Ryan Dinwiddie will get a promotion and a new dual title, but don't expect his workload to increase dramatically as a result.
In an exclusive interview with Justin Dank 3DownNation, new head coach and general manager of the Ottawa Redblacks said he believes he will have to do less in his new position than he did as head coach of the Toronto Argonauts.
“Obviously I had a lot more to do in Toronto outside of just being the head coach and scheduling and everything else, and a lot of it was already set up here,” Dinwiddie said. “It will be an easy transition. To be honest, it will probably take a little bit of my energy, up to a point.”
For the past two seasons, the Argonauts have operated a small front office, with Michael “Pinball” Clemons as general manager and John Murphy as his senior advisor. Director of Soccer Operations Melissa Frith is the only employee listed in that department and also serves as the administrative responsibilities of the MLSE President, while assistants Marcus Grandison and Jason Shivers have handled scouting duties in addition to their regular coaching work.
So, according to Dinwiddie, he was already fulfilling many of the responsibilities of a general manager in Toronto, just without that title. While he did not manage the salary cap or negotiate contracts, he had a hands-on role in the CFL draft and helped evaluate each player who joined the roster.
Two-time Gray Cup champion expressed interest in becoming general manager and make those parts of your role official. However, these discussions in Toronto came to nothing.
“There were a few conversations. I talked to Pinball. He knew my ultimate goal was always to be a head coach and general manager. We talked there,” Dinwiddie said. “I think Michael wanted to stay in the job for a while and they were comfortable where they were. They were obviously comfortable with me as head coach and we had a great working relationship. At this stage it was just time for me to take on a new challenge and work with some people that I was really excited about building a future with.”
Dinwiddie's public desire to become general manager may have fallen on deaf ears among the Argonauts, but others were listening. It's for this reason that Sean Burke put his name at the top of the Ottawa Redblacks head coach's wish list, luring him to the nation's capital at the sacrifice of his own general manager position.
The Redblacks had seven full-time football staffers last season, including Burke in a management position. The Guelph, Ontario native will now serve as Vice President of Football Operations, providing Dinwiddie with all the support he needs to succeed.
“Ryan definitely has the final say on the lineup,” Burke confirmed. 3DownNation. “Ryan will serve as interim general manager. He will be involved in the personnel department, but at the same time I have the experience to lead the scouting department, organize the process, manage the operational management, manage the training camp and logistics. Obviously, we will both play an important role in recruiting players, both through the blacklist and through free agency. But contract negotiations and all those day-to-day things will still fall on me.”
“I’m going to lean on Sean a lot,” Dinwiddie admitted. “He did it for a very, very long time. Very detailed. The one thing that impressed me was how detailed and organized he was. I knew it would help me take on this new role and be able to rely on him for some of the things I've had to do in past years at other places.”
Dinwiddie was already preparing for the 2026 season with the Argonauts when he was informed on Friday, Oct. 31, that the Redblacks had requested permission to talk to him about a possible promotion. He insists the two sides didn't discuss it in advance, but told MLSE President Keith Pelley he found the proposal intriguing.
Toronto were given the weekend to consider their decision and formally granted permission to the request on Monday, November 3, when their 44-year-old bench flew to Ottawa that evening for a familiarization dinner with Burke. The pair hit it off and formal interviews took place on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the contract was signed and the announcement was made.
Dinwiddie confirmed reports that he didn't offer Toronto a chance to strike back before accepting the Redblacks' offer, stating that he thought it would be bad practice.
“I'm not the kind of person who's going to go into a building and do an interview and accept the numbers and contract length they've offered me and then use that against the club that just brought me in,” he said. “I just didn't think it was a good approach. Not good for business.”
If the Argonauts wanted to keep the CFL's top offensive guru, they missed their opportunity. He said there were preliminary conversations about a possible extension when he entered the final year of his contract in 2026, but the organization has yet to commit to it.
“I had been in talks with Keith Pelley a few weeks before that there was going to be an extension in the near future. Never saw it on paper, never been offered it,” Dinwiddie said. “I don't really have an answer as to whether that would be the case, it was meant to happen but never got to that stage. Obviously I was offered a three-year contract here, a chance to practice as a head coach/general manager here and be around good people.”
The Red-Blacks, on the other hand, never wavered. Burke admitted that Dinwiddie was the only person the team interviewed for the position.
“Ryan was the only guy we asked for. Things might have changed during the process if our discussions hadn't gone as well as they did, if he hadn't felt so strongly about coming here and the commitment he made to our organization. But when you have someone of Ryan's stature that you can add to your organization and he's been at the top of your list from the beginning, it changes the process. I was completely happy to expedite this process,” he said, emphasizing that he he has no doubts about the concession. line-up control to find your man.
“It may not be traditional in terms of the Ottawa franchise, but it's a traditional structure in a lot of professional soccer in terms of a coach who has very important, if not final, personnel calls. I don't have a problem with that.”
While he praised the Redblacks' organizational structure and capabilities, Dinwiddie rejected the suggestion that the Toronto environment was no longer conducive to the winning standards he had set for himself. Even though they failed to make the playoffs and defend the Gray Cup title in 2025, he believed they could return to contention.
This new challenge in Ottawa and the chance to be a winner in the role he had always craved was too good to resist.
“It felt right, just like when I went to Toronto. There were a lot of people calling me and saying, 'What are you doing?' That’s where coaches die.’ And look how that turned out for my career,” Dinwiddie explained.
“I felt like I just went there and made it work, and that's the same way I feel here. It's better here than when I first came 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.”
In 2025, the Ottawa Redblacks finished fourth in the East Division standings with a 4–14 record, missing the playoffs for the fifth time in the last six seasons. Drew Brown went 2-7 in nine starts at quarterback, throwing for 2,389 yards, 14 touchdowns and 10 interceptions. Dustin Crum went 2-4 in six starts, throwing for 1,771 yards, six touchdowns and two interceptions.
The Redblacks ranked sixth in net offense, fifth in net defense and ninth with a minus-16 turnover margin. 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 ranked eighth in attendance with an average attendance of 18,136, down 4.2 per cent from the previous year.
