Veteran quarterback Trevor Harris is keeping the Saskatchewan Roughriders long-term well-being in mind while he contemplates his football future.
“Does this organization have a chance if I’m here? If the answer is no, I don’t want to be here because I care about this organization way too darn much,” Harris said. “They deserve the top tier of everything and if I’m not that, I should walk away and I will.”
The Riders ended the 2024 season with a 38-22 loss in the West Final against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Harris completed 25-of-44 passes for 283 yards with one touchdown while adding one carry for 15 yards.
The 38-year-old pivot is scheduled to become a free agent in February and was emotional as the player cleaned out lockers and went their separate ways for the offseason, uncertain if he’ll return for a 14th CFL season.
“I promised myself before the season I wouldn’t think about anything past this year until after this season. After the catastrophic injury I had last year, I wanted to make sure I came back and I was a tier-one quarterback that was giving this organization a chance to compete for championships,” Harris said. “If I wasn’t able to do that, I knew for a fact it’d be time to be done. I think the process starts now.”
Harris said he’ll discuss his future with wife Kalie and three children prior to making any decisions, but knows that deciding whether to return is only his part of the equation. The Green and White have to weigh his age and injury history against the value for a potential contract extension.
“I haven’t sat down with Trevor to have that conversation yet. We’ve had multiple other ones about how much we appreciate each other but we’ll have that conversation. I think it is evident that he can still be a highly functioning quarterback in this league,” head coach Corey Mace said.
“When we talk about that position, it’s an extremely important conversation. Even coming into this year, we had long, long conversations about it. I don’t expect anything to be different. It’s hard to win in this league without someone who can get the job done at that position. We’ll take our time and do our due diligence the right way, as we would any year.”
Harris joined the Riders as a free agent entering the 2023 season but played only five games in his first campaign due to suffering a tibial plateau fracture. After undergoing surgery and extensive rehab, he returned as the team’s starter in 2024 but missed six games with a left knee MCL sprain.
The Waldo, Oh. native was exceptional when healthy, completing 260-of-359 passes (72.4 percent) for 3,264 yards, 20 touchdowns, and nine interceptions in 12 starts. He led the CFL in passer efficiency rating at 108.4 and was named the league’s top performer in both August and September while being named a West Division all-star.
“I feel like I’m playing some of the best ball I ever have and another year in this system would be awesome but again, I don’t know what’s gonna happen. There’s a lot of levels to it and it’s not that I’m hesitant in any way, it’s that I promised myself I’d wait until after the year. I’ve been licking my wounds for the last 12 hours and really starting to process these thoughts,” Harris said.
“My motivation is as high as ever, my love for my teammates is as high as ever. I still feel like my best football is right in front of me. I honestly do, I really believe that.”
While that may be, he has come to terms with the business side of the sport throughout his long career. With other starting calibre quarterbacks expected to hit the market this offseason, Harris would hold no grudges if the Riders elected to move on.
“I’m not 28, I’m a decade later than that. I don’t feel like it, I don’t feel like I’ve physically deteriorated. If it is done, it wouldn’t be because of my physical deterioration but that’s on them. They’ll make a sound decision and they’re really smart people,” he said.
“Whatever they decide is awesome, and I’m gonna be rooting for this club because of who those types of people are, the character of those men upstairs. I know what I think, but that’s neither here nor there. This organization is in a good place because of the people they have up top.”
In the event either side decides to part ways, the Riders would be tasked with replacing more than Harris’ statistical production. Having a seasoned signal caller at the helm proved to be invaluable for Mace as he learned the ropes in his new job and contributed to Saskatchewan’s impressive turnaround.
“It was really a heavy reason why I thought this job was going to be awesome was everything I had heard about the guy was exciting. Got here and I found out what I heard was incorrect — he’s much better. I would advise anybody who’s looking to become a head coach for the first time to have Trevor Harris as your quarterback,” Mace said.
“Outstanding from what he’s been able to bring from a playing standpoint, no doubt. Truthfully, what he’s been able to provide for myself as a first-time coach, the leadership he provides in the room, what he was able to do to even help the transition of [Marc] Mueller being a first-time play-caller was excellent. Extremely grateful for Trevor and everything he’s brought to this team.”
It wasn’t enough to put the Riders over the top this season and Harris admitted to losing sleep on Saturday night while trying to come to grips with the loss. After fending off thoughts about his future for the season, he found himself reminiscing with player personnel coordinator Larry Dean on Sunday morning about their time together as players and wondering whether those days could be behind him.
“The things you remember aren’t the big things, you remember the little things. The conversations in the locker room, the jokes, the nicknames, or even the chess matches that Larry Dean and I used to have in practices and games before that,” Harris recounted.
“Playing against the great players, those little things when you know that they’ve watched a ton of film and you’ve watched a ton of film and they do the opposite of what they showed on film because they knew that you know that. Those are the things that I’ll miss and I have the chills thinking about those things knowing that could be it.”
Despite falling short of the ultimate goal this year, Harris believes the Riders are poised to be a Grey Cup championship team in the near future. That would be a credit to his tenure as a quarterback in Riderville, even if he isn’t around.
“We’ve planted the seeds, we’ve watered it, it’s started to grow and now it’s time for this organization to really take off, really flourish into what it deserves to be, what this fan base deserves it to be,” he said. “Take solace in that and know that you’re appreciated as Rider Nation. We need them to come out, whether I’m here or not.”
