Christian Harris Profile: Why the Houston Texans drafted the linebacker in the 2022 NFL Draft

The Houston Texans picked Christian Harris with the 75th pick in the 2022 NFL draft.

Christian Harris' bio:

Just outside the top-100 overall recruits in 2019, Harris quickly established himself as a key cog for that Alabama defense, due to Dylan Moses' injury his freshman year. He collected a combined 140 tackles, 14.5 of those for loss, 4.5 sacks (all in 2020), three PBUs and a pick over his first two years. This past season, he recorded career-highs with 80 tackles, 11.5 for loss, 5.5 sacks, three PBUs and a couple of fumbles forced, after helping the Crimson Tide win a national title in 2020.

Christian Harris' strengths:

This was the best linebacker for Bama in 2020, despite playing alongside an All-SEC-level player in Dylan Moses. He’s excelled at MIKE and as the backer on the strong side of the formation for a team that made it to the Natty twice (with one win and loss each). Harris is such an explosive and physical athlete. He displays shock in those hands when he attacks the chest of blockers, who often outweigh him by nearly 100 pounds, and then extends to create an angle on the ball as the back tries to get through. He can also crash through one shoulder, to plug the hole right away, and is fearless with meeting pulling guards at the line of scrimmage. When the ball is in his vicinity, he won’t stay blocked.

At the same time, Harris has the 32-inch arms and lateral movement skills to scrape over blocks, as tight ends try to pin him inside on like jet sweeps. When he can shoot through a crease as the ball goes out toward the sideline, he has that 4.44 speed to run guys down. And he almost must be doing some kind of fingertip exercises, looking at how many tackles he finishes just by the end of his reach. Thanks to that, PFF only charged him with 1.5 percent missed tackle rate this past season.

In zone coverage, Harris is looking to pick guys up, with his hands ready to strike. He can stop his weight pretty effectively, to crowd the catch point with his long arms on hooks and curls over the middle. When there’s no target to focus on, his eyes transition to and follow the quarterback. Harris wasn’t asked to sink deep a lot, but he shows the speed to stick with tight ends as they take him vertically, when matched up with them initially, on like flat-to-wheel routes for example. And then he works downhill in a very controlled fashion, when the pass is completed in front of him, and he brings guys down pretty effectively.

When he’s given an open lane toward the quarterback, Harris arrives there in a hurry and puts some absolute licks on those guys. He does time his blitzes nicely, when the D-line slants away from him and the tackle is occupied with the outside rush. And even when that lane closes, as somebody comes off his initial block and gets in his way, Harris doesn’t slow down. He tries to finesse his way around. Alabama used him as the set-up man on twists, but also as a looper to the outside, where he can tilt around at a high speed and get around tightly, paired with upward rip. And you also saw him walk down late and give guards a little shake to beat them across the face at times.

Christian Harris' weaknesses:

However, Harris can float around a little too much with his run fits, opening up cutback lanes or giving up the frontside, when trying to back-door linemen working up to him. I’d like to see a quicker trigger when he recognizes guards pull and his vision on the backfield often seems lacking. In coverage, you don’t necessarily see great awareness for route patterns or him attaching to targets later on. Harris gave up an 82-yard touchdown to Georgia RB James Cook, who was flexed out wide and ran right by him on a fade route, where Harris misjudged the ball and badly missed it on his jump. While his speed and physicality are good assets as a rusher, he doesn’t actually get around blockers very effectively, but is often content with just charging into them. And finally, he doesn’t show great effort to chase after the ball when it’s going further away from him.

Conclusion on Christian Harris:

Harris put on a show at the NFL combine, when he was just two hundredths of a second off the fastest 40 among linebackers (4.44) and one inch off the top mark in the broad jump, as he levitated 11 feet. His change of direction looked sudden, and he made some excellent catches. So there is more potential for him as a coverage player, and technical refinement could really boost his rushing profile. The physical tools are all there to become an elite run defender, but his eyes take him to the wrong places too often still. Harris will probably be a couple of stops lower than the consensus, even though being as scheme-agnostic as he is, thanks to the all-around package he presents, will make him an intriguing option for almost every team.

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