Denver Broncos: Shelby Harris has been a pleasant surprise
Denver Broncos defensive lineman Shelby Harris is playing at a very high level, and has been a pleasant surprise for the team this season…
The Denver Broncos have been one of the NFL’s best teams this year in terms of their ability to shut teams down in the running game, and one major reason for that is improved depth on the defensive line. Shelby Harris, a player who signed a reserve/future contract at the end of the regular season, has been a key reason for the team’s turnaround.
Harris was the one who blocked the potential game-tying field goal against the Chargers in week one, a play that somewhat overshadowed his excellent work against the run in that particular game.
Through three games, Harris has played 97 total snaps, and is on pace to break his career high of 147, which he logged back in the 2015 season with the Oakland Raiders.
It’s not surprising that Harris, after three years in the league and bouncing around between teams, was essentially an afterthought and someone the Broncos brought in basically to just take a chance on.
He’s proving their scouting department’s hard work pays off, and also that the coaching on this Denver team is exceptional, and anyone — no matter where you come from — has a chance to earn their way onto the roster.
Harris had a huge preseason for the Broncos both against the run and rushing the passer, and he hasn’t really lost any momentum now that we’re into the regular season. In fact, he’s forced the Broncos to keep him on the field, logging the most snaps outside the top 11 on the team.
With plays like this, it’s impossible to justify keeping him off the field:
https://twitter.com/Broncos/status/912033582717079552
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That is Harris going up against one of the best left guards in all of football, Buffalo’s Richie Incognito. He makes it look easy on that particular play, which ended up being his first sack of the 2017 season.
Harris’ contributions at the three-technique position thus far have reminded me a bit of what we used to see from Malik Jackson. I won’t get too far ahead of myself there, because Jackson was a dominant talent at the defensive end position for Denver, but Harris is proving himself worthy of at least being mentioned with similar regard.
In Jackson’s breakout season of 2014, he played 578 snaps, working in rotation with the rest of Denver’s deep defensive line. That number bumped up to 845 in 2015, when Jackson earned one of the richest contracts in the league as an unrestricted free agent from Jacksonville.
Harris hasn’t gotten the chance to show as much as a pass rusher as he has in run defense, but his quickness off the ball is hard to ignore. This is a guy that will undoubtedly play a significant role as the season progresses.