff — it doesn’t really matter. How can we get better as an organization? It starts with me. I’m going to work. It’s unfortunate that we’re watching their teams play for nothing and we’re starting next year.”
