Toronto Argonauts’ quarterback Chad Kelly got some words of advice from his uncle and legendary Buffalo Bills’ passer Jim Kelly going into his first start of the 2023 season.
“He just told me to have fun and take what the defence gives me,” Kelly said postgame. “I’m still hearing it from every single uncle already, ‘Get the hell down.’ I guess I gotta learn but they gotta understand, I was trying to get the first down.”
Kelly threw for 213 yards but was surprisingly effective along the ground, rushing five times for 28 yards. His uncle wasn’t the only one who criticized him for taking too many hits as he drew the ire of his head coach late in the game when he kept the ball on a read-option play.
“The hit he took at the end there, I’m like, ‘What are you doing, man? I told you don’t take a hit’ and he takes one. Whatever. He’s gotta learn from that and get better,” said head coach Ryan Dinwiddie. “I called some things a little more conservative just to kind of see where we’re at but Chad’s a gamer, that’s why we chose to bring him in to be our franchise quarterback. We believe in Chad, we knew it from the get-go and we’re continuing to grow together.”
It was a strong performance overall for the Argos as they downed the rival Hamilton Tiger-Cats by a score of 32-14 at BMO Field. The evening started with a Grey Cup banner unveiling in front of a crowd of 15,967, 10,000 of whom were given Grey Cup replica rings as they entered the facility.
“To have those fans out there cheering loud again is fantastic. Next time I just need to them stand up and cheer even louder, so we appreciate them every time that they come out for the games,” said Kelly.
“It was amazing. The first one is always the hardest one and I thought it was a great team effort. Start to bottom, we took care of the football, line did a fantastic job, running backs ran hard, wide receivers got open and made plays. That’s what it’s all about and obviously the defence did their thing.”
The 29-year-old was the backup to McLeod Bethel-Thompson last season but is now the unquestioned face of the franchise. He indicated that he worked on his conditioning this off-season, though he still has a ways to go in order to be prepared for a long 18-game regular season.
“You’ve gotta be prepared to play a whole game — your body, your mentality, there’s a lot more that comes with being a starter. I had to make sure I trained really hard this off-season to be prepared,” said Kelly. “I feel good. I wish I was a little quicker in the second half but that’ll come with endurance and keep on working hard.”
The Argos (1-0) are set to visit the Edmonton Elks (0-2) on Sunday, June 25 where the home-side will be looking to end an 18-game home losing streak. Until then, Kelly outlined what he needs to do in order to keep improving under centre.
“Watch the film, get better, and keep on watching film on Edmonton. I know they play a lot of man, so we’ve just gotta be ready. They’ve got a great front-seven and we’ll see what happens.”
