TORONTO — The Toronto Argonauts have signed National kicker Lirim Hajrullahu, the team announced on Monday. Toronto also announced the release of American kicker Boris Bede.
Hajrullahu, 33, is back in Toronto for a second stint with the Boatmen after last playing for the team from 2016-2017. The last time Hajrullahu donned the Double Blue, he was kicking the game-winning field goal in the 105th Grey Cup in snowy Ottawa.
The six-year CFL veteran spent 2020-2022 in the NFL with Los Angeles, Carolina, Washington, and Dallas, playing in four games and going four-for-five on field goal attempts, eight-for-eight on extra points with 17 kickoffs for 1,100 yards.
The native of Kosovo entered the CFL in 2014 with Winnipeg where he was nominated as the West Division Most Outstanding Special Teams Player and Winnipeg’s nominee for Most Outstanding Canadian and Most Outstanding Rookie after going 37-for-42 on field goal attempts (88.1%) and punting for nearly 5,000 yards (43.9 average).
The Western alum became an Argo in 2016, notching his first Division All-Star nomination that season and winning the Grey Cup in 2017. Hajrullahu joined Hamilton the following season where he kicked for two seasons, earning his second Division All-Star nod before making the jump to the NFL.
For his CFL career, the kicker is 239-for-287 on field goal attempts (83.3%), 135-for-144 (93.8%) on converts, and has punted 414 times for an average of 44 yards per punt in 72 career regular season games. He has kicked the second-most 50-yard field goals in a single CFL season (seven in 2018), sits seventh all-time in field goal percentage (83.3%), and has led his division four times in points scored (2014, 2017-2019).
Bede was set to become a free agent on February 13 and spent three seasons with Toronto (2021-23). Bede’s best season with Toronto was in 2023 when he hit 37 of 39 field goal attempts (94.9%). Prior to joining Toronto, the six-foot-four kicker was in Montreal from 2016 to 2019.
