Ryan Dinwiddie views dual Ottawa Redblacks role as lighter workload than coaching Toronto Argos

Ryan Dinwiddie is getting a promotion and a fresh new dual title, but don’t expect his workload to increase dramatically as a result.

In an exclusive interview with Justin Dunk of 3DownNation, the new head coach and general manager of the Ottawa Redblacks revealed that he believes he’ll have less to do in his new position than he did as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts.

“Obviously, in Toronto, there was a lot more I had to do outside of just being a head coach, schedules and all those things, and there’s a lot that’s already set in place here,” Dinwiddie said. “It’s going to be an easy transition. It’s probably going to take a little bit off my plate, to be honest with you, to a point.”

The Argonauts have run a lean front office for the past two seasons, with Michael ‘Pinball’ Clemons as the general manager and John Murphy as his senior advisor. Director of football operations Melissa Frith is the only other employee listed in that department and also performs president’s office administration for MLSE, while assistants Marcus Grandison and Jason Shivers have performed scouting duties on top of their regular coaching jobs.

As such, Dinwiddie says he has already been performing many of the duties of a general manager in Toronto, just without the title. While he didn’t manage the salary cap or perform contract negotiations, he took a hands-on role with the CFL Draft and helped to evaluate every player that joined the roster.

The two-time Grey Cup champion had expressed interest in becoming a GM and making those parts of his role official. However, those discussions went nowhere in Toronto.

“There’s been some chats. I’ve sat down with Pinball. He knew my end goal was always to be a head coach and general manager. We’ve had discussions there,” Dinwiddie said. “I think Michael wanted to stay in that role for a while, and they felt good with where they were. They obviously were comfortable with me being the head coach, and we had a great working relationship. At this stage, it was just time for me to take a new challenge and work with some folks that I felt really good about building a future with.”

Dinwiddie’s public desire to become a general manager may have fallen on deaf ears with the Argonauts, but others were listening. It was for that exact reason that Shawn Burke put his name at the very top of the Ottawa Redblacks’ head coaching wishlist, enticing him to the nation’s capital by sacrificing his own GM position.

The Redblacks had seven full-time football operations employees last season, including Burke in the top job. The native of Guelph, Ont., will now serve as vice-president of football operations, providing Dinwiddie with all the support he needs to be successful.

“Ryan definitely has final say over the roster,” Burke confirmed to 3DownNation. “Ryan is going to be doing general manager duties. He’s going to be involved in the personnel department, but at the same time, I have the background to be able to lead the scouting department, put the process together, lead operationally, handle training camp, and logistics. Obviously, both of us will play a heavy part in the recruitment of players, both via the neg list and free agency. But contract negotiations, all those sorts of day-to-day things, will still fall on myself.”

“I’m going to lean a lot on Shawn,” Dinwiddie acknowledged. “He’s been doing this for a long, long time. Very detailed. That was the one thing that impressed me was how detailed he was and how organized he was. I knew that was going to help me take on this new role and be able to rely on him for some of the things that I’ve had to do in years past in other places.”

Dinwiddie was already preparing for the 2026 season with the Argonauts when he was informed on Friday, October 31, that the Redblacks had requested permission to speak to him about a possible promotion. He insists the two sides had no prior discussion, but informed MLSE president Keith Pelley that he found the proposition intriguing.

Toronto was granted the weekend to contemplate their decision and officially granted the request permission on Monday, November 3, with their 44-year-old bench boss hopping on a flight to Ottawa that night for an introductory dinner with Burke. The pair hit it off, and formal interviews flew by on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the contract was signed and an announcement was made.

Dinwiddie confirmed reports that he did not offer Toronto a chance to counter before accepting the Redblacks’ offer, stating that he felt it would have been bad practice.

“I’m not the person that’s going to go walk into a building and interview there and take the numbers that they’ve offered me and the contract as far as length, and then use that against the club that just brought me in,” he said. “I just didn’t feel like that’s a very good approach. Not very good for business.”

If the Argonauts wanted to keep the CFL’s premier offensive guru, they missed their opportunity. He revealed that there were preliminary chats about a possible extension as he entered the final year of his contract in 2026, but that the organization had yet to follow through.

“I had some discussions with Keith Pelley weeks prior that there was going to be an extension coming in the near future. Never got to see one on paper, never was offered one,” Dinwiddie said. “I really don’t have an answer if that was going to be the case, that one was coming, but never got to that stage. Obviously got offered a three-year deal here, a chance to cut my teeth in the head coach/general manager role here, and be around some good people.”

The Redblacks, by contrast, never wavered. Burke admitted that Dinwiddie was the only person that the team interviewed for the position.

“Ryan was the only guy we requested. That could have changed through the process if our discussions didn’t go as great as they did, if he didn’t feel as strongly about coming here and the commitment he was making to our organization. But when you have someone of Ryan’s stature that you have the ability to add to your organization, and he was at the top of your list to begin with, it changes the process. I was fully happy to speed that up,” he said, stressing that he has no qualms about ceding roster control to land his man.

“It might be non-traditional in the sense of the Ottawa franchise, but this is a traditional structure in a lot of pro football in terms of the coach having very big, if not final, personnel calls. I have no problem with that.”

While he offered praise for the Redblacks’ organizational structure and facilities, Dinwiddie pushed back on the suggestion that the environment in Toronto was no longer conducive to the winning standards he had set for himself. Despite their failure to make the playoffs and defend their Grey Cup title in 2025, he had faith that they could return to contention.

This new challenge in Ottawa and the chance to build a winner in the role he’d always craved were just too good to resist.

“It just felt right, just like when I went to Toronto. There were a lot of folks that called me and said, ‘What are you doing? That’s where coaches go to die.’ And look how it’s turned out for my career,” Dinwiddie explained.

“I felt like I just go in there and make it work, and that’s what I’m feeling about here. It’s a better environment than it was when I first got to Toronto, that’s for sure. But we turned it around in Toronto, and there’s no reason why we can’t turn it around here.”

The Ottawa Redblacks finished fourth in the East Division standings in 2025 with a 4-14 record, missing the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six seasons. Dru Brown went 2-7 over nine starts at quarterback, throwing for 2,389 yards, 14 touchdowns, and 10 interceptions. Dustin Crum went 2-4 over six starts, throwing for 1,771 yards, six touchdowns, and two interceptions.

The Redblacks ranked sixth in net offence, fifth in net defence, and ninth with a turnover differential of minus-16. The club’s leading rusher was William Stanback with 698 yards, the leading receiver was Justin Hardy with 1,019 yards, and the leading tackler was Adarius Pickett with 84 tackles. Ottawa finished eighth in attendance with average crowds of 18,136, which was a 4.2 percent decrease from the previous year.