Naylor: Argos receive permission to speak to O'Shea

[ARGO57]

The impact of Kelly’s absence for the Argos was similar to that of Davis Alexander for the Alouettes. It's amazing how different Montreal's o-line, running game, and defence were when Alexander was in the lineup as opposed to when he wasn't. And, yes, Arbuckle did a solid job but Kelly is simply an elite QB who possesses a skillset that Arbuckle doesn't. There's no doubt in my mind that the Argos would have been no worse than 10-8 if Kelly had been able to play even half of the season.

I think there's a bit of a logical fallacy in your final sentence, Ravi. The Argos won five games without him, so in theory they could have won five more with him. But he likely wouldn't have dressed only for nine of the games they lost. If he'd recuperated enough to come back for the second half of the season, the Argos would have had to go 8-1 over those nine games to get to 10-8. That wasn't going to happen even if Doug Flutie in his prime played those nine games.

I will revise that to say they would have gone at least 10-8 if Kelly had been able to play two-thirds of the season.

Pre injury Kelly for sure would have helped big time, at this point you wonder how much this injury has and will affect him moving forward.