Report: Harrison Will Visit Packers on Wednesday
GREEN BAY, Wis. – The Green Bay Packers’ run defense ended the first quarter of the NFL season with a bang by holding the Atlanta Falcons to just 3.1 yards per carry during Monday night’s blowout victory.
It was a strong performance considering Pro Bowl defensive tackle Kenny Clark was sidelined yet again by a groin injury.
With Green Bay at 4-0, it has emerged as a top Super Bowl contender but with a potential fatal flaw. Even after Monday, the Packers are 23rd in the NFL with 4.81 yards allowed per carry. The Packers have knocked off four quality quarterbacks in as many weeks but do they have the horsepower to turn the tables on the San Francisco 49ers, who ran them over in last year’s NFC Championship Game?
To that end, general manager Brian Gutekunst is exploring a key addition with free-agent defensive tackle Damon Harrison scheduled to visit on Wednesday, according to Josina Anderson. That’s assuming Harrison leaves Seattle without a contract following his meeting with the team on Tuesday.
Harrison, who will turn 32 in November, has been one of the best run-stuffing defensive linemen in the NFL. An undrafted free agent in 2012 out of William Penn, an NAIA school in Oskaloosa, Iowa, he has started all but one game over the last seven seasons. Last season, the 6-foot-3, 350-pound Harrison had 49 tackles, two sacks, three tackles for losses and three passes defensed for Detroit.
Having become a father for the third time, Harrison wasn’t eager to get back into the game. Now, he says he’s ready.
“I just know wherever I end up will get the best version of me,” Harrison told SI.com’s Dallas Cowboys site on Tuesday morning.
The Packers could use him. Even after a strong game vs. the Falcons, Za’Darius Smith spent half of his Zoom reveling in his three-sack performance but also made a point to focus on the team’s run defense and tackling.
“We’re not doing too well in tackling and in the run game,” he said. “We’ve got to get back to work, man. We can’t harp on saying that that was a good defensive run for us because the last couple (games), we haven’t been doing good in the run game. So, we’re going to continue to work on that.”
Last year, of 64 interior defensive linemen to play at least 200 run-defending snaps, Harrison finished ninth in ProFootballFocus.com’s run-stop percentage, a metric that essentially measures impact tackles. He ranked No. 1 in five consecutive seasons from 2014 through 2018.
According to Sports Info Solutions, his average tackle on running plays the past three seasons limited the gain to 1.5 yards. Compare that to Green Bay’s No. 2 defensive tackle, Dean Lowry. His average tackle the past three seasons limited the gain to 2.5 yards. Tyler Lancaster, whose forte is stopping the run, has made his average tackle vs. the run 2.1 yards downfield during his three-year career.
Last year with Detroit, the Lions’ run defense was 0.81 yards better with Harrison on the field than when on the sideline.
Harrison, listed at 6-foot-3 and 350 pounds last season, is big and durable. He told SI.com that he’ll be “lighter than I’ve ever been to start a season.”
Harrison has been on the Packers’ radars for years. In 2012, former general manager Ted Thompson was at Iowa State’s pro day, an official from the Cyclones’ football operations staff said at the time. Asked whom Thompson might have been checking out, he listed a few Iowa State players and then added it “probably was some big guy from Division III that we let test here.”
That big guy earned All-Pro honors in 2016. Wherever he lands, he’ll add a key weapon in the championship arms race. If it’s a two-team race between Seattle and Green Bay, matching up against the rival 49ers no doubt would be a key reason to make the signing.
From a money perspective, the Packers have $7.37 million of cap space for this season compared to $4.67 million for Seattle. However, the Seahawks have $31.74 million of cap space for 2021 compared to just $4.00 million under OverTheCap’s 2021 projections.
