{"id":551903,"date":"2026-03-21T20:59:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-21T20:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/551903\/"},"modified":"2026-03-21T20:59:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-21T20:59:08","slug":"trevor-harris-believes-canadian-receivers-dhel-duncan-busby-ajou-ajou-could-take-off-for-riders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/551903\/","title":{"rendered":"Trevor Harris believes Canadian receivers Dhel Duncan-Busby, Ajou Ajou could ‘take off’ for Riders"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders\/Electric Umbrella\/Liam Richards<\/p>\n

The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost several key pieces to their receiving corps this offseason<\/a>, but quarterback Trevor Harris has confidence that a pair of young Canadians are ready to fill the void.<\/p>\n

\u201cDhel Duncan-Busby is coming back. He\u2019s a tremendous player,\u201d Harris said in an interview with 620 CKRM\u2019s The SportsCage<\/a>. \u201c(Ajou) Ajou\u2019s coming back. We\u2019ve got guys coming back that are legitimately great players, and we\u2019re going to have flexibility around the board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duncan-Busby was selected 24th overall in the third round of the 2024 CFL Draft. 35 picks later, the Riders selected Ajou in the seventh round. Through two seasons, both players have become reliable contributors, though neither has established themselves as an ironclad starter.<\/p>\n

Due to his gregarious personality, Ajou has become a fan favourite in Saskatchewan. After catching 20 passes for 307 yards and two touchdowns as a rookie, the former Clemson target landed a contract with the NFL\u2019s Indianapolis Colts in 2025. The native of Brooks, Alta., was eventually released and returned to the Riders for the final eight games of the season<\/a>, making 22 receptions for 212 yards.<\/p>\n

Duncan-Busby drew far less attention as a rookie, catching 16 passes for 188 yards. However, he grew into an important depth contributor last season, hauling in 29 receptions for 355 yards. According to Harris, those numbers are just a preview of what the former Bemidji State standout could be capable of.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Dhel is a great player. I\u2019ve been a big believer in Dhel from day one,\u201d the veteran QB raved. \u201cUnfortunately, his rookie year, he fractured his hand in camp and missed some time, and so he kind of got a little behind the eight ball that year. And then last year, we just ran into some issues, personnel-wise and ratio-wise and whatnot. But I\u2019ll tell you what, I\u2019m a big believer in Dhel Duncan-Busby.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s going to have a great career, a great long career, and I think that he\u2019s learned more than anything over his first two years how to be a pro. I think this could be a year where you really see him take off. Ajou, you could really see him take off.\u201d<\/p>\n

There will be opportunities in the Riders receiving corps in light of several notable departures. West Division All-CFL selection Dohnte Meyers signed in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals<\/a>, while valuable depth pieces in Tommy Nield<\/a> and Joe Robustelli<\/a> left for Winnipeg and Edmonton, respectively. Jack-of-all-trades Canadian backup Mitch Picton remains unsigned and is reportedly leaning towards retirement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Harris does not appear concerned by that turnover, thanks to the quality of talent that the team has returning.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur main four receivers last year were KeeSean (Johnson), Dohnte, Sam (Emilus) and (Kian Schaffer-Baker), and we never had more than two of them healthy at the same time. We\u2019ve got three of them back,\u201d he said. \u201cIf they stay healthy, we\u2019re doing pretty well. We\u2019ve got guys competing for those other jobs, and our organization does a tremendous job bringing in guys.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that with the guys that we have coming back, and then we have guys coming in that we\u2019re really excited about that are freak athletes that have played a lot of ball in the NFL, it\u2019s going to be quite a competition there in the receiver room.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2025, Saskatchewan finished first in the West Division standings with a 12-6 record. The team went on to defeat the Montreal Alouettes in the 112th Grey Cup in Winnipeg, marking the club\u2019s first championship in 12 years.<\/p>\n

The Roughriders hold the ninth overall pick in the 2026 CFL Draft, which is scheduled for Tuesday, April 28 at 7:00 p.m. EDT. All CFL training camps are scheduled to open on May 10. Saskatchewan will play its first preseason game against the Calgary Stampeders on Monday, May 18 and its first regular-season game against the B.C. Lions on Saturday, June 13.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Saskatchewan Roughriders\/Electric Umbrella\/Liam Richards The Saskatchewan Roughriders lost several key pieces to their receiving corps this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":551904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,89648,49,48,7028,521,522,520,214293,527,2002,45083,55574,24373,82,4403,11135],"class_list":["post-551903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-ajou-ajou","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-dhel-duncan-busby","tag-football","tag-league","tag-riders","tag-roughriders","tag-saskatchewan","tag-sports","tag-sportscage","tag-trevor-harris"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551903","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=551903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/551904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}