{"id":327579,"date":"2025-12-05T18:51:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/327579\/"},"modified":"2025-12-05T18:51:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-05T18:51:08","slug":"trevor-harris-had-no-desire-to-become-top-three-paid-cfl-qb-with-saskatchewan-roughriders-extension","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/327579\/","title":{"rendered":"Trevor Harris had no desire to become top-three paid CFL QB with Saskatchewan Roughriders extension"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo: Reuben Polansky\/3DownNation. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Trevor Harris\u2019 new contract with the Saskatchewan Roughriders will not put him on the podium as one of the three highest-paid quarterbacks in the CFL, but that is by design.<\/p>\n

\u201cI honestly have never, ever wanted to be in the top three paid guys in the league. That\u2019s not really ever been an aim or anything of that nature, and so I stayed out of that,\u201d Harris said on Friday. \u201cI\u2019m happy with where we\u2019re at, and I feel like it\u2019s fair compensation for both sides. I feel like JO (general manager Jeremy O\u2019Day) would probably say the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 39-year-old pivot signed a one-year contract extension with the Riders on Thursday<\/a>, putting to bed any doubts about whether he would retire<\/a> after winning Grey Cup MVP in Saskatchewan\u2019s 25-17 win over the Montreal Alouettes in Winnipeg last month<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harris earned $444,700 after playtime incentives for his role in the Riders\u2019 first-place regular season, plus another $23,000 in standard playoff bonuses for capturing the title. That placed him fifth among CFL quarterbacks in terms of earnings in 2025<\/a>, trailing B.C.\u2019s Nathan Rourke, Toronto\u2019s Chad Kelly, Winnipeg\u2019s Zach Collaros, and Calgary\u2019s Vernon Adams Jr.<\/p>\n

At the time of his last extension, the native of Waldo, Oh., described his deal as \u201cteam-friendly,\u201d<\/a> so long as you viewed him in the top tier of passers in the three-down league. While the details of this new deal have not yet been revealed, he painted it in a similar light.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s still the same thing.\u00a0Beauty\u2019s in the eye of the beholder, and where you see me,\u201d he said. \u201cMy aim is not to make as much money as I possibly can. It never has been, and that\u2019s not really what I\u2019m concerned about. I want this team to do right, and I\u2019ve been on record, I told Jeremy that if it ever comes down to a small amount of us getting a guy that\u2019s going to change our trajectory, I\u2019m always willing to discuss and help out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saskatchewan had 44 pending free agents<\/a> to negotiate with entering the offseason, of whom Harris was undeniably the most important. Even in his twilight years, the six-foot-three, 212-pound QB would have drawn interest on the open market and was 3DownNation\u2018s fifth-ranked potential free agent in the entire class<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, Harris didn\u2019t utilize that as leverage to secure a better deal from the Riders. He handled most of the negotiations with O\u2019Day himself and opted for a number that would give the team the ability to re-sign other pieces.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t really look into that too much,\u201d Harris said when asked about how much he shaved off his overall earning potential. \u201cI just thought about what would be fair in terms of what I feel like I\u2019ve accomplished in what we just did, and also making sure that we can get guys back. That\u2019s really where I\u2019m at right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was two conversations back and forth with JO, and we kind of just hammered out the deal together and got it done. It was a pretty simple one, in my opinion. It was like, \u2018This is where I\u2019m thinking.\u2019 \u2018This is where I\u2019m thinking.\u2019 And it kind of just settled where I feel like it should have anyway for us to get guys back, but also compensate things fairly. Money is not really anything that\u2019s ever driven me. I just want to make sure I\u2019m doing my best to take care of my family.\u201d<\/p>\n

Harris played arguably the best football of his 13-year CFL career in 2025, completing 73.5 percent of his passes for 4,549 yards, 24 touchdowns and 11 interceptions in 16 starts. He capped it with Saskatchewan\u2019s fifth-ever championship parade and the first for him as a starting quarterback.<\/p>\n

While the veteran signal-caller still believes he can get better, he remains aware of what stage of his career he is in. Unlike many team-friendly contracts, which trade short-term financial gains for more long-term stability, Harris\u2019 deal with the Riders is only for 2026. The idea of a multi-year contract was floated, but not seriously considered.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a brief discussion, but at this point in time, it\u2019s really going to be a year at a time. I don\u2019t think we\u2019ll have too much drama if, at the end of the year, there\u2019s mutual interest to come back. I think we\u2019ll kind of make it work,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m going to be 40 years old. Why sign the long-term deal and complicate things a little more? It\u2019s more or less just I feel like if I\u2019m going to play, I\u2019m going to be playing in the green and white, and if they want me to keep playing, we\u2019ll find a way to make it work.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was certainly the case this year, when a deal was struck less than three weeks after the Riders lifted the trophy. The hope is that by not breaking the bank, Harris can help the team hoist it again<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Reuben Polansky\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. Trevor Harris\u2019 new contract with the Saskatchewan Roughriders will not put him…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":327580,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-327579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=327579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/327579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=327579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=327579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=327579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}