Redblacks, Roughriders kick off 2025 CFL season on TSN
Published
The 2025 Canadian football League’s regular season kicks off on Thursday night as Trevor Harris and the Saskatchewan Roughriders play host to Dru Brown and the Ottawa Redblacks.
Harris led the Roughriders back to the playoffs for the first time since 2021 last season, posting a 9-8-1 record as the second seed in the West Division.
The 39-year-old pivot enjoyed a resurgent 2024 campaign, recording 3,264 yards and 20 touchdowns in just 12 games played en route to being named a West Division All-Star, the second selection of his career.
Ahead of his 13th season in the league, Harris says he still feels the excitement ahead of the new year.
“It’s like [being] a kid at Christmas,” the veteran passer said ahead of Week 1. “Everybody kind of longs for that feeling of waking up on Christmas morning, not knowing what Santa Claus brought you. That’s what football season is.
“It still gives me butterflies in my stomach coming out here to practice every single day…this place is going to be rocking.”
The 24th ranked player on TSN’s annual Top 50 CFL Players List heading into 2025, Harris will look to build off of a season that saw the Riders post the third-highest mark in the league for passing yards per game (266.4).
Top receiving threat Samuel Emilus eclipsed the 1,000-yard mark for the second consecutive year, also recording five touchdowns and a career-high 87 receptions.
He is set to play a leading role on the offensive side of the ball once again for the Riders, while A.J. Oullette will look to rebound from a down 2024 season that saw him play in just eight games while dealing with injury.
Oullette was coming off of back-to-back East Division All-Star nods with the Toronto Argonauts, but managed only 558 yards on 130 carries in his first season with the Green and White.
The Riders’ rushing attacking posted a CFL-worst 4.7 yards per carry and just a 89.6 rush yards per game in 2024, an area they will look to improve in with Ouellette back healthy to begin the year.
The Redblacks finally made their return to the postseason last year, ending a drought going back to 2019 off the back of some stellar play from their first year starter Brown.
The 28-year-old pivot started 15 games for Ottawa last season, posting career-high marks with 312 completions, 3,959 passing yards, and 18 touchdowns.
Brown also set a new playoff record with 46 completions in Ottawa’s Eastern Semi-Final loss to the Argonauts, passing for 476 yards and three majors.
"There’s just comfort now," Redblacks general manager Shawn Burke said of his quarterback. "Everything’s not new anymore. He knows the playbook, he knows the guys around him. You saw the progression last year. His leadership is steady.”
A native of Palo Alto, Calif., Brown showed immediate rapport with top receiving threat Justin Hardy, who led all pass-catchers in the East Division with a career-high 1,343 receiving yards in 2024.
Hardy, Kalil Pimbleton, and Bralon Addison formed one of the best wide receiver groups in the league last season, helping the Redblacks post the second-highest passing yardage mark in the CFL.
The trio is now joined by 1000-yard receiver Eugene Lewis, who inked a two-year deal with the team in free agency, and 2025 sixth-overall pick Keelan White, a Canadian pass-catcher who spent six years playing at the University of Montana.
In addition to adding Lewis, the Redblacks also added running back William Stanback in free agency.
Stanback recorded 1,175 rushing yards and three touchdowns on 231 carries in his lone season with the BC Lions last year.
The two-time CFL All-Star was one of just three players in the league to record a 1,000-yard rushing season, with only reigning Most Outstanding Player Brady Oliveira of the Winnipeg Blue Bombers gaining more on the ground.
Thursday’s contest will being a four-game slate for the CFL in Week 1, with the Argonauts taking on the Montreal Alouettes on Friday leading into a doubleheader on Saturday night.