How much money do Canadian Football League players make?
While individual player salaries are not made public like other leagues, there are ways to estimate it.
The CFL announced a higher-than-expected jump in the salary cap next season, going from $5.5 million to $6 million in 2025. If every CFL team, which consists of 45 active roster spots, spent to the cap, the average player salary would be $133,333.
The CFL salary cap pales in comparison to the NFL’s $224 million salary cap, but there are football players making a good living north of the border.
Highest-paid CFL players in 2024
Star quarterbacks Nathan Rourke (BC Lions) and Zach Collaros (Winnipeg Blue Bombers) were tied as the highest-paid CFL players last season, each making $600,000 annually.
These were the highest-paid players for each CFL team last season, according to 3DownNation. They’re all quarterbacks:
- BC Lions:Ā Nathan Rourke ($600,000)
- Winnipeg Blue Bombers:Ā Zach Collaros ($600,000)
- Toronto Argonauts:Ā Chad Kelly ($583,000)
- Saskatchewan Roughriders:Ā Trevor Harris ($475,000)
- Edmonton Elks: McLeod Bethel-Thompson ($461,000)
- Montreal Alouettes: Cody Fajardo ($432,000)
- Calgary Stampeders: Jake Maier ($339,000)
- Ottawa Redblacks: Dru Brown ($286,000)
- Hamilton Tiger-Cats: Bo Levi Mitchell ($225,000)
The highest-paid non-QB player is Edmonton Elks receiver Eugene Lewis, who made a total of $320,000 last season.
CFL minimum salary and second jobs
Most players make significantly less than $600,000, with the CFL minimum salary set at just $70,000. That number is expected to climb to about $75,000 by 2027. This means that every player in the CFL last season made somewhere between $70,000 and $600,000.
By comparison, the NFL’s minimum salary for rookies was $795,000 last season while NFL veterans with seven years of experience made a minimum of $1.2 million.
There has been a history of CFL players taking on second jobs to add to their football earnings. In 2014, Calgary Stampeders communications director Jean LeFebvre estimated that 10% of the team worked second jobs that year. That included running back Jon Cornish who, after being named the league’s most outstanding player the season prior, was working as a banker during that season.
CFL commissioner Randy Ambrosie also encouraged players to work second jobs back in 2018 when talking about the league’s compensation levels.
āThe other thing to recognize is that at the end of the season our players are free to work and I frankly encourage them to do that,ā Ambrosie said at the time.
āThatās how I built my career. I worked during the season as well but I worked full-time in the off-season and I would encourage our guys to do that, to start building an opportunity for their after-football life which comes up more quickly than you would think when youāre in the game.”