Shelby Harris Reveals What he's Looking Forward to Most in Playing With Jurrell Casey
Initially, it didn't seem as if Shelby Harris was destined to return to the Denver Broncos in 2020. When free agency opened up around the NFL, the expectation was that Harris would take his talents elsewhere and for a contract much richer than what the Broncos would be willing to pay.
One week went by. Nothing on the Harris front.
Towards the end of week two, Broncos' head coach Vic Fangio put in a call to Harris personally, asking if he wanted to stay in Denver. That call meant everything to Harris.
“I think that it helped out a good amount just for him to reach out and just ask if I wanted to come back," Harris said on a Friday conference call with local media. "It made me feel wanted. I wanted to come back. This was clearly my first choice of where to go. Just to feel wanted back I was like, ‘OK, yeah I’ll do it.’"
Harris can say 'clearly' the Broncos were his first choice but that doesn't jive with his pre-free agency remarks about it being 'about the money'. However, there's likely at least a modicum of truth in what he said, in that in a perfect world, Harris hoped to garner a max contract and if he could get it without having to leave Denver, even better.
He ended up accepting a one-year, $3.25 million contract. It represents a modest raise over his 2019 salary on a restricted free agent tender, if he hits all the accelerators in the deal. One draw for Harris was the new presence of a five-time Pro Bowler on the Broncos' defensive line.
As much as it probably stung to see Derek Wolfe take a one-year deal with the Ravens, Harris was excited by the Broncos' acquisition of Jurrell Casey via trade from Tennessee. Harris is coming off his first unrestricted free-agent experience but it was with just one full season as a starter under his belt.
Harris recognizes that there's a lot he could still stand to learn and is hopeful that his new teammate Casey can impart a few tricks of his trade.
"Then with Jurrell Casey, I don’t really know much about Jurrell," Harris said. "From what I do know, I know that he’s a hell of a player. I can’t wait to play with him. Hopefully, he can teach me some new things because I’m always open to learning from guys who obviously have been around the league a little bit longer than me. For me, I’m just excited.”
Casey is coming off five consecutive Pro Bowl seasons and brings 51 career sacks to the Broncos' defense. Harris, meanwhile, is no slouch himself in the sack department, though he's amassed just 14 during his five years in the NFL. Surely, Casey has some knowledge he can impart from his unique experience playing at a high level in the NFL since 2011.
Last season, Harris posted six sacks playing in Fangio's defense, which was a career-high. What's particularly encouraging about that number is that Harris played the first quarter of the season out of position at nose tackle.
All of those sacks came from Week 6 on. With a full season of Fangio's scheme under his belt, there's a really good chance Harris' sack numbers could climb in 2020, especially with Casey consuming a fair amount of the opponents' interior attention. Harris still very much sees himself playing the defensive end slot, as opposed to the nose.
“Yeah, I see myself still playing end," Harris said. "We have a beast at nose in [NT] Mike Purcell. I think he’s a monster at nose. For me, I feel more comfortable as an end because of the position I played before—I had played zero-nose before. With end, there is a little more space. You can use your athleticism to your advantage out here. It’s just something that is more familiar. I feel it opened up my game a little more and I was able to do things that I like to do.”
Remember, Harris' was extremely undersized as a 290-pound nose. Purcell, meanwhile, tips the scales at a hefty 328 pounds, which allows him to anchor much better against the run.
That allows the more athletic interior defenders like Harris and Casey to wreak havoc and play to their strengths. Combined with the dynamic edge pressure sure to be created by a reunited Von Miller and Bradley Chubb and sky's the limit for the Broncos' defense in year two of the Fangio era.
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