The Green Zone: Harris believes 2025 could be ‘historic’ for Riders

Trevor Harris is excited for what 2025 will bring for the Saskatchewan Roughriders.

The 38-year-old quarterback signed an extension with the club last week to keep him in green and white for at least another season.

Despite an injury early in the season leaving him sidelined for six games, Harris had a banner year in green and white in 2024, setting a franchise record for passing accuracy (completing 72.4 per cent while throwing for 3,264 yards and 20 touchdowns). He was also named the West Division’s All-CFL quarterback.

Harris joined Jamie Nye and Locker on The Green Zone to discuss the upcoming season.

Q: Trevor, what does that mean to the quarterback to hear that (praise) from some teammates?

A: You’re going to have people that get dug in on opinions of you and you can make yourself crazy by trying to worry about what people’s opinion of you is. I think early on in my career, I did worry about that.

You want to make sure you’re projecting yourself in a great way for the team, the province, and organization. Ultimately, that’s what matters – what are your teammates’ opinion of you.

Towards the end of the year when all-stars come out and whatnot, I had a couple teammates just be like, ‘Trev, man, I thought you should have got (league) all-star,’ which I don’t think I should have. I played 11 games – I was available for 12, but started 11 games.

As long as you all would choose me, that’s really all that matters to me. If we choose each other in the locker room, I think that’s the kind of things that go a long way. … I think continuity is very underrated. We have a club, we have an opportunity to build on something that we started.

To go from 6-12 to turn it around to winning a home playoff game and getting within 60 minutes from the (Grey Cup), if you can keep a group together like that, I think that’s when the magic happens.

Q: What does it mean to you that this deal got done so quickly?

A: My exit meetings were pretty telling in terms of what (head coach) Corey Mace and (general manager Jeremy O’Day) had to say — what are you guys thinking for next year?

It was more or less, they kind of made it feel like it was a stupid question. They were like, ‘We want you back. We wanted you to be here.’

It was one of those things where I thought I was playing good football. To be honest with you, I think I’m playing my best football. I think I will play my best year of football next year. I think it’s one of those situations where you couldn’t be more elated that they felt the same way that I do.

We’ve got another opportunity to go out there next year and I honestly think it could be one of the most historic seasons we’ve had in Saskatchewan. I just can’t wait to go back for it.

Q: How have you been able to do it — refine your game, refined your off-season to be able to play at a high level into your late 30s?

A: I really do think that I’ll look back a year from now and say this is my best year. A lot of that will have to do with my teammates and being able to play for (offensive co-ordinator) Marc Mueller.

Marc Mueller is awesome — a tremendous O co-ordinator — and being able to have the continuity with the co-ordinator and a quarterback is something that we don’t have to kind of talk about what he likes, what I like, and what meshes well with our offence. We’ve got a decent amount of our pieces back together.

For myself, it’s more or less just what am I really good at? I think a lot of times you’ll hear athletes talk about, ‘I’m gonna attack my weaknesses this off-season,’ which is a valid thing to do. I think a lot of times people spend 70-80 per cent of their time attacking their weaknesses instead of saying what makes me a good pro quarterback and I’m gonna become elite at that.

I think that’s something I’ve kind of taken to heart — I want to find what I’m really good at and really hammer on that to become even better in those areas because that’s when you can really highlight that and be that for your teammates.

If I consider myself an accurate, on time, anticipatory quarterback, if I can get even better for that, I can be better for KeeSean (Johnson), for Sam (Emilus), for Kian (Schaffer-Baker) and for Mitch (Picton), for all those guys that you know are out there. For (Jerreth) Sterns, (Shawn) Bane, all the guys that don’t want to miss any names.

If I can be that for them and allow them to get the ball on time, accurately, and allow them to do what they do, that makes us a lot better. Make no mistake, I’ve written down three or four things from last year when I watched myself on film that if I can be better at this, this makes us way better. Those are weaknesses that I’m trying to really attack.

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Q: What are you looking for in a back-up quarterback in that room with you as you’re preparing for games all season long?

A: I think Jack Coan provided that this last year, in terms of we sat in the meeting room together until 6 p.m. on days one, two, and three every week and we just pound out film. We just watch film until we’re blue in the face — going through many different formations, many different scenarios in a game in terms of personnel, group, anything you can possibly think of, we were doing that.

That’s how you grow as a quarterback mentally and emotionally and understanding what it takes to prepare and bouncing ideas off of one and other.

Shea (Patterson) was in there at different times and he worked extremely hard, too. I don’t want to say that Shea wasn’t there, he worked insanely hard. He kind of worked more on his own, but Jack and I were in there really, really working hard. I think Jack kind of showed a lot of that this year but there’s some quarterbacks that are out there that I think would be awesome people to bring in and come in and compete for that job.

I know Shea, Jack and Michael Hiers, who they signed recently after the season, are all great candidates to come in there and compete for that thing. Make no mistake about it, I’m coming in to compete as well. I want to earn my spot as well. I don’t ever take for granted who’s going to be under centre for the first snap of the game because I want to go out there during training camp, every day of the off-season and really earn that spot.

Q: There’s a lot of talk that you wanted more than one year, but you say it doesn’t really matter anyways. How complicated is negotiation in the CFL with non-guaranteed contracts?

A: In terms of wanting one more year, it wasn’t really a discussion point of ‘I want a multi-year deal.’ I think more or less what I meant by that is that I’ve got more than one year left if we need to sort of situation.

I know a lot of people are concerned like, ‘Trevor’s gonna be 39.’ I’m telling you, just take a deep breath. I’m going to be just fine. I’m as healthy as ever. I feel great. I’ve got a long time left. You can consider me 29 if you want to.

It’s going to be a situation where we come in and we can hit the ground running this year. With one-year contracts, that’s all they are in the CFL unless you get a third year guaranteed contract, which most of those that have signed have not really worked out too well for teams unfortunately.

If you over-perform, you’re not getting a raise if they don’t want to. If you under-perform, you’re going to get cut. They’re all one-year deals. At the end of the day, if it makes sense to go for another year and another year after that and another year after that. I don’t think it’s a situation where it takes a long time to figure out in an off-season.

Q: How much more do you understand the business of football now than maybe a decade ago?

A: I think it’s more or less just having an awareness of my age and understanding the anxieties that it can cause on a fan. If they think I stink or they want me out of here, or if they’re wondering, ‘You know, he’s 39 and who knows what happens?’ I understand the gravity of those things at this point in my life.

If I’m not good enough this year then I shouldn’t be here. If I wasn’t good enough last year, then they shouldn’t re-sign me back and I don’t want to be back because this province and this team and organization deserves the best of the best. If I can’t provide that, I would not have signed on the dotted line. I can assure you that I still feel like I have my best football in front of me.

It’s a credit to Corey Mace, J.O. Mueller, Kyle Carson, Larry Dean, those guys and then the guys in the locker room that are preparing with me. It’s not a self-absorbed confidence, it’s confidence of the whole pie that we have. I really feel great about this.

I absolutely want to make sure that this organization has the right guy to hand the keys to when I step out of here because this team, province, and organization means a lot to me. To the core, I feel like I’m a Roughrider. I just really want this place to be in a good spot.

Once that guy is better than me, go ahead, man and go take it over and run with it, and I’ll be there to support you as as the next guy goes and goes off and gets running.

Blue Bomber Willie Jefferson (5) speaks with Roughriders quarterback Trevor Harris (7) after Western final action in Winnipeg on Nov. 9, 2024. (THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods)

Q: Your family is clearly behind you and what have you been doing with your career as a professional quarterback? Can you speak to just how important that support is for you?

A: It’s huge. I’ve got a wife and three kids, a fourth (kid) on the way, and so if they’re not good with it then  I’m not going to be worth anything. I love football as much as anybody, but my faith, my walk with Jesus Christ is first and foremost for me.

My wife and kids will always take precedent over football. If they’re not comfortable, it’s gonna be tough for me to be comfortable. My wife was like, ‘Honey, I loved watching you play this year and just seeing you run on the field and just hearing your temperament in your voice and your energy for playing,’ and she’s like you need to keep going.

I asked my oldest son, ‘Do you think we should play football again?’ He said, ‘Dad, why would you not? We have to go win the Grey Cup.’ And I was like, ‘You’re right, man, let’s go.’

Q: How do you beat the (Winnipeg Blue) Bombers?

A: That’s the off-season question that I’m going to be obsessive about. We will have the answer to that, I promise you.

Q: What does Trevor Harris want for Christmas?

A: There’s actually a couple performance things that I’m actually trying to get my wife to get me, but I would rather be Santa Claus in this situation and deliver a championship to the province of Saskatchewan.

Q: What’s your cheat meal?

A: I’m a kind of a doughnut guy. If I’m plugging a business, it’s The Everyday Kitchen. They are the best doughnuts in town, they are so good. I’m also a big ice cream person so doughnuts and ice cream are the cheat meals.

These questions and answers have been edited and condensed for clarity.