REGINA – The Saskatchewan Roughriders announced on Sunday that they have signed American quarterback Eric Barriere.
Barriere (six-foot, 207 pounds) joins the Roughriders after spending training camp with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. Prior to his time with the Bombers, the California native also tried out for the Denver Broncos in 2022 and spent time with the USFL’s Michigan Panthers (2022) and the New Jersey Generals (2023).
Barriere’s signing coincides with Sunday’s news that starting quarterback Trevor Harris will spend time on the six-game injured list with a MCL sprain.
Barriere had an outstanding college career, marked with record-setting and award-winning performances at Eastern Washington. He was twice named the Big Sky Conference’s Offensive Player of the Year (2020, 2021) and won the Walter Payton Award as the top player in FCS football in 2021 after passing for 5,070 yards and 46 touchdowns. He was the runner-up for the award in 2020. In addition, he was named to the All-Big Sky Conference First Team twice (2020, 2021) and the All-Big Sky Conference Third Team twice (2018, 2019).
Barriere appeared in 51 games at Eastern Washington, throwing for 13,809 yards, 121 touchdowns against 29 interceptions while adding 22 rushing TDs and 1,585 yards along the ground.
He left Eastern Washington as the all-time leader total offensive yards (15,394), passing yards (13,809) and passing touchdowns (121) which are also Big Sky Conference records. As well, he holds his school’s all-time records in completions (1,007), rushing yards by a quarterback (1,585), and a myriad of other categories including throwing for more than 400 yards in 17 different games.
