As the Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the Edmonton Elks in CFL action in Regina, SK, July 23, 2026. Photo Electric Umbrella/Liam Richards
Kian Schaffer-Baker is like another son to Trevor Harris and his wife, Kalie.
There is also a close tie between Schaffer-Baker and the youngest son of Harris’s predecessor as the Saskatchewan Roughriders’ starting quarterback.
Cody and Laura Fajardo’s second child was named Cian in appreciation of Schaffer-Baker.
This is a timely backstory to a high-stakes CFL home-and-home set featuring a pair of accomplished No. 7s — Harris (quarterbacking the Roughriders) and Fajardo (Edmonton Elks).
“I owe everything to those two guys,” Schaffer-Baker, one of the league’s premier pass-catchers, said during a break in preparations for Saturday’s rematch at Commonwealth Stadium in Edmonton.
Schaffer-Baker made his CFL debut in 2021, when Fajardo was in his second of three seasons as a Roughrider.
Fajardo found Schaffer-Baker 113 times for 1,514 yards and eight touchdowns, playoffs included, over the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
Subsequently, Harris and Schaffer-Baker have collaborated 116 times for 1,665 yards and nine scores while sharing in a 2025 Grey Cup championship.
Most recently, Schaffer-Baker caught eight Harris aerials for a career-high 185 yards in Thursday’s 36-34 home-field loss to Edmonton.
Schaffer-Baker’s previous peak yardage total of 170 was the product of five connections with Fajardo in a 23-16 victory over the host B.C. Lions on Aug. 26, 2022.
Luca Charles Fajardo was born 19 days later. His baby brother, Cian Quiggin, arrived on Oct. 9, 2024. How did the virtual Kian name come to fruition?
“We were looking for a ‘C’ name since we have Laura and Luca,” Fajardo explained from Edmonton on Tuesday. “We now have Cody and Cian. It initially came from 2 L’s and 2 C’s.”
The logic in that is plain to C.
“When we got to Cian, we both said we only knew one Kian,” Fajardo added, “and he is one of the best teammates and guys I’ve ever been around, so it made the choice that easy.”
Fajardo, like Schaffer-Baker, arrived in Saskatchewan without an abundance of fanfare.
Schaffer-Baker was selected in the fourth round (30th overall) of the 2020 CFL Canadian Draft with a pick the Roughriders acquired in a July 31, 2019 trade that sent Zach Collaros to the Toronto Argonauts.
Collaros had reached a new deal with Saskatchewan on Feb. 12, 2019. Three days later, Fajardo was signed as a free agent and immediately entered the sweepstakes to serve as the principal understudy to Collaros.
As fate would have it, Collaros suffered a concussion three plays into the 2019 regular season opener. Fajardo took over behind centre and, before too long, was a sensation.
His first season as a starter in the pro ranks included recognition as the All-CFL quarterback and the West Division’s Most Outstanding Player.
Then came 2020 and, due to COVID-19, a CFL calendar that, alas, consisted of little more than the Draft in which Schaffer-Baker was chosen.
A total of 436 days elapsed before the former University of Guelph Gryphons pass-catcher would receive an opportunity to catch passes for the Roughriders.
Once again due to COVID, CFL training camps did not begin until July 10, 2021. Accordingly, the CFL’s regular season was shortened to 14 games per team — four fewer than usual — and the league dispensed with exhibition games.
Despite circumstances that were hardly ideal for rookies hoping to make a quick impression, Schaffer-Baker sparkled from the outset. His rapport with Fajardo became evident in the summer of 2021.
After sitting out the Roughriders’ first two regular-season games, Schaffer-Baker made his CFL debut against the visiting Ottawa REDBLACKS on Aug. 21, 2021. He caught four Fajardo passes for 64 yards in a 23-10 Roughriders win.
An all-Fajardo/Schaffer-Baker possession set up a field goal by Brett Lauther, who split the uprights from 42 yards on the final play before halftime. Schaffer-Baker’s first CFL catch, for a 10-yard gain, was immediately followed by a 23-yarder that put Saskatchewan in field-goal range.
Also of note was a nine-catch, 99-yard performance against the visiting Toronto Argonauts on Sept. 17, 2021. Included was Schaffer-Baker’s first CFL touchdown — a 24-yard pass-and-run collaboration with Fajardo.
Schaffer-Baker finished his first CFL regular season with 47 catches for 563 yards and two TDs in 11 games. Named the Roughriders’ Most Outstanding Rookie in 2021, “Shake and Bake” added another major in a home-field playoff victory over the Calgary Stampeders.
He followed up with a 68-catch, 960-yard season in 2022, earning laurels as the Roughriders’ Most Outstanding Canadian. Tack on 13 rushes for 74 yards and he comfortably eclipsed 1,000 yards from scrimmage as a CFL sophomore.
The next winter, the Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes essentially switched starting quarterbacks. Via free agency, Harris joined the Roughriders while Fajardo signed with Montreal.
Fajardo proceeded to guide the Alouettes to a Grey Cup victory in 2023. Saskatchewan won three of its first four games with Harris behind centre before he suffered a season-ending injury.
Schaffer-Baker, for his part, missed the first nine games of the 2023 campaign while recovering from off-season surgery.
“I didn’t get to play with him in ’23 but, during that season, I thought it would be an opportunity for me to study the games of each of the receivers,” Harris recalled. “After the season, I said (to Schaffer-Baker), ‘I hope we get a full season together, because I think you’ll go for 1,500.’
“Maybe I lowballed him.”
Could be!
With 656 receiving yards at the one-third mark, Schaffer-Baker is on pace for — get this — 1,968 yards over a full 18 games. Joey Walters set the franchise’s single-season record of 1,715 over 16 games in 1981.
With 42 catches, Schaffer-Baker is on pace for 126 over the course of the 2026 season. Canadian Football Hall of Famer Don Narcisse has owned the team record of 125 receptions since 1995.
KeeSean Johnson, with 43 catches so far this season, is also making receptions at a frequency that could enable him to leapfrog Narcisse. Johnson, a third-year Roughrider, is on a 129-catch, 1,701-yard pace.
“Kian is the type of guy who is capable of going for these types of numbers,” Harris said. “I’m just glad that I’m not letting (Schaffer-Baker’s receiving cohorts) down in terms of getting them their numbers.”
The numbers also tell us that Schaffer-Baker has shared most of his accomplishments with Harris and Fajardo.
They have been the quarterbacks for 79 per cent of Schaffer-Baker’s career catches and 82 per cent of his receiving yards.
“It has been a blessing to watch both of them and see their stories and their careers unfold,” the Roughriders’ No. 89 said.
“They’re both hard workers, grinders, and will do anything for the guys next to them. But I’m glad we’ve got this 7 on our side.”
That would be the 40-years-young Harris — the 2025 Grey Cup MVP.
“Trevor has helped to shape me into the man I am today,” said Schaffer-Baker, 28. “I see him as a best friend. I see him as a brother. Sometimes I see him as a father figure.
“Sam (Emilus) and I, we were at his house this off-season (in Ohio). I was outside playing with Trevor’s kids and he came outside to tell us, ‘All right, you guys have got two more minutes before dinner.’ I said, ‘Come on, Daddy. Five more … please?!’ I think he considers me one of his kids, too.
“I’m so grateful for his leadership, his tenacity and his relentlessness that he brings every single day — not only toward the game of football, but also toward the game of life. I try and model that every way I can.
“If I can be a percentage of the man that Trevor is, then I know I’m doing something right.”
