Felton: Vols Edge Rusher Roman Harrison is a 'Force to be Reckoned With'

The Seattle Seahawks drafted Darrell Taylor in the second round of the NFL draft, and Taylor's departure from Tennessee left a glaring need on the edge for Tennessee and first-year outside linebacker's coach, Shelton Felton.

Felton addressed this on Wednesday, and he offered insight on who might be a guy to help replace Taylor. He said, "We lost a great player in Darrell Taylor. We are playing a lot of guys, we haven’t really dialed in on a No. 1, No. 2, No. 3 guy, we are just playing rotational. Deandre Johnson is doing a great job, Kivon Bennett is also doing a great job. Roman Harris is a force to be reckoned with. We are getting a lot of work out of John Mincey. Moving J.J. Peterson over there to get some reps over there at times. The young guys: Tyler Baron and Morven Joseph are some guys. Right now, we are doing everything by committee and focusing on the details and doing everything right. As Coach Pruitt said, we are going to play the best man and the best person. As of right now, we are a committee. We don’t have a Darrell Taylor; we are trying to hunt a Darrell Taylor.”

Felton ended the conference by fielding another question on Harrison, to which he said, "Roman has all the tools; he’s athletic, he’s powerful, he’s quick, he’s learning to play the position. By trait, Roman is a d-lineman but he’s learning to play on the edge and I think he’s going to be rushing the passer for us on third down and also playing on first and second down. He’s one of the most powerful and strongest guys on the team. Biggest thing with Roman is processing and learning the game, which I think he’s doing a good job for us. He’s getting better and better with repetition and he’s getting better and better. He’s one of the guys we are going to lean on and again, we are going to play by committee until that one guy stands out.”

As a freshman Harrison only made eight tackles, two of which were sacks. He primarily played as an interior defensive lineman at Bainbridge High School (Ga.), and played as a third-down option for the Vols last season. He should continue to come into his on as he sees extended playing time.