The Edmonton Eskimos delivered a couple of lickings to the Toronto Argonauts last season.

Invariably the losses got Kingston’s Cory Greenwood thinking that, with his Canadian Football League free agency pending, playing for the Green and Gold would be a good fit for him.

While the 31-year-old Greenwood said he had several offers from interested CFL teams, the attractive team to him became the Eskimos.

"I am thrilled to join the Eskimos," said Greenwood from Edmonton, where he and his wife, Ciera, have settled into their new surroundings.

"With free agency, I was kind of wanting to be patient and get a team that was a good fit for me. With Edmonton, they were at the top of my list."

Greenwood, a linebacker with the Double Blue for the last two and a half seasons, said the Argos losses to the Eskimos, including a season-ending 41-17 defeat in Edmonton, got him considering the Western Conference team even more.

"Those [losses to Edmonton] are kind of like, ‘damn, they got a pretty good group over there,’" Greenwood said.

"From the outside looking in, their GM Ed Hervey, he’s done a great job of building a contender. It really appealed to me."

Greenwood did his own checkoff with the Eskimos.

"Great quarterback in [Mike] Riley. They’ve got a running game with John White. They’ve got receivers. They’ve got a monster O-line," adding that Matt O’Donnell, the former Queen’s offensive lineman (six-foot-11, 350 pounds), "doesn’t even make other guys look that small."

Greenwood said he sifted through all of the offers from CFL clubs and did his own analysis.

"Who’s got the best pieces in place, because I’m at the point of my career I want to win," Greenwood said.

"I mean they won [the Grey Cup] in 2015. They have good management. I like their coaches [head coach Jason Maas and assistant head coach/defensive co-coordinator Mike Benevides]. They’ve got those pieces in place to make another run.

"I was just really happy they offered me something," said Greenwood, who inked a two-year contract.

The motivation for Greenwood is simple for the six-foot-two, 237-pound player who has played at the pro level for eight years.

"I’m at the point of my career where I just want to win a ring. That’s why everybody plays," he said.

"We can only play this game for so long. I’ve been blessed to play for 10 years and I’m going into my eighth [pro] season," Greenwood said.

"So when you are old, you kind of want to look back on it and if you’ve got a ring to wear around, that’s something to hang your hat on."

Greenwood played his high school football for the Regiopolis-Notre Dame Panthers and summer football with the Kingston Grenadiers.

He went on to play Canadian university football for the Concordia Stingers, winning the Presidents’ Trophy as the best defensive player in his senior year in 2009.

Greenwood went into the CFL draft in 2010 and the Argonauts took him with the third overall pick. A few days later, Greenwood signed with the Kansas City Chiefs of the National Football League.

Greenwood was with the Chiefs from 2010 to 2012. In 48 games he had 34 tackles. He signed with the Detroit Lions in May 2013. Greenwood was injured for all of his time with the Lions and was eventually released on Aug. 8, 2014.

"After my NFL career kind of fizzled out, I knew I’d come back up here to Toronto," said Greenwood, who signed with the Argos late in the 2014 season.

His wife, Ciera, who is an American, enrolled in a dental hygiene program while they were living in Toronto. He re-signed with the Argos because he didn’t want Ciera to be finishing school while he was in another CFL city.

"I was handcuffed into re-signing with Toronto. This is the first year I could become a free agent, which was kind of exciting," Greenwood said.

With the Argos he played linebacker — weakside linebacker — and over his 22 games as an Argo made 103 tackles. Greenwood led the Argos in tackles last season with 70. He also had seven special team tackles, three quarterback sacks and one fumble force.

Greenwood feels he can fit in nicely with the Eskimos defence.

"Last year I played ‘Will’ [weakside linebacker] or ‘Mike’ [middle linebacker]. I feel pretty versatile in the box. So I can play either one," Greenwood said. "We got J.C. [Sherritt] and I feel like he can player either side also. We’ll get in camp and see where we are at. If I’m at ‘Will’ and he’s ‘Mike’ or vice versa, it really doesn’t matter. Whatever is going to be better for the team."

Greenwood is impressed with the facilities the Eskimos have, calling Commonwealth Stadium "a one-stop shop."

"The stadium is beautiful and everything is in one place. You don’t need to go anywhere else to get your work done," Greenwood said.

"I’m just really happy to be here."

dgraham@postmedia.com