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To me, this is much ado about very little. The impact of this decision and what followed is being blown out of proportion.
I saw this headline in the New York Post yesterday, and I don’t totally understand it.
“David Harris lands with Patriots in perfect Jets karma.”
What does that even mean?
It’s bad for the Jets’ karma, for a 33-year-old linebacker, who is a liability in coverage, to sign with New England?
Honestly, I’m probably not the best guy to talk about karma because ’m not an expert on the paranormal.
However, from a football standpoint, perhaps the Jets should be happy to face Harris twice a year, and hope that he gets matched up with tight end Austin Seferian-Jenkins or running back Bilal Powell out of the backfield. Maybe get a receiver on him at times.
Harris is still a good run defender, but he must run like a 5.0 forty at this point. He looked very slow in the spring practices. And he wasn’t particularly good in coverage last year.
Look, once again, the Jets release of Harris wasn’t handled particularly well. The pay cut should have been discussed in February-March. But even though it could have been handled better, that doesn’t mean it was a bad move.
For the people saying the Jets are really going to miss his leadership of the defense, and the guy that called the defensive signals. Did the Jets defense look well-led last year? They had blown assignments galore. I’m obviously not blaming that all on Harris. I’m just saying it’s not like you are removing the defensive leader of a well-oiled machine.
And honestly, in my opinion, Demario Davis is a better leader than Harris. I know that might shock some people, but in my opinion, that is the case. Davis is much more vocal and assertive. Harris was more a lead-by-example kind of guy. He’s often like a church mouse. Davis is much more animated and has a little more alpha dog than Harris. I understand Davis can be a liability in coverage also, but he’s younger, cheaper, and I’d say at this point, with much better speed than Harris, he’s probably a little better in coverage than Harris. And also, Davis is going to play the MIKE linebacker this time around. Last time with the Jets he played the ILB spot next to the Mike with more coverage responsibilities. Of course, Davis will have to cover, but not as much as his first go-around with the Jets.
So, in my opinion, some fans and reporters are making WAY to big a deal over the Jets release of Harris. The Jets will live to see another day.
One other thing. You know what gets a little tiresome – the concept that everything Bill Belichick does is brilliant. So if he signed Harris, that means the Jets made a mistake.
Belichick has made a lot of personnel mistakes over the years, but he’s got the best football deodorant in the world to cover up stinky moves – Tom Brady, perhaps the greatest quarterback of all time. There have been seasons when the Patriots had some major personnel shortcomings, but Brady put the team on his back and they still went far.
So let’s not assume because Belichick signed Harris it’s automatically a brilliant move.
June 22, 2017
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