Jeremy O’Day, the vice president of football operations and general manager of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, is unsure if his team will exceed the salary cap in 2024.
“It’ll be close. The challenge with the salary cap is trying to predict how many players you’re gonna have on injured — not necessarily on long-term injured, but more short-term injured — so we’ll be close. Some of it was out of our control, whether we’re going to be over or right to it, but again, it’s a lot to do with how many guys are on the one-game injured,” said the 50-year-old native of Buffalo, N.Y. on Thursday.
“We had a lot of injuries that were outside of the six weeks, so what I mean by that is they were three or four-week injuries, and so when you have that many guys on one-game, it stresses your cap.”
Under the CFL’s rules, players on the one-game injured list count against the salary cap, while players on the six-game injured list don’t. As such, it can be tough for teams to deal with a glut of injuries that are significant but not particularly long-term.
Players who spent three or more weeks on the one-game injured list in Saskatchewan this year include running backs A.J. Ouellette and Frankie Hickson, receiver Shawn Bane Jr., offensive lineman Jacob Brammer, linebacker Adam Auclair, and defensive backs Deontai Williams and Amari Henderson.
Teams are also permitted to place healthy players on the one-game injured list, essentially to create extra roster spots. According to tracking by 3DownNation from the team’s injury reports, the Riders did this 36 times in 2024. It was particularly common for them to do so at the defensive back position, as Williams was a healthy scratch four times and Henderson was a healthy scratch six times.
The B.C. Lions have already indicated that they will exceed the salary cap this year following their midseason additions of Nathan Rourke and Mathieu Betts. In 2023, the Lions, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, and Hamilton Tiger-Cats violated the salary cap.
