FOXBORO, Mass. — The New England Patriots are typically hesitant to divulge too much information on a signing until they’ve seen that player in action.
The latest case in point is linebacker David Harris, who signed with the Patriots last month during the team’s break in action between the offseason workout period and training camp. So while Harris has been a member of the Patriots for over a month, coaches have yet to see how he’ll fit with the team.
“We thought he would be competitive with our team,” head coach Bill Belichick said. “We thought he would help our team. We’ll see how that goes. …
“David’s an experienced guy. He’s played a lot of football. He’s been in the division. He has pretty good familiarity with our opponents. But, yeah, we haven’t worked with him, so we’ll see how it goes. He’s had a very productive career, so we’ll see how it goes. Hopefully he’ll be able to help us.”
Linebackers coach Brian Flores has spoken to the linebacker, but he’s relying more on Harris’ body of work from 2007 to 2016 with the New York Jets.
“It really is more of what I’ve seen over the years,” Flores said. “He’s been with the Jets for a good number of years. I’ve kind of watched him that way. He’s been a productive player for a long time. We’ll see what he can do for us. Obviously like anyone else, he has to come in here and learn the system, obviously work hard, find a role and we’ll see how it all shakes out.”
Harris has missed just five games during his 11-year career. He went a span of 121 games without sitting out from 2008 until finally missing a game in 2016. Belichick has said in the past that availability is more important than ability.
“Well, there’s nothing more important than the health of the players,” Belichick said. “Look, those are eight years in another situation, another team, so they are what they are. They’re in the books. I don’t know if they really mean anything for this year. This year is this year for all of us. None of us have done anything. We all have a long way to go, we all have a lot of work to do, so we’re all in the same boat. We’re all pulling the same oar. That’s where it is right now. It doesn’t really matter what happened some other year, some other place, some other time.”
Thumbnail photo via David Butler II/USA TODAY Sports Images
