Josh Bourke signs big deal with Argos to protect Ricky Ray's blind side

This free agency period had less top Canadian offensive linemen available than usual, but it had one very good one in Montreal Alouettes' left tackle Josh Bourke, and he's now been snapped up. TSN's Dave Naylor broke the news Tuesday that Bourke is headed to the Toronto Argonauts. As Herb Zurkowsky of The Montreal Gazette added, Bourke will get substantial money there, more than he was offered to remain with the Alouettes:

Bourke is a two-time league all-star, a seven-time divisional all-star, a two-time selection as the East's top offensive lineman and the 2011 winner of the CFL's Most Outstanding Lineman award. He's a Canadian who's been able to consistently hold down the oft-American role of left tackle, and he's done very well at it. He's also from Windsor, Ontario, so this move gets him closer to home. Bourke is 33, so there are questions about how long he can continue to perform at an elite level, but some CFL offensive linemen have been able to do well into their late 30s. If Bourke can keep playing well, and if he can help keep veteran quarterback Ricky Ray upright and healthy, this may be money well spent for Toronto.

It's notable that we're only a couple of hours into free agency, and the Argonauts have already been bigger players than they were in all of 2015 free agency, where they didn't sign a single player. They did lose quarterback Trevor Harris to Ottawa, but if they were intent on going with Ray anyway, that may have been inevitable. Now they've landed Bourke, and they also made a key move ahead of free agency, signing Canadian middle linebacker Cory Greenwood to a new deal Monday. It looks like the new Argonauts' ownership group of Bell and Larry Tanenbaum is already investing in their player-acquisition budget more than former owner David Braley did, and that's a good sign for this team's future.