Inside Out: David Harris
Height: 6-2 Weight: 243
Age: 25 Born: January 21, 1984
College: Michigan
Experience: 3rd Season
2008 Season – After the blow of losing Jonathan Vilma to a season ending injury in 2007, rookie David Harris stepped in and mopped up for the rest of the season playing extremely well. With high expectations in 2008 and a new DT in front of him, the bar was high and while Harris did well, he was injured during the course of the season, allowing him to only play in 11 games. Harris’ impact plays were disappointing in 2008, but part of it has to be due to the time away, coupled with the scheme using him more often as a TED than a MIKE, much like his new ILB partner, Bart Scott
Strengths – Harris is a physical player with great quickness, agility and balance. Harris is an instinctual player and reactions well as a play develops. His hard-hitting style and solid form tackling combine well to make him a promising player. Harris can shed blockers and works well in traffic. He is a solid blitz defender with great power to collapse the pocket and showed surprising agility to slip potential blockers.
Weaknesses – Harris doesn’t have great speed over distance and can be a liability in man coverage schemes. Harris has struggled to stay healthy during his short pro career, so it’s hard to know whether he can be reliable moving forward to play a sixteen game season.
Analysis – When healthy, Harris is one of the league’s best ILBs. Harris has the size and speed to play either TED or MIKE role in a 3-4, which will allow for Ryan and Pettine to work in a few wrinkles that were lacking during the last few years in Baltimore, in deference to Ray Lewis’ decline. Harris can rush the passer, can take on blockers, can tackle ballcarriers, but as noted isn’t particularly strong in isolated coverage. That would be one part of his game that would be wise for him to work on, to make him a complete player.
Use in the New Scheme – I do think that there’s a fair amount of flip flopping that Scott and Harris can do, in terms of TED-MIKE responsibilities, but I do wonder whether Bart Scott’s huge contract will factor into how Ryan and Pettine scheme. Harris is currently on a rather meager rookie deal, while Scott’s is worth $48 million over six years. The MIKE is the one who is more valuable to a team, while the TED is the tougher, cheaper player, at least traditionally. I do think there will be division of labor, but I don’t imagine it will be 50/50. The team will work together though, to confuse offensive lines, and stop would be runners very well. With a good inside tandem, good pressure creators on the outside, and at least solid linemen in front of Harris and Scott, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Ryan scheme 5-10 sacks this season between the two of them.
Other Inside Out Posts: Kris Jenkins, Shaun Ellis, Marques Douglas,Calvin Pace, Bryan Thomas, Bart Scott
Filed under: Main Page, Opinion
david harris will be an elite linebqcker this year and he will be a pro bowler
Please let him stay healthy!
Harris is the one player that is being overlooked that really has the potential for a huge year in 2009.
With Jenks healthy, the middle of the Jets defense will be as tough as it has ever been. Teams just should not be able to run between the tackles and since 2nd and 7 or worse is a passing down, both Harris and Scott will have numerous opportunities to blitz. It should be fun watching them work.
When healthy he’s an absolute tackling machine…… just gotta keep him healthy. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is more of an impact player than Bart Scott
I just want to say that its awesome that no1 is complaining about the jets right now(fans). Its a good sign!
Left unmentioned was last year’s management decision to have Harris gain circa 30 pounds in preparation for his TED responsibilities. Besides having to deal with guards one-on-one, he also had to work on his coverage skills against a good spread of TE’s last year.
all in all, am not surprised he had a groin injury – especially with the taking on the linemen part of his job.
BOTTOM LINE: HARRIS is a beast!
if im not mistaken,Harris’ first game after Vilma went out he had 20 tackles,and the game after that at LEAST 13.
He had 17 in his first game (10 solo) and 24 in his second game (20 solo).
I am sorry but Harris is not going to make it guys.
Just look at him during offseason minicamp. Watch what happens in training camp and see if Ryan turns everyone loose and someone gets hurt. Harris has a HUGE chance of getting hurt in training camp and in the season. Only BUDDY BOY will allow that to happen.
Is it my computer? Or has no one been on duty to report/hash out the suspension of one of the pillars of our defense?
It’s stunning that no one has posted or commented on Calvin Pace getting his butt tossed for four games — and four tough ones at the very top of the schedule to boot!
Is this VG’s opening?
The answer: my computer. It didn’t make sense to me that everyone wouldn’t be all over this story.
Apologies. Please forgive the above comment. I’ve been refreshing and refreshing my browser and it wouldn’t go beyond this July 1 post.
Had to close out and start all over, and, VOILA! there were all the latest posts. So I came back here to note it.
Merde….!