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Nick Harris Remains the Center of Attention for Browns, Expected to Start

The former Huskies center has done everything asked of him and more as Browns get ready to open the season.
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The University of Washington football team couldn't finish in 2019. The Huskies lost three games in the fourth quarter.

Indicative of this, 11 hopeful UW players entered the NFL draft and just two heard their names called.

They still couldn't finish.

Out of the Huskies' persistent pair, just one of these Huskies stands to play during pro football's first week. And more. 

A week away from the opener at Baltimore, the precocious 6-foot-1, 302-pound rookie center is the Huskies' last man standing. He's expected to start in place of injured veteran JC Tretter

Harris is the indefatigable "Lone Survivor." 

He's has pulled nearly all of the preseason snaps for the Browns with the No. 1 guy Tretter injured and unable to go when camp began. His coaches continue to marvel over his ability to step in and play right away. 

"His development has been interesting, just because of the fact that he was not expected to come in and run the show," said Bill Callahan, Browns offensive-line coach.  

Maybe no one else expected it, but Harris brings a history of coming ready to play, stemming back to his true freshman days at Washington. NFL rookies who make immediate breakthroughs tend to do it with physical prowess. 

Harris has shown himself to be an astute student of the game. 

"He has been impressive in the sense that he can communicate all of the various sequences of communications along the line, whether it is the point system or the call system," Callahan said. "He can get us in and out of the protection calls that we need to make. That aspect for a young center has been really impressive."

The Browns would prefer to have Tretter, one of the top-rated centers in the NFL, ready to go in his usual role, but that now seems unlikely. Yet they're encouraged that Harris, their supposed snapper of the future, is so far advanced.

"So far we are really pleased, but until you get him matched against teams like Baltimore and obviously Cincinnati, you just do not know," Callahan cautioned. "He has just come in there with a really good confidence about himself and nice poise, and that is refreshing for a young player."

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