Nathan Rourke becomes CFL’s highest-paid player with contract worth $600,000 a year

Shortly after he was cut by the Falcons, quarterback Nathan Rourke went back home to Canada. Where he’ll sign a contract that would be chump change by NFL quarterback standards but is the most lucrative deal in the Canadian Football League.

In addition to a partial salary for finishing this season with the British Columbia Lions, Rourke will get 749,200 Canadian dollars in 2025 and 809,000 Canadian dollars in 2026, according to 3DownNation.com. That’s a little under $600,000 USD for 2025 and a little over $600,000 for 2026.

Rourke was born in British Columbia and won the CFL’s Most Outstanding Canadian award when he last played for the BC Lions in 2022, and that makes him a popular figure for Canadian football fans. So it’s no surprise that $200,000 of his contract will come from marketing money, which does not count against the CFL’s salary cap.

After winning Most Outstanding Canadian, Rourke decided to try his hand in the NFL and spent time with the Jaguars, Patriots, Giants and Falcons without ever getting in a game. The CFL doesn’t pay anywhere near as well as the NFL, but after getting cut by four teams, the job security of being with a team that he knows wants to invest in him is a big bonus for Rourke.