Chris Harris Jr. is more than halfway through another season as one of the NFL’s finest shutdown corners. He hasn’t allowed a touchdown pass in over two calendar years, he makes many of his units checks on the field, and he is not only the leader on defense but he is an extremely important leader to the entire Broncos team.

He attributes Brock Osweiler’s early success to facing the Broncos tremendous secondary over the last few years. “I think him facing us all offseason and training camp really builds his confidence up,” Harris said. “He’s not going to see better DB’s than me and Talib, and Robe (Bradley Roby), and really all our guys. So that confidence builds over and when he gets into the game he feels like, ‘Man I can throw it on anybody.’”

Harris is right. We have not seen Osweiler hit near the growth curve that we’ve seen so many other young quarterbacks hit throughout history. Facing Harris and company so many times in practice and camps has certainly made a big impact.

With a confident Brock Osweiler at the helm, Harris thought that the O-line may need some boosting. He told BSN Denver after the Patriots game, “Before the week, I challenged the whole O-line. I talked to the team before the game, I challenged the O-line and really the whole team to go out there and ball-out. The O-line, they listened man, and they went out there and dominated.”

In the NFL, it’s rare for members of the opposite unit to challenge each other but the finest of team leaders raise all levels of awareness and motivate everybody. It appears that Chris Harris Jr. is doing precisely that.

Even with great leaders like Harris, the team still needs a quarterback with direction and influence. And according Chris, that’s exactly what they have.

“Brock comes in here, he’s screaming at us, ‘Lets go, lets go.’ He’s showing that confidence as a quarterback that you need. He has that ‘It’ factor that you need as a quarterback,” Harris said. “And Bellichick? Going against Bellichick out there today- there’s not gonna be a lot of coaches that can confuse you like that, so I think he’ll be good for however long he’s the quarterback.”

Harris is currently ranked third out of all cornerbacks in the NFL by Pro Football Focus and he has played more more snaps (746) than all but three corners in the NFL. If a man that good at his position says those kind of things about a teammate, you tend to take him seriously.

Harris and Osweiler will face the Chargers in San Diego on Sunday at 2:05 P.M.