{"id":349093,"date":"2025-12-16T14:48:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:48:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349093\/"},"modified":"2025-12-16T14:48:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T14:48:11","slug":"six-figure-tre-ford-roster-bonus-deadline-looms-for-edmonton-elks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/349093\/","title":{"rendered":"Six-figure Tre Ford roster bonus deadline looms for Edmonton Elks"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Timothy Atticus\/CFL.<\/p>\n

The Edmonton Elks have a decision to make regarding Canadian quarterback Tre Ford.<\/p>\n

General manager Ed Hervey touted Ford as the Green and Gold\u2019s starting QB entering the 2025 season and gave him a contract to match<\/a>. However, the 27-year-old was benched following a 1-4 start as Cody Fajardo took over at the game\u2019s most important position. The Niagara Falls, Ont. native did not take another snap after Week 6.<\/p>\n

Fajardo produced a 6-7 win-loss record to end the campaign, impressing head coach Mark Kilam and Hervey enough to extend his contract for the 2026 season<\/a>. This has left Edmonton\u2019s football operations department with a verdict to reach on Ford, who has a $110,000 active roster bonus due on February 1. The Elks have three options: trade him, release him, or restructure his contract.<\/p>\n

Hervey can work the phones to find out if there\u2019s value to be had for the ultra-athletic QB<\/a> around the three-down league. He could elect to cut Ford if no valid offers are presented. If Edmonton decides he\u2019s the best backup option behind Fajardo, reworking his compensation would make the most sense.<\/p>\n

Including his $110,000 active roster bonus, Ford is currently scheduled to earn $327,000 in hard money for the 2026 season. There are an additional $70,000 in playtime incentives, plus $6,000 in all-star and award bonuses, and $14,500 in statistical markers available, putting his maximum possible earnings at $417,500.<\/p>\n

Based on Fajardo\u2019s new contract, it\u2019s likely impossible for Edmonton to keep Ford around at that figure given the CFL\u2019s salary cap constraints.<\/p>\n

Every team currently has a starting QB in place for the 2026 season. That means wherever Ford plays, he\u2019ll likely have to accept a pay cut and go below $200,000 in hard money, similar to Fajardo entering this past season. The 2023 Grey Cup MVP accepted over a $200,000 decrease in his salary<\/a> after Edmonton acquired him via trade from Montreal.<\/p>\n

McLeod Bethel-Thompson was the highest-paid backup in the league<\/a> in hard money compensation at $185,000 in 2025, while Fajardo was behind him at $180,000. That\u2019s the ballpark Ford would realistically be looking at on the high end for his 2026 earnings, plus playtime, statistical, all-star, and award incentives. It\u2019s worth noting Fajardo earned an extra $46,000 from those bonuses last season.<\/p>\n

After being selected in the first round, eighth overall during the 2022 CFL Draft, Ford\u2019s completed 67 percent of his passes for 4,651 yards with 29 touchdowns versus 19 interceptions in his 60 CFL games. He\u2019s rushed 124 times for 152 yards, 9.1 per carry, and scored four majors on the ground. The six-foot, 190-pound QB has a 10-13 win-loss record in 23 career CFL starts.<\/p>\n

The 2021 Hec Crighton Trophy winner has tools to be successful as a professional quarterback, how much so remains largely up to him.<\/p>\n

The Elks finished fifth in the West Division standings in 2025 with a 7-11 record, missing the playoffs for the fifth straight season. Fajardo started the team\u2019s final 13 regular-season games, throwing for 3,408 yards, 14 touchdowns, and seven interceptions. Ford started the first five, going 1-4, and threw for 984 yards, five touchdowns, and three interceptions.<\/p>\n

Edmonton ranked ninth in net offence, ninth in net defence, and fifth with a plus-four turnover differential. The team\u2019s leading rusher was Justin Rankin with 1,013 yards, leading receiver was Kaion Julien-Grant with 820 yards, and leading tackler was Joel Dublanko with 80 tackles. Edmonton finished seventh in attendance with average crowds of 19,050, which was a 7.1 percent decrease from the previous year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Timothy Atticus\/CFL. The Edmonton Elks have a decision to make regarding Canadian quarterback Tre Ford. General…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240389,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[49,48,521,522,520,82],"class_list":["post-349093","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\/349093","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=349093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240389"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}