When a New England Patriots player is struggling or not meeting expectations, Bill Belichick often will speak about him in generalities, critiquing the team as a whole to avoid criticizing the individual. We’ve already seen that this season with Malcolm Butler, Alan Branch and, most recently, Nate Solder.
David Harris, however, has received only high praise from his head coach despite doing little on the field to warrant it.
The veteran linebacker, who starred for the New York Jets for a decade before signing with New England this past summer, has played a grand total of seven snaps through his first five games in a Patriots uniform. He did not see the field at all during Weeks 4 and 5 and was an end-of-the-bench player even when Dont’a Hightower was injured and unavailable.
Despite Harris’ extreme lack of playing time, though, Belichick seems perfectly pleased with what the 33-year-old has brought to the table this season.
“David’s done everything we’ve asked him to do,” the coach said in his Tuesday morning conference call. “He works hard. He’s been a great teammate. I couldn’t have asked for him to have any better attitude or any more cooperation than we’ve had from him. It’s been great.”
Belichick gave a similar answer when asked about Harris last month.
“David is a very experienced player, and I think he brings a lot of positives to our team,” he said following the Patriots’ Week 2 win over the New Orleans Saints. “We’ll see when those opportunities come, but I’m sure that they’ll be there.“
Will those opportunities finally come this Sunday, with the Patriots visiting Harris’ former team at MetLife Stadium?
“Well, we’ll keep making the best decisions we feel like we can make every week for the team to help us win,” Belichick said. “All the players that are here potentially have a role in that based on every game, game plan, situation, so forth. We’ll try to do what’s best for the team, like we always do.”
Thumbnail photo via Doug Kyed/NESN.com
