{"id":408380,"date":"2026-01-14T09:50:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-14T09:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/408380\/"},"modified":"2026-01-14T09:50:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T09:50:14","slug":"riders-believe-its-difficult-but-possible-to-fit-kian-schaffer-baker-samuel-emilus-within-2026-cfl-salary-cap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/408380\/","title":{"rendered":"Riders believe it’s difficult but possible to fit Kian Schaffer-Baker, Samuel Emilus within 2026 CFL salary cap"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

After the Saskatchewan Roughriders made Samuel Emilus the highest-paid Canadian receiver in the CFL, many wondered if there would be enough room within the 2026 salary cap to re-sign fan favourite Kian Schaffer-Baker.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s still\u00a0to be determined, I\u2019d say that becomes difficult, but\u00a0we\u2019ll continue to work through those guys. I don\u2019t know if Sam\u2019s contract is going to directly affect just one player, if you\u2019re asking, I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s\u00a0the way it works,\u201d general manager Jeremy O\u2019Day told 3DownNation from the winter meetings in Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to decide where you allocate your dollars and your cap, whether you utilize those at the same position, or whether you have to use them in other places. Possible, but still\u00a0to be determined. It\u2019s possible, but\u00a0we\u2019re still going through it. There\u2019s still a number of weeks before free agency, so we\u2019ll\u00a0have to see how it plays out. Can you fit them both? I would say yes. We\u2019ll have to see how that works out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schaffer-Baker was the 10th-highest paid receiver in the CFL last season<\/a>. He played in five regular-season games, recording 15 receptions for 177 yards. The six-foot-four, 195-pound pass catcher missed 13 games due to a foot injury sustained in Week 1. In the West Final, the University of Guelph product registered three catches for 56 yards with one touchdown and added three grabs for 27 yards in the 112th Grey Cup win.<\/p>\n

Per three-down league sources, Emilus\u00a0signed a two-year contract extension worth $285,000 in hard money for 2026<\/a>. He\u2019s set to earn $290,000 in hard money in 2027, which includes a $100,000 base salary guarantee. That\u2019s over $100,000 more than what the 28-year-old made last season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re giving out contracts to that magnitude, it has to be\u00a0a very special player and\u00a0that\u2019s what Sam is. A\u00a0lot of times you see highlights of\u00a0Sam making big plays or scoring touchdowns, but you don\u2019t see a lot of the grittiness that he brings to the table. A guy that blocks for his teammates, the guy that will do anything the coaches ask, whatever it takes to win,\u201d O\u2019Day said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s what Sam will do for the team, quiet in nature, but big in his play. Great\u00a0in the locker room. Obviously, he\u00a0was a special player down the stretch, does\u00a0all the little things right. We feel like he\u2019ll continue to grow and have a great career. Super excited\u00a0when we go through the draft process,\u00a0put up characteristics of players and physical traits,\u00a0Sam meets them all and\u00a0has proven that\u00a0he can play at a high level.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through 57 career CFL regular-season games with the Roughriders, Emilus has registered 204 receptions for 2,914 yards, including 999 yards after the catch, and 13 touchdowns with a 14.3 per catch average. He\u2019s played in four playoff games, recording 32 catches for 372 yards with one touchdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe show clips\u00a0after games of\u00a0positives, and I\u00a0never\u00a0on purpose\u00a0show\u00a0Sam scoring touchdowns and making huge catches, it\u2019s strictly what he does for his teammates when he does not have the ball. He understands\u00a0the ethos of the selflessness of what we are and who we want to be,\u201d head coach Corey Mace said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn top of that, he\u2019s damn good at catching the ball,\u00a0YAC-ing\u00a0it up and scoring points for us. Personal opinion,\u00a0I don\u2019t care the passport, he\u2019s one of the top receivers in the league, one of top players in the league.\u00a0Outstanding\u00a0human being. Just about business. Man, happy, happy, happy, happy Sam plays\u00a0for us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo: Reuben Polansky\/3DownNation. All rights reserved. After the Saskatchewan Roughriders made Samuel Emilus the highest-paid Canadian receiver in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":408381,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,49,48,521,522,520,172058,172059,45083,55574,112017,24373,4400,82],"class_list":["post-408380","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-kian-schaffer-baker","tag-ksb","tag-riders","tag-roughriders","tag-samuel-emilus","tag-saskatchewan","tag-saskatchewan-roughriders","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408380","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=408380"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/408380\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/408381"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=408380"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=408380"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=408380"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}