Lions Claim Chris Harris Off Waivers From The Bears

by Brandon on Oct 28, 2011 4:30 PM CDT in Green Bay Packers News

Detroit Lions Claim Former Bears Safety Chris Harris - Pride Of Detroit. With five wins on the season, the Lions had to be at the bottom of waiver priority list. I guess S Chris Harris would have been become a free agent if the Lions hadn't claimed him. Sean Yuille didn't really answer the one question I want to know: why did the Lions claim him?

They've had injury concerns in the past, but starting FS Louis Delmas hasn't missed a game this season and starting SS Amari Spievey has only missed one game. They certainly don't need a starter. If Harris was unhappy about sitting on the bench in Chicago, it looks like he could be doing the same in Detroit.

But Spievey was drafted as a cornerback, and converted to safety in 2010 because the Lions didn't have a better option. Maybe the Lions are interested in moving Spievey back to cornerback, and maybe they view Harris as their starting safety in the future, or later this season. While they could make the switch this season, it's probably too late to get Harris up to speed with the defense by this Sunday. Maybe they talked to Harris before they made the claim, and he's willing to sit on the bench in Detroit. While any of those possibilities could be true, none of them seem like an obvious explanation.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks for Chris Harris, and while my general impression of veterans released mid-season is that they're done, this might be a situation where a player just needed a change of scenery. The Bears might have inadvertently helped one of their main playoff rivals.

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I have to believe he's brought in as a backup.

Whether or not he’ll be happy about that. Obviously, I could be mistaken. The Lions moved Vincent Fuller to the IR and Erik Coleman has already been placed on the IR. Spievey has missed some time, but with two of our backups out for the year, Safety was a position of need….just not a starting safety in my opinion.

It's turkey, Lions and Macy's. Any other combination is just ludicrous.

Twitter is for pussies. I follow people in real life.

"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy." - Charlie McCarthy

by Leonuro on Oct 28, 2011 4:57 PM CDT reply actions

I didn't know about Fuller and Coleman

So that makes sense. As you mentioned, Harris might not be happy about the backup role.

by Brandon on Oct 28, 2011 5:18 PM CDT up reply actions

I have an interesting theory:

Week 8: Lions/Broncos
Week 9: Lions bye
Week 10: Lions at Bears

Now, it may not be the PRIMARY reason they got him, but I don’t think it’s entirely wrong to think they claimed him as a way of getting some intel / extra scouting of matchups and schemes. Reminds me of how Danny Woodhead basically landed with the Pats because he used to be a Jet.

Also, hi. That was my first post here; been posting occasionally on Brew Crew Ball since the summer and figured I might as well make the transition.

by MisterInformative on Oct 28, 2011 5:12 PM CDT reply actions

WELCOME!

I’m sure that in part, this was to get some insight as to what they were gameplanning against the Lions in their first encounter. If he is an intelligent man, and I have no idea as to how intelligent he is, he will be able to tell coaches a lot about what the Bears can and can’t do on defense. He knows better than anyone what every player’s weaknesses and strengths are, as well as who is hiding injuries and who’s injuries are more severe than people are letting on. Also, as a starting safety, he knows the best way to scheme around the Bears version of the tampa-2. He knows which routes the Bears like to run, and which players deserve the attention.

I’m sure this was a big reason why they picked him up.

by Nels Winkler on Oct 28, 2011 5:37 PM CDT up reply actions

You can think that if you want

but it’s much simpler. The Lions put their 4th safety on IR and would have been short on depth if they hadn’t picked up Harris.

Harris is not going to be the starter, even against the Bears. He might rotate in, but that’s about it.

No slogans. Just win!!!

by drgarnett on Oct 28, 2011 6:28 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

I didn't say gamesmanship was their sole reason

but it’s foolish to think it’s not a residual benefit.

by MisterInformative on Oct 28, 2011 7:30 PM CDT up reply actions

Not really.

These are two division rivals, who know each other, and each other’s tendancies, better than you know the back of your hand.

Any “residual benefit” would be so miniscule as to not be worth consideration as a factor in the motivation for the Lions to claim him.

But, we’ll see.
If the Leos release him right after that Bares game, then you may be on to something. ;)

"Perfection is not attainable,
but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."

"It's a great day to be great, baby!"

Skol is a four-letter word.

The Munsters of the Midway still suck!

by NorthStarr on Oct 29, 2011 12:59 AM CDT up reply actions

You mean, no Charles Woodson 2.0?

by mike_o on Oct 28, 2011 6:10 PM CDT reply actions

No, not 2.0

46/21 is approximately 2.19

It's turkey, Lions and Macy's. Any other combination is just ludicrous.

Twitter is for pussies. I follow people in real life.

"Ambition is a poor excuse for not having sense enough to be lazy." - Charlie McCarthy

by Leonuro on Oct 28, 2011 6:14 PM CDT up reply actions

/sarcasm ^

by mike_o on Oct 28, 2011 6:33 PM CDT up reply actions

It's crazy how fast people's opinions on Windy City Gridiron changed

Last year, they were trying to argue that Harris was better, or at least as good as, Nick Collins. I remember he occasionally used to post little things on their site (and I believe he sent a couple respectful FanShots on here too), and all of them were sucking up to him.

This year, the overwhelming majority of those guys starting ripping on him when he had that bad game coming back from injury. Then when he asked to be traded, it was like they hated the dude. Go over and read their threads about him getting released…….they sound like how I imagine we would sound if Jarrett Bush got cut (for argument’s sake, assume this would have been a few years ago, when he had NO redeeming qualities, instead of his current form).

Angelo: Right….so anyways Jay, I’m sure you understand that we needed to make this move and I wanna wish you the best of luck.

Cutler: (Swoops bangs out of eyes by throwing his head back) Whatever, I don’t need this team or you.
/Leaves in a huff
//Writes bad poetry on his blog

Grossman: What the fuck is Wilford Brimley’s problem?

by Packers3485 on Oct 28, 2011 7:53 PM CDT up reply actions

Crazy, yeah. Sort of like how Packer fans turned on Nick Barnett.

No slogans. Just win!!!

by drgarnett on Oct 28, 2011 7:55 PM CDT up reply actions 2 recs

Barnett's always had his share of haters, which reached it's peak with "Team Picture-gate"

Angelo: Right….so anyways Jay, I’m sure you understand that we needed to make this move and I wanna wish you the best of luck.

Cutler: (Swoops bangs out of eyes by throwing his head back) Whatever, I don’t need this team or you.
/Leaves in a huff
//Writes bad poetry on his blog

Grossman: What the fuck is Wilford Brimley’s problem?

by Packers3485 on Oct 28, 2011 7:57 PM CDT up reply actions

I don't think we turned on barnett

we sort of accepted that the first mlb to restructure their contract was going to stay and the other was going to be released. Few doubt that Nick was and is better than AJ, but we knew we were only going to keep one of the two. AJ is younger, a little quicker, and beat Nick to the punch.

And I also don’t think that if Bush got hurt, came back too early and got beat a few times in a game, we’d understand and cut him more slack.

Bears fans by nature are manic-depressive and the same person who is being crucified one week makes a marginally good play the next, he’s the second coming of Tim Tebow. They think Forte is going to win the MVP (actually a fair argument, but not gonna happen unless Brees AND Rodgers AND Brady fall off in production and he keeps his pace) running away.

by Nels Winkler on Oct 28, 2011 11:54 PM CDT up reply actions

The second comming of? Tebow/ Christ?

I planned on watching the Chargers game but…..after reading this, I’ll have to watch the Pontiac Pussy Cats too. The Pack always goes to the SB in two’s. Make book on that. Go Spartans/ screw the cornholers and who is TimTebow?

cpocraig
If beauty is skin deep then ugly goes to the bone.

by cpocraig on Oct 29, 2011 12:42 AM CDT up reply actions

that was my feeling too…I didn’t turn on him, I still thought he was good player, but for the best interest of the team it was time for him to move on (save money allow someone else to start).

The Green Bay Packers...Putting bad coaches out of their misery since 2010

by TrevorR on Oct 29, 2011 8:00 AM CDT up reply actions

This

I still don’t know how he all of the sudden wasn’t better than AJ Hawk after being much better than him for Hawk’s entire career in GB.

Fire Slocum

by packallday555 on Oct 29, 2011 10:50 AM CDT up reply actions

The D played better when Nick was out and Hawk took over

Nitschke never wore an earring!

by angus3k on Oct 29, 2011 6:09 PM CDT up reply actions 1 recs

I know but how much of that had to do with how much the defense improved everywhere else? Raji moving to NT helped the pass rush a whole lot. Shields coming gave us a legit nickel back, and Williams breaking out helped a ton. Not too mention Peprah coming in was a lot better than Bigby had been.

Not too mention just being in the scheme for a second season, which probably helped things too.

Fire Slocum

by packallday555 on Oct 29, 2011 6:35 PM CDT up reply actions

I just remembered how all the players said

how great it was not having Barnett at training camp, maybe that helped?

Nitschke never wore an earring!

by angus3k on Oct 29, 2011 7:03 PM CDT up reply actions

His annoying tweets probably didn’t help people’s opinions of him either. When you start to dislike a guys personality, it changes how you look at them on the field too.

The Green Bay Packers...Putting bad coaches out of their misery since 2010

by TrevorR on Oct 31, 2011 10:27 AM CDT up reply actions

Age, injuries,

a maturation by Hawk when thrust into the role he took on after NB went on IR last year.

No one facter, by itself, but a combination of them.

Plus, I never really believed that Hawk was ever that bad in the first place; always felt that he got something of a bum rap for not living up to everybody’s expectations as a #5 overall pick.

Just for that reason, alone,
he’ll never be good enough for some, I think.

"Perfection is not attainable,
but if we chase perfection we can catch excellence."