An avid Argos supporter and season ticket holder, Don Landry has covered almost every type of news from sports to music to talk radio in his 25 years of broadcasting and has conducted over 10,000 interviews with the likes of Prime Ministers, Premiers, sports legends, showbiz stars, power brokers and many more. Follow Don on Twitter @argoslandry or visit his website at donlandry.com.
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DON LANDRY
Argonauts.ca Columnist
TORONTO — A few weeks ago, with Cleo Lemon coming off a hot performance against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Steven Jyles throwing with ease at a Toronto Argonauts practice, someone asked me what I thought the future would hold for the Argos’ quarterbacking picture.
I told them that I thought Jyles’ return would either propel Lemon to greater heights, or he’d be quickly demoted to number two. Dalton Bell would be dropped to third on the depth chart or, unfortunately, be squeezed out of the picture entirely due to a numbers game.
So what happened?
Friday night happened. And not Cleo Lemon’s ineffective play against the B.C. Lions. Bell’s was even less effective. No, Lemon’s fate was likely sealed by his sideline demeanor.
Far from being involved in trying to help Bell with strategy and insight, he spent the lion’s share of his bench time standing a great distance from the rest of the team, all alone. He was literally, visually, separate from the team.
Lemon’s Release
One needed only to see the episode of the documentary on the Argos’ season, “The Extra Yard,” immediately following the game to understand that that behaviour would not be welcome on GM & Head Coach Jim Barker‘s team.
“Ultimately, pro sports has a tendency to reveal character,” Barker said. “And maybe that’s why we’re going through what we’re going through. To reveal who can look inward and not look outward.”
I’d assume that if one looked inward, and was dedicated to the team around him, he’d have been an interested participant in the process of helping that team to some success. Maybe not immediately.
I understand a guy might need some time to simmer down and shed some layers of frustration. But you’d expect a change at some point during the second half.
Lemon’s disinterest must have been evident to his teammates, as it was to a national TV audience after being documented by the TSN panel.
Barker wouldn’t confirm that Friday night’s display was what caused the end to Lemon’s Argos career, saying only: “I’m not going to get into specifics. We’ve parted ways and he moves forward and we move forward.”
Fair enough. But Barker had been unyieldingly dedicated to Lemon. There was, as I mentioned, the hope that the activation of Steven Jyles would spur Lemon on to better things.
Wouldn’t Lemon have been afforded the opportunity to keep scrapping had he immersed himself as a team guy Friday night? I’d have made that assumption based on Barker’s patience and considering Lemon’s numbers were better than Bell’s. Much better.
However, those numbers mean very little when a team is losing and the man charged with leading them on the field is displaying a lack of interest in being involved.
So what’s next?
It can be argued, in chicken and egg fashion, as to what the problem has been.
Did play calling hamper Cleo Lemon’s development as a quarterback? Was he doomed to failure because of an offence that relied too much on short dump passes, swing passes and outlet throws to the flat?
Or, did the offence evolve that way because the coaches didn’t have faith in Lemon’s ability to do anything else?
Or, did Cleo Lemon just flat out make wrong decisions?
At the beginning of the season, coach Barker revealed that the Argos’ offence would be simplified a little to help Lemon’s development. As he developed, more could be added.
By the looks of what the offence has become, it’s apparent that Lemon was not shifting gears and taking a step to the “next level.” At least not in the eyes of the Argos brain trust. So, the play calling remained ordinary and might have even become more so as this season has worn on.
Now that Steven Jyles is at the helm, with his big arm and quick feet, there’s an opportunity for the Argonauts’ offence to look much, much different than it has.
“That was the key factor to (getting) Steven Jyles,” offered Barker after practice on Tuesday. “He’s got great mobility and I believe, in this league, that that’s important. The biggest thing that Steven brings is that when things break down, he can make things happen.”
That’s provided, of course, that Jyles is fully recovered (he and the team say he is) and ready to continue what appeared to be an upward trajectory in his development as a CFL starting quarterback.
With Cleo Lemon’s tenure with the Argos now up, Steven Jyles says he is up for the challenge of trying to get his team’s season turned around. Click here to read more.
It’s why the Argos dealt away two draft picks, including the fourth overall pick in last Spring’s draft. CFL teams don’t trade away top picks without a great amount of hand-wringing. Top notch Canadian prospects are gold in this league.
If Jyles can perform for the Argos the way he was starting to perform for Winnipeg last season, it would be an enormous boost.
Before being injured, Jyles threw for over 2,800 yards, 19 touchdowns and just 7 interceptions.
Maybe more importantly, for the Argos, he ran for 452 yards on 65 rushes.
That kind of quarterback scrambling ability will come in very handy for an offence that could continue to struggle to find a rhythm in its passing game, a detail that Jyles is well aware of.
“Instead of putting so much on the offensive line to block so a guy can get a pass off, I can move and bring a different dimension to the offence. That may help us be able to get the ball into the receivers’ hands and help the running backs out.”
Another important question: Does Jyles have a battery of receivers ready to step up and make clutch, stretch-pattern catches? He had them with Winnipeg.
Is Brandon Rideau a legitimate deep threat? Does Jermaine Copeland still have what it takes to get open on a regular basis? Can the rest of the receivers not only make the tough catches when needed, but also, consistently, the easy ones?
If Rideau’s the real deal, if Copeland’s rejuvenated, if the “dropsies” are erased, if Jyles is healthy and continues to produce….
Lots of “ifs” there, I know. That’s what you get when a 2-7 team is looking to reverse its fortunes. To do that, the “ifs” need to be translated into something more certain.
Should the passing game remain stagnant, there’s another possibility here, one that could provide the Argos offence with the tonic it needs.
Envision, if you will, a steady dose of Jyles rolling out, with Cory Boyd outside of him, ready for an option toss. What will it be, defenders? Door number one, or door number two? That could be a very effective play for the Argonauts.
Either their opponents give it to them, or they bring up another defender to negate it. If that’s the case, Jyles gets the chance to use that big arm to exploit a little more room downfield.
If, indeed, the Argo offence was bogged down by a quarterback unable to make big plays, if the playbook was simplified to match his ability, well, that albatross is apparently gone. It would seem that Barker believes the book is not the team’s biggest offensive problem.
“To say that it was designed to throw the ball short all the time, that isn’t necessarily the case,” he told reporters. “People think you call plays to throw a five yard, or a one yard flat route on second and nine, and that’s not the way it works.”
Now we’ll see what it looks like when Steven Jyles interprets it.