At this point, it is safe to say Chris Harris Jr.’s path to the National Football League has been well documented. As a lightly recruited player out of high school, undrafted out of Kansas University and onto the Denver Broncos, he has fought tooth and nail the entire way. If you were thinking after winning a Super Bowl ring he would feel validated, you would be wrong.
“I’m always going to feel like that, just being undrafted,” Harris said of his attitude entering another season. “Having that chip on my shoulder, that is always going to be me and who I am. I just want to keep that competitive edge here. For me, I feel like I’m a fearless competitor.”
Since he signed with the Broncos in 2011, Harris has played his way into elite status. He went undrafted but immediately played, seeing time in all 16 regular season games and in the playoffs. Even after an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) tear in January of 2013 he returned to his starting role in 2014 and earned his first Pro Bowl trip.
He remains one of the most versatile and relentless cornerbacks in the NFL. He is also just one of five undrafted cornerbacks to make multiple Pro Bowls (2014, 2015) with his original team and was named second-team All-Pro in 2015. Harris is known for not allowing touchdowns while his teammate Aqib Talib is known for interceptions, but both have acknowledged that there is always room for improvement. Harris is ready to keep pace with how he has handled all of his offseasons in order to continue to have success.
“Going into this season, I just want to be even more dominant. I want to continue to raise my level of play,” Harris said adamantly. “Every year I have been able to get better each season so that’s what I want to do this year. Continue to improve my game playing the run, playing the pass, blitzing. I want to be more active in blitzing than I was last year.”
This offseason, former San Diego Charger LaDianian Tomlinson stated on NFL Network that the NFL did not have any “shutdown” corners which obviously irked Harris and others. There was a brief back-and-forth on social media. Wednesday Harris responded once again when BSN Denver asked about how you prove to be a “shutdown” corner.
“That’s a good question,” he said “We go off touchdowns. I guarantee if they track down touchdowns gave up in the last five years, I’ve given up the least. That was my argument with [Tomlinson].”
Harris is notoriously good at not giving up big plays and touchdowns in particular. In fact, the Broncos Dec. 20 matchup with the Pittsburgh Steelers was the first time he had surrendered a touchdown in 36 games. That spanned over the entire 2014 season and well into the 2015 season. That statistic alone puts him in a rare class of the NFL and certainly in the conversation as a “shutdown” corner.
Harris finished the regular season relatively unscathed but a serious shoulder injury that noticeably bothered him after it occurred in the playoff rematch with the Steelers. He played in 96-percent of the team’s defensive snaps over the regular season (first on the team) and played nearly every down in the postseason. He finished the regular season as the team’s fifth-leading tackler (58 total), the postseason’s third leading tackler (15 total) and grabbed two interceptions, forced two fumbles and scored one touchdown.
When asked Wednesday how the shoulder is he responded confidently saying, “It feels great, 100 [percent]. I’m probably stronger now coming in this season than last season.”
Harris is now one of the oldest tenured Broncos on the team, a Super Bowl Champion, a second-team All-Pro and has generally received his just due but he made it known Wednesday that he will always be looking for that edge. Any slight by anyone around the league, a hint of disrespect, no matter how minute, is what fuels Harris. He will be looking to fuel his team from day one because he, better than anyone, knows where it can get you.
“I’m definitely going to keep that competitive edge on the team,” he said. “If I have to holler at the receivers, talk mess to Emmanuel [Sanders], [Demaryius Thomas], whatever to try and spark up the competitive nature in our locker room. I think that was huge last year.”
