Landry: Where will Tre Ford play in 2025?

Don Landry

CFL.ca

@CFLLandry

It’s Tre Ford’s time, right?

Riiiiight?

The young quarterback has bided his time as an Edmonton Elk, showing off plenty of talent and lots of dizzying athletic ability – as well as positional growth – since being selected eighth overall in the 2022 CFL draft.

Now, two months prior to the start of the league’s annual off-season signing frenzy, the 26-year-old native of Niagara Falls, ON finds himself at the top of the list as CFL.ca’s number one potential free agent.

Where will he be in 2025?

The starters appear to be set in most every CFL city. They look carved in stone in places like Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Toronto and Vancouver. Hamilton and Winnipeg have veteran quarterbacks under contract for 2025 and both of them (Bo Levi Mitchell and Zach Collaros) are hall-of-famers in waiting.

So where can a young, eager quarterback go to fully realize his potential as a full-on starter?

Here are three potential landing spots for Ford in 2025.

EDMONTON ELKS

Quite possibly the best scenario for Ford, it appears, would be to stay right where he is, in Edmonton.

Provided, that is, that new head coach Mark Kilam is a fan and ready to give Ford what most everybody agrees is what the 26-year-old quarterback wants most and that is the chance to be a team’s guy, the undisputed QB1.

And provided that new general manager Ed Hervey is a fan as well.

“I want to talk to him about my vision and we’re going to have some opportunities to have some real talk and some serious talk,” said Hervey of Ford at his introductory media conference.

That’s far from proclaiming Ford to be ‘The Man’ going forward. But it doesn’t rule it out, either.

Ford has apprenticed in Edmonton. He’s gone through hard knocks there and he has dazzled there. He’s progressed. And if he has even more progressing to do, it makes sense for him to do that in Edmonton, where he’s spent three years trying to climb into the pilot’s seat.

And there seems to be a strong desire on the part of the team’s fans to have him take next steps in Edmonton. They’ve watched him grow, and many of them have made it abundantly clear that they want Ford to be the team’s starter.

Even with the changes at the top of the Elks’ football operations pyramid, Edmonton seems like the place most likely for Ford to be a starter in 2025.

But if he doesn’t hear what he likes from the Elks?

Here are a couple more possibilities that make some sense.

SASKATCHEWAN ROUGHRIDERS

Roughriders’ veteran quarterback Trevor Harris has made it pretty clear he’d like to be back in 2025, and he has certainly earned his green and white stripes over the two years he’s been in Saskatchewan, providing good numbers and excellent leadership.

However, Harris has been sidelined with injury for extended periods in both of his Saskatchewan seasons and if the Riders are wary of his age – he’ll be 39 when the 2025 campaign opens – then Ford fits the bill as an exciting alternative, plopping the “next one” smack dab into the middle of a rising team with a young head coach who might love to add more than a dash of unpredictability and athleticism to the offensive mix.

If the Roughriders are looking to shake things up, a pitch for Ford as their next starter might be just the ticket for the young pivot.

And even if the Roughriders were to re-sign Harris, it might be wise for Ford to head to Regina with the promise that the throne will be his in the very near future.

WINNIPEG BLUE BOMBERS

The same kind of argument that applies to Saskatchewan can make the case for the Blue Bombers, too, with one notable exception.

Winnipeg has their top quarterback under contract for 2025, and so far we have no real indication from 36-year-old Zach Collaros that he won’t be back, though he didn’t say he would be returning, either. “It’s something that we have talked about in the past, throughout the season,” Collaros said, referring to discussions he and his wife, Nicole, have had about how long he’ll continue to play. “We’ll figure it out,” he told reporters at a media conference on November 19th.

If Ford were to land in Winnipeg, it could be as the starter if Collaros does decide to retire. Or, it could be with the promise that his day is coming soon, perhaps as early as 2026.

In the meantime, the Bombers’ offence could get a healthy injection of pizzazz throughout next season, adding a little rocket fuel to a year in which the Blue and Gold will be all-in in an attempt to make it to a hometown Grey Cup.

Being part of a dynamic duo – with an ever-increasing role in a hand-off year – could make for a very good scenario for Ford.

Follow CFL