Taylor Shire
Regina Leader-Post
Trevor Harris didn’t have to think long and hard about where he wanted to play football in 2025.
And the Saskatchewan Roughriders didn’t waste time in deciding who their quarterback will be next season as the Green and White officially signed Harris to a one-year contract extension on Friday.
“Based on the exit meetings that I had and how I felt toward the end of the season, I think it was pretty much a no-brainer,” said Harris. “I feel like I’m playing some of the best football in my career.
“And I think some of the best football that I’m going to play is right in front of me.”
The 38-year-old Ohio native was slated to become a CFL free agent in February and previously expressed his desire to be back in Saskatchewan for a third season after the Riders cleaned out their lockers following a loss to the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in the West final.
Harris was glad the Roughriders — led by general manager Jeremy O’Day — felt the same way less than a month after their season ended.
“The big relief to me was this team didn’t have to think very long who they wanted to be their guy,” said Harris. “I don’t like to talk about myself personally very often, but that meant a lot to me personally, knowing that they knew that they didn’t need to fish around and see what else is out there.
“They knew that they wanted me to be their guy.”
Financials of the contract were not disclosed.
“I think it’s a team-friendly deal,” said Harris. “I think it’s a correct deal for both sides. I think it allows the team to build the proper team and but also it compensates myself as a starting quarterback and somebody that has played a long time in this league.
“I thought it was a fair deal.”
He was also fine with it being a one-year contract.
“I think if you read into everybody’s deal, they’re all one-year deals because if you underperform your contract, the team is going to cut you, and if you over perform, you aren’t going to get more money,” said Harris. “I want to make sure that this organization is in the best hands it possibly can at the quarterback position.
“And if I’m not that in a year, I shouldn’t be here, and I don’t want to be here because I want what’s best for this organization. They deserve the top of line quarterback play, and if I can’t provide that, then I won’t want to be here anyway.
“But I know I have prime years left.”
After initially signing a two-year deal with the Riders in free agency in 2023, Harris was limited to five games that season with a knee injury before restructuring his contract ahead of the 2024 season.
Last year, the 38-year-old was named West Division all-star despite missing six games with a separate knee injury. In 11 starts, Harris threw for 3,264 yards, 20 touchdowns and nine interceptions while setting a franchise record for accuracy in a single season after completing 72.4 per cent of his passes.
And while Harris will be 39 years old when training camp rolls around next season, he never considered retirement this off-season.
“I know people will talk about the age,” said Harris. “I would tell you guys to not worry about the age; I’m going to be fine.
“Age and those things will not be a determining factor. You won’t see a physical decline. Those are things that I’ve worked on for the last decade and a half to make sure that I could get to this point and not have a physical deterioration be why I have to be done playing football.
“The first goal that I wrote down this off-season just for anybody wondering, I’m playing all 18 games. And being under centre for all 18 games is a big thing that I want to be able to provide for a team.”
Looking forward, Harris — whose career completion rate (70.74) is second best all-time among CFL quarterbacks — is excited to build on what was established with head coach Corey Mace and offensive coordinator Marc Mueller, who were hired last off-season.
“This is my first time since 2018 going into an off-season where I have the same offensive coordinator (and) the same system,” said Harris, who has played for four other CFL teams since 2012. “And so that’s a tremendous advantage that I’m going to be able to hit the ground running.
“We can talk about 301-level ball stuff in an off-season, as opposed to trying to introduce me to what each formation means.
“There’s a different level to that and I think with that, we can have higher expectations for a regular season.”
In fact, memories of that 2018 season came up on Friday as Harris recalled being a member of the Ottawa Redblacks, who kept the core of their team intact from 2017 before going on to win the East Division in 2018.
“We had a lot of injuries that year in Ottawa and I just remember saying to the guys, ‘If we can just keep this squad together, keep the core group together, there’s going be magical things that happen the following year,” said Harris. “And we kept the core intact and we added a couple pieces here and there.
“It was more or less just fine tuning the team, as opposed to overhaul.”
While the Redblacks lost in the Grey Cup to the Calgary Stampeders that season, Harris believes continuity was a big reason why Ottawa reached the championship game that season.
He has a similar sentiment this off-season with Saskatchewan, who finished second in the West Division last year and made the playoffs last year for the first time in three seasons.
“This team has that feel to me,” said Harris, a two-time Grey Cup champion as a backup. “I think we were ahead of schedule in terms of maybe how long people thought we were going to take to build something special.
“I think the continuity, there’s more to that than what people realize.”
tshire@postmedia.com
