The Toronto Argonauts have re-signed star Canadian running back Andrew Harris, per sources.
“I see his future in double blue,” general manager Michael Pinball Clemons told 3DownNation at the league’s winter meetings in January.
It’s a one-year contract for the 2023 season. The 35-year-old was a pending free agent and could have hit the open market on Tuesday, February 14.
Harris dressed for eight regular-season games in 2022, rushing 114 times for 490 yards while adding 23 receptions for 180 yards. The Winnipeg native suffered a torn pectoral muscle in Week 10 that was supposed to be a season-ending injury, but he remained with the team and made a miraculous return for the Argos’ playoff run.
He added 19 carries for 97 yards and one touchdown through two postseason games while catching two passes for 44 yards, culminating in a Grey Cup upset of his former team, the Winnipeg Blue Bombers.
A product of the Vancouver Island Raiders in the Canadian Junior Football League, Harris began his CFL career in 2010 with the B.C. Lions. He broke out the following season and was named the Most Valuable Canadian in the Lions’ 2011 Grey Cup victory, posting four more successful seasons in Vancouver before jumping to the Bombers in free agency.
The homegrown ball carrier made an impact in the Manitoba capital, winning Most Outstanding Canadian in just his second season with Winnipeg. He led the CFL in rushing for three straight years from 2017 to 2019, helping the franchise break its 29-year championship drought by being named the Most Valuable Player and Most Valuable Canadian in the 107th Grey Cup. The Bombers repeated as champs in 2021 but moved on from Harris in the offseason, allowing him to sign in Toronto.
Though his production took a step back with the Argos, Harris played a critical leadership role for the team by helping bridge the divide between players and coaches. He also crossed several historic milestones last year, becoming the first Canadian to ever rush for over 10,000 career yards while moving into fourth on the CFL’s all-time yards from scrimmage list.
Harris was open about the possibility of stepping away from the game ahead of the 109th Grey Cup, contemplating “riding off into the sunset.” That storybook ending became a possibility after he won his third consecutive championship, but the future Canadian Football Hall of Famer has decided to run it back in The Six.
The five-foot-10, 216-pound Canuck has five 1,000-yard seasons while carrying the ball 1,903 times for 10,151 yards, averaging 5.3 yards per carry, with 51 touchdowns on the ground. He has caught 599 passes for 5,403 yards and 32 touchdowns in 184 career games.
