ARGONAUTS.CA STAFF

With training camp nearing, argonauts.ca will be preparing fans for the new season by breaking down the competition at each position. Today we look at the quarterbacks who without a doubt will be the most talked about in training camp this year.
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TORONTO – Local reporters will once again have their storyline already built in for them when Toronto Argonauts training camp opens this week.  Another year, another quarterback battle – a plot that may seem redundant but rarely lacks entertainment for those who watch from afar.

For the five players who are entrenched in the battle themselves, they are about to enter a month-long audition, with each one trying to prove that he is the guy to lead this team into the season opener in Calgary on July 1.

Argos GM and head coach Jim Barker has stressed since the day the Argos season ended last year that 2011 training camp will be open competition. Although the scenario is the same, the dynamics of the competition itself differ however.

This year, the Argos group of pivots head into training camp with a combined 31 CFL starts under their belt after being null in that category last year.

One of the QB’s entering his second open competition in camp is Cleo Lemon who many can argue could have a leg up after spending last year as the club’s starting quarterback.  Lemon had a rollercoaster first season in the CFL and the learning curve was clearly present.  However, if quarterbacks are measured on winning games, he led the Boatmen to 10 of them including an Eastern Semi-Final victory in Hamilton.

Lemon’s performance may be based on how he has recovered from off-season pinky surgery which limited his ability to throw for the last few months.  He didn’t participate in the club’s mini-camp in Florida last month but did tell argonauts.ca that there should be no issue once camp opens.

“I will be ready for training camp.  By then, everything will be in order and I will be ready to rock & roll,” he said.

Lemon’s backup last year, Dalton Bell, will too be given a chance to take over the starting spot in his second year with the Boatmen.  After an impressive training camp last year, Bell was relegated to #2 on the Argos depth chart but showed poise in limited relief efforts and his one start in 2010.

The game-changer in this year’s battle is undoubtedly Steven Jyles who the Argos traded a first round pick for at the end of March.  Jyles, who spent four years as a backup with Edmonton and Saskatchewan, came into his own last year after taking over as Winnipeg’s starter following a season-ending injury to Buck Peirce.  He hit career highs in passing yards, completions and touchdowns but a shoulder injury suffered against the Argos late in the year and subsequent surgery to repair it is his biggest question mark heading into camp this year.

The other two pivots looking to make a name for themselves are Danny Brannagan and B.J. Hall.  Brannagan’s well-documented path to the CFL as a Canadian quarterback will not give him any advantage according to Barker who has maintained that the youngster is competing based on his ability and not his citizenship.  

Hall, who inked a contract last Friday spent the last two seasons in the Arena Football League and enters camp as the only quarterback who has yet to take a snap in a CFL game.

The 2006 season was the last time the Argonauts came into training camp with a defined starter behind centre (Damon Allen), so although it may be unconventional, Argos followers will once again have no shortage of headlines revolving around the leader of the offence for the next four weeks.