Wilder’s status with Argonauts remains a mystery

TORONTO One voice, one message, one of those moments in the Toronto Argonauts’ one-win season when head coach Corey Chamblin needed to take control.

Amid all kinds of talk and conjecture that James Wilder

Jr., a non-factor all season who has missed the team’s past four games, would be released, the running back was at practice Monday.

There was a meeting over the weekend to address the Wilder Jr. situation following his unexpected last-minute scratch from the game roster Friday night when Toronto played host to the Edmonton Eskimos.

By all accounts, the get together went well, but all is not well when a player such as Wilder Jr. has underachieved, when a backfield of Brandon Burks and Chris Rainey has been playing well.

For all anyone knows, Wilder Jr. could be released by as early as Tuesday, an off day for the Argos before they return to the practice field Wednesday.

For all anyone knows, Wilder Jr. will be uniform this Sunday afternoon when the Argos play a home game in Moncton, N.B., against a surging Montreal Alouettes team and newly minted starting quarterback Vernon Adams Jr., easily the best current starter in the Eastern Division.

Montreal sits at 4-4 and is coming off one of those season-changing comeback wins in Calgary.

This is the same Als team that fired its head coach on the eve of the regular season, the same team that parted ways with its general manager.

Chamblin is now trying to set the tone.

“We’re just trying to put a little protocol, a little order in the house,” said Chamblin.

“If the message is being sent about the team, it’s going to be said by myself first and that way if there are any questions or answers about it, it’s there. That’s the biggest thing.”

The buck stops with Chamblin, which begs the question why such an approach wasn’t taken much earlier.

He was head coach in Regina. Despite helping lead the Riders to a Grey Cup win in 2013, Chamblin was shown the door a few years later when Saskatchewan lost nine games in a row.

He helped the Argos win the Grey Cup in 2017 when Chamblin served as defensive co-ordinator.

When he returned this season, he was named head coach and defensive co-ordinator.

Chamblin, GM Jim Popp and Wilder Jr. huddled during the weekend.

“I thought it (meeting) was pretty productive,” added Chamblin. “There could have been some things where there could have been some miscommunication. At the end of the day James is still part of this football team. Where his role is I think is a day-to-day thing. We’re trying to find how that role is trying to be adjusted into the starting tailback or whatever it is, but we know it’s just not one of those overnight things.”