Trevor Harris a game-time decision for Riders home opener

On Thursday the Saskatchewan Roughriders released their depth chart for Friday’s match up against the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and quarterback Trevor Harris is listed as a game-time decision.

Harris was diagnosed with a hip pointer injury that was sustained in the final moments of last week’s game against Edmonton.

“I’m going to get here tomorrow [Friday] and I’ve got a list of four questions that I’m going to ask myself, as long as the answers to those are right and they tell me I look all right, we’re going to give it a go,” Harris said.

When asked about what the four questions were, Harris only eluded to a portion of them.

“One of them is making sure that I can protect myself. The next one is to make sure that I’m not putting the team in a compromised position. Those are the main two. The other are more just feelings and mobility,” Harris explained.

“We’re hopeful that he’s better in the morning and is able to play. But we felt it was probably the best way to designate him as a game-time decision because truly it will be how he feels tomorrow,” Riders head coach Craig Dickenson said.

Dickenson noted the decision is mainly the organizations as a whole, but Harris will be heavily involved.

“He knows his body better than we do. So the training staff will have some input on it. Then I’ll have the final say,” Dickenson said.

Harris was limited at practice on Tuesday, did not practice on Wednesday, but took all the reps with the starters at Thursday’s walk-thru.

“It sucks but I’ve played through worse. Sunday night was pretty awful I could barely sleep. Monday night, same thing. Came here Tuesday, didn’t feel great but as I moved around I started feeling a lot better. Yesterday they were like, ‘You’re doing nothing.’ I got a treatment yesterday and throughout the week,” Harris said on what his week has looked like since the injury.

“It’s not ideal for sure, but football is a team game and we feel good about the room. We certainly want Trevor out there. He’s our leader, but football is a game of adversity,” said Dickenson.

Harris is not the only player out with an injury. Wide receiver Derel Walker has been placed on the six-game injured list with a knee injury. Defensive back Nic Marshall is also out. Tevin Jones and Deontai Williams will take their place respectively.

The team will need to band together in order to pull out a win against what is predicted to be one of the top teams in the league this year, the Blue Bombers. The Riders have not beaten the Bombers since October 2019.

“Everybody’s trying to beat the Bombers. They’re just a well-oiled machine right now. It’s a super veteran group. I think you have to keep the ball away from Zach [Collaros]. If you give him too many opportunities he’s going to hurt you. The better your offense plays the more you can run the football and keep it away from their offense,” said Dickenson.

“They’re a great defense and they pose a lot of challenges with their pass rush, with their blitzes, they like to hit, they like to switch up their leverages and for you to really beat them,” Harris said.

Kickoff for Friday’s home opener is 7 p.m. on TSN.