Taylor Shire
Regina Leader-Post
A pair of fan favourites are slated to return to the lineup this week for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Both running back A.J. Ouellette and receiver Kian Schaffer-Baker were working with the first-team offence when the Green and White returned to practice on Monday after the bye week, signalling that they should be ready to go Friday (8:30 p.m.) when the Roughriders visit the B.C. Lions in Week 17 of the CFL season.
“Any time you miss one game, one play, it sucks,” Ouellette said Monday after practice. “It’s good to get back out here.”
“Greatest blessing in the world,” added Schaffer-Baker. “I don’t ever take these moments for granted. Every single time you step out on the field with your brothers and sisters, you leave it all out there and soak up every single moment. It’s like being a little kid.”
Ouellette and Schaffer-Baker also experienced quite the moment on the weekend as the pair of Roughriders, along Jasmine Runge and Josi Treleaven from the Roughrider cheer team, presented the Fans’ Choice Award to the James Barker Band at the Canadian Country Music Association Awards in Saskatoon.
“It was a blast,” said Ouellette. “I kind of felt out of place, to be honest.
“(When) I try to get amped up, I listen to country music, and most of the artists were there. And I was like, ‘Dang, this is surreal; this is awesome.’ I got to have my family there, and it was just a good night.
“I was kind of stressed because I had to get on stage and read a teleprompter,” he continued. “I’m good at head-butting people; not putting a mic in my hand and reading a teleprompter, but it was a good night.
“Me, Schaff and the cheer team executed well.”
However, one element of the night was missing for Schaffer-Baker.
“You know what would have made the highlight a whole better? If I saw Shania Twain there,” he said. “That’s what I was really hoping for. They told me Shania was going to be on stage with me, but I didn’t see her. They just had a cardboard cut-out. I brought it home with me.”
With the bye week and the red carpet behind them, Schaffer-Baker and Ouellette are returning to a Roughrider team in the midst of a playoff push with five games remaining in the season.
Saskatchewan enters Week 17 with an 8-5 record while the Lions are right behind the Green and White at 7-6.
And not only is second place on the line on Friday night, but so too is the season series after the teams split their first two meetings.
“We have a good schedule to wrap up the season, and they’re all important games,” said Ouellette. “We’ve got to play our best ball, and of course the best team playing the best ball at the end of the season going into the playoffs has the best chance of taking it all.”
Ouellette will be playing his first game since suffering a knee injury in Week 8 against Edmonton, with his knee bending in a way it shouldn’t bend. While he missed the last seven games, the news wasn’t as bad as it could have been.
“That was the first time I felt that feeling in my knee,” said Ouellette. “You don’t want to think the worst, but then when you get to your phone and you have old medical staff people saying, ‘Hey, praying for you, it did not look very good.’ You’re like, ‘Shoot!’
“But you go, you get the MRI, and a person reading it goes, ‘It’s actually not that bad.’ It’s like, ‘OK, good.’”
Now, the 31-year-old, who also missed two games earlier in the season with an ankle injury, will be sporting a brace on his knee for the first time in his career, which he was wearing Monday in practice.
“This is the first time with the knee brace, and to be honest, I didn’t notice it a whole lot today,” said Ouellette, who had 288 rushing yards in four games this year.
For Schaffer-Baker, after racking up 704 receiving yards in his first seven games the 28-year-old has missed the last six games with a knee injury of his own.
“It’s never a fun one to go through, but you’ve just always got to trust the process,” said Schaffer-Baker. “You never know what’s on the other side of things, but I know God’s always got a greater plan and a purpose with things, so I just kept trusting, kept believing, and got right back again.”
Injury report
After taking a big hit in Saskatchewan’s last game before the bye week against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers, receiver Shemar Bridges (head) was practising in limited fashion on Monday, while seeing some reps with the starting offence.
Fellow receiver Daniel Wiebe, who missed the Banjo Bowl with a head injury, was also limited on Monday while return specialist James Letcher Jr. didn’t appear to be limited after leaving the Banjo Bowl early with an undisclosed injury.
Running back Quali Conley, who has filled in for Ouellette for the past seven games, was limited on Monday with a wrist injury while receiver Dhel Duncan-Busby (illness) was absent.
Defensively, linebacker Seyi Oladipo Jr. (ankle) missed the workout while fellow linebacker Josh Woods (ankle) was back with the starting defence after missing the last two games.
Riders add to practice roster
As CFL practice rosters expand, the Roughriders have added six new players to their roster.
On Sunday, the Green and White signed American defensive back Millard Bradford III, American linebacker Ja’Kobe Clinton, Canadian linebacker Justin Herdman-Reed, American running back Deon Jackson, American quarterback Eddie Lee Marburger and American defensive lineman Malakai Williams.
Herdman-Reed rejoins the Roughriders after suiting up for the club from 2021-24. This season, he played two games for the Toronto Argonauts before being released.
Bradford is back on Saskatchewan’s practice roster after spending nearly a month with the team in July while Clinton attended camp with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers this season. Williams is a CFL rookie after spending time with the NFL’s New Orleans Saints after wrapping up his college career at Boise State.
Jackson comes to the CFL after two years in the United Football League, as he led the league with 449 rushing yards and seven touchdowns in 2026. Prior to that, he spent time with the NFL’s Indianapolis Colts (2021-23), playing 27 games for the club over three seasons.
Marburger joins the Roughriders after a college career at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (2025) and the University of Texas at San Antonio (2021-24),
