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Re-signing Safety

 

Today, the Eagles officially re-signed safety Anthony Harris. 

The Good:

  • Cost: At 2.5M, this is a fairly inexpensive contract for a contributing veteran presence, less than the 5M deal Harris received from Philly last off season. 
  • Age: Harris, while not young, is not old.  He is with the Eagles on this contract only for his age 30 season.
  • 2021 Rebound: Harris passer rating when targeted metric improved from 118.1 in 2020 to 68.7 last year. His missed tackle rate dropped (good!) from 8.8% to 2.7%.
  • Familiarity: Harris brings back not only a year of experience in Jonathan Gannon’s Eagle defense, they worked together from 2015-17 when Gannon was the assistant DB coach in Minnesota.  

 

The Bad:

  • Salary Shrinkage: Harris has seen his salary cut dramatically last year (11.4M to 5M), and it is getting cut again in ‘22 (2.5M).  Not a good look, & suggests the Eagles were forced to buy into a descending player.
  • Expectations: Harris had 2 good years with Minnesota (2018 / 2019) before a down 2020 there.  He was signed with “bounce back” 2021 expectations.  He failed to stand out (good or bad) in 2021.  His safety grade (PFF) was 56th of 98 safeties.  And the Eagles clearly wanted to upgrade from Harris.
  • Impact Plays: Not enough in 2021… 1 pick, 3 passes defensed, 2 TFL’s, and 1 QB hit.
  • Market: Pro Football Focus rated Harris as only the 13th-best safety available this year in free agency.  His forecast has dropped quite a bit.  He was a much more valuable commodity last year when he left Minn.  From 2017-2019, Harris ranked among PFF’s highest graded safeties, but that is 3-5 years ago.

 

The Ugly:

  • Team weakness: Harris is part of a clear team weakness.  He’s currently “meh” at the position, with Marcus Epps and K’Von Wallace as non-impact non-starters behind Harris on the depth chart. 
  • Howie Plan A failed: Harris was not the Eagles first choice at safety in Free Agency.  The Eagles had their sights set higher...  They reportedly had interest in top FA Marcus Williams. But Williams allegedly turned down Philly to take similar money with the Ravens.  Harris was only rated the 13th best FA safety.
  • Howie Plan B unlikely: The best safety in the draft is a game changer, Kyle Hamilton.  But he will unlikely be available to Philly (they won’t pick till #15).  Safety is not a draft position of hi quality depth… Only 3 (Hamilton, Lewis Cine and Daxton Hill) have 1st round talent (With Hamilton a top 5 player and the other 2 likely bottom of the 1st round talents).  But the Eagles have never taken a safety in the 1st round.  This would be the only option enabling Harris to play alongside a top tier talent at Safety, but is unlikely.
  • Howie Plan C likely: The Eagles are picking at #51 and #83 on day 2.  Attractive safeties anticipated there (presuming the top 3 go in round 1, see Plan B above) are Baylor’s Jalen Pitre, Illinois’s Kerby Joseph,  & Bryan Cook of Cin. (Jaquan Brisker of Penn State is a box safety that does not fit Gannon’s scheme).    

 Eagles Lessons:  Unless something dramatically alters the safety position, Harris will be one of the starters, with the other being  a 2nd round talent from plan “C” above.  While this is not terrible, it suggests safety will be a position of adequacy rather than a strength in 2022.

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