Riders’ O’Day believes positive steps taken in 2024

The Saskatchewan Roughriders will soon make decisions on how the team will look in 2025.

That also includes what the CFL club will do at the quarterback position and current starter Trevor Harris.

Harris will be 39 next May and has had back-to-back seasons with a knee injury that has kept him out for multiple games.

“It’s early so we have just started the evaluation process,”said Riders general manager Jeremy O’Day. “We haven’t made a decision on any of the players yet as far as who is coming back and who we want back.

“I will say that Trevor is everything you see on a regular basis – when he speaks, when he is in the huddle, when he is in the locker room, when he is home with his family he is a true leader. There’s not enough weight we could put on what he does for the organization.”

Harris had 3,264 yards, 20 touchdowns and just nine interceptions in 12 games played. He was named a West Division All-CFL player for his year.

“Coming back and playing at that level after coming back from an injury is very impressive,” O’Day said. “We love Trevor and those are discussions we will have moving forward but nothing to report right now.”

One of the biggest names available for the quarterback spot is B.C. Lions pivot Vernon Adams Jr., who’s team is actively trying to trade away.

“We’re not going to talk about players who are on other teams under contract. If you want to know if I have talked to B.C., I have not,” O’Day said. “We will wait and see what happens there if they will reach out or not.”

O’Day also admitted they will, “be close” when it comes to if they were under the CFL salary cap or not after this season.

O’Day and the organization believe that positive steps were taken in 2024 for the club. After missing the playoff for two seasons, the Riders finished 9-8-1 and hosted the West Semifinal. The team’s season came to an end in the West Final in Winnipeg against the Blue Bombers.

“There’s one goal when you go into every season and that’s to win a championship and when you don’t reach that goal, it’s disappointing,” O’Day said.

“I thought we took a lot of positive steps as a football team for sure. Some of the plans that we had going into (the season) and some of the things that we wanted to accomplish and improve on going into the season, I thought we were successful in doing that.”

The team came into a season with a first-time head coach in Corey Mace and a whole new staff.

“I was surprised that we started so fast. When you have a new staff, new schemes and new coaches, it’s hard in a short training camp to get to a point where you’re going to go out and win football games early. That was a pleasant surprise,” O’Day said.

“It’s a credit to the coaches and the work they put into the offseason and training camp and the players for their buy-in.”

And O’Day believes 2025 could have even more success.

“We’re going to use (2024) as a building block. I truly feel like this is an ascending team. We have young players that are becoming really good players and I feel like we have done a decent job with putting ourselves in position going into the offseason. I feel like there is some momentum there and our players are excited about 2025.”