Harris is sure to re-sign with ottawa
At some point before the clock strikes noon on Tuesday, the Redblacks will re-sign quarterback Trevor Harris to a multiyear extension. Fear not that they will let him hit the freeagent market when it opens at 12:01 p.m.
It ain’t happening.
How can we be so sure? Because Nov. 27, two days after coming up short in a 27-16 Grey Cup loss to the Calgary Stampeders, Harris not only reminded us again how much he loves Ottawa, but also stated he would not be chasing the almighty buck when his contract officially expired.
“That’s not why I play football,” he said when asked if money would be the determining factor on his next deal. “I don’t plan to enter free agency and find who the highest bidder is. When I came here in 2016, I took less than what I was offered elsewhere. I’d like to finish my career here if I could.”
The confusing part is why Harris’ pen has not yet met the drawn-up offer in Ottawa. Not that it matters to him, but surely it was a raise on his $425,000 salary, right? Was there something else he needed?
And now about all this sudden talk that Harris is poised to become a free agent, potentially replacing Mike Reilly in Edmonton, how can that possibly be?
If the 32-year old Harris wasn’t such a committed, sincere, genuine individual, then, yeah, perhaps. The opportunity would no doubt be there.
Reilly is expected to start up the quarterback carousel Tuesday afternoon by ending a five-year term with the Eskimos and signing with the B.C. Lions, which would bring him back to where he started his career and closer to his off-season home in Seattle. The Eskimos have set aside a big bundle of cash for him and would then need another quarterback to take it. For sure, they’d love to snap up Bo Levi Mitchell from under the Stampeders’ nose, but he’s still chasing his NFL dream and Calgary general manager John Hufnagel sounds confident he can sign his star when his dream goes south without him.
Harris would seem to be the next viable option.
He does know general manager Brock Sutherland and coach Jason Maas from their time with the Redblacks, but surely he also knows that while Ottawa is only a 10-hour drive from his home in Ohio, Edmonton is 30. That would be another one in the cons column, right beside playing in a stadium that’s so much older and more run down than TD Place.
Of course, if Harris was playing football for the money and OK with a bidding war, four or five teams could be calling his agent just after noon. That would include both powerhouse franchises in Alberta, as well as Saskatchewan, Toronto and quite likely Montreal, the team that offered Harris more money than Ottawa in 2016.
If, less than three months after he said it wasn’t, cash is now a consideration for Harris, all of the above would be able to throw much of it his way.
The thing is the Redblacks should want Harris even more than he says he wants them. They don’t have a capable replacement under contract. Backup Dominique Davis appears to have the tools, but he’s 29 years old and there’s a reason why, in four seasons, he has never been a starter. Danny Collins and Will Arndt are also on the depth chart, but obviously not the answer.
Harris has his shortcomings, to be sure. But in two years as a starter he has made progress. And the Redblacks have gone from a team that lost in the division semifinal to one that lost in the Grey Cup.