Roughriders’ Trevor Harris earns top overall player grade from Pro Football Focus
Trevor Harris is on a roll, as reflected by the Honour Roll.
The Saskatchewan Roughriders’ starting quarterback emerged from Saturday’s 33-27 victory over the B.C. Lions with the highest individual grade — 93.0 — of any CFL player to this point in the season, according to Pro Football Focus.
Harris completed 23 of 30 passes for 395 yards and three touchdowns to help the Green and White remain unbeaten on the road (3-0) this season and improve its overall record to 5-1.
The third-year Roughriders signal-caller has sported PFF’s best quarterback grade in each of the past two weeks.
On July 12 against the visiting Calgary Stampeders, he went 36-for-46 for 425 yards — 327 of which were registered in the second half.
Factor in his 234 passing yards over Saturday’s opening 30 minutes and the result is a Roughriders record (561) for adjacent halves.
But the record that matters the most to Harris is what the Roughriders’ weekly slate will ideally look like after Friday’s game against the Edmonton Elks (7 p.m., Mosaic Stadium).
“1-and-0,” he said on Tuesday. “I wish (the PFF grade) scored points for us this week.
“Stuff like that (PFF info) is really cool. I didn’t know that until just now. It’s fun to look back and go, ‘Wow, I played well,’ but it doesn’t matter.
“This week is about us playing against Edmonton. That (B.C. game) is long gone. It’s a short week. We’ve turned the page and it’s about Edmonton this week.
“To me, it just tells us that we’re doing some great things in the playbook and (Offensive Co-ordinator) Marc Mueller’s doing a tremendous job of putting me in a great position to make plays.”
Harris leads the CFL in quarterback-efficiency rating (118.0), completion percentage (76.0) and average yards per passing attempt (10.6) after Week 7.
His next touchdown pass will be the 180th of his career and tie him with ex-Roughrider Tom Burgess for 16th on the league’s All-Time list.
With 34,774 passing yards, Harris is just 56 behind 14th-ranked Dieter Brock (34,830) and 31 away from No. 15 on the star-studded list, Michael Reilly (34,805).
On Friday, the two most accurate passers in CFL history will be in uniform. Edmonton’s Cody Fajardo has a career completion percentage of 71.07 (1,538-for-2,164). Harris is a close second at 70.94 (2,866-for-4,040).
How marginal is the difference? If Fajardo was 1,538-for-2,169 — a difference of only five incompletions over a career — Harris would occupy the No. 1 spot.
ANDERSON RETURNS
The Roughriders on Tuesday announced the re-signing of running back Mario Anderson, who was on the practice roster earlier this season before the team signed two-time 1,000-yard rusher Ka’Deem Carey.
Carey suffered what appears to be a significant knee injury on Saturday during this third game with the Roughriders.
“He ended up going for some imaging,” Head Coach Corey Mace said. “With things like this, you’ve got to wait for the swelling to go down so they can get the imaging.
“I haven’t heard anything official, but it doesn’t look great.”
Anderson was initially signed by Saskatchewan on April 29 after rushing for 1,362 yards and 18 touchdowns in 13 games with the University of Memphis Tigers last season.
He was added to the practice roster on May 31 and released on June 23.
“Even in a situation where we had to let him roll, it was hard, because we thought really highly of the kid,” Mace said. “It’s just how it goes sometimes.
“We’re happy as ever to have him back. He’s an excellent kid and he knows the game. He was an outstanding college player.
“He just needed an opportunity and this is one for him, so I’m looking forward to seeing what he does with that.”
EXTRA POINTS
ª Harris was among three Roughriders with a top positional grade on PFF’s Week 7 Honour roll. Dohnte Meyers, who had seven catches for 132 yards and two TDs against B.C., paced all receivers at 85.2. Mike Rose (80.4) was the top-rated defensive lineman.
• Meyers is tied for the league lead in 100-yard receiving games (two) with B.C.’s Keon Hatcher and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats’ Kenny Lawler.
• Saskatchewan, with 26.7 offensive points per game, is a close second to Hamilton (27.0). In overall points allowed, the Roughriders are third (25.0), behind Calgary (18.5) and the Montreal Alouettes (22.8).
• The Roughriders lead the league in average yards per play (7.56) and are second in average net offence (405.7). Calgary, at 406.3, is first in the latter category.
• Middle linebacker Jameer Thurman’s 39 defensive tackles place him second in the league, behind B.C.’s Micah Awe (51). They are also 1-2 among active players in career defensive tackles. Awe has 505. Thurman has 482.
