tommie harris
The Colts have been incredibly active today, signing Anthony Castonzo, bringing in Ernie Sims, and now doing what many Colts fans were calling for this offseason.
Sean Jensen is reporting that defensive tackle Tommie Harris has signed a one year deal with Indianapolis:
Former Bears defensive tackle Tommie Harris isn't going to have to move very far.
Harris has agreed to terms on a one-year deal with the Indianapolis Colts, according to a league source....
Harris visited the New England Patriots recently, but he's headed to the Colts, a club that runs a defense similar to the Bears.
Fans were clamoring for a Tommie Harris signing all off-season, and this is a great signing for them. Harris adds a proven defensive tackle to a lineup that is filled with largely unproven, young players who have potential, but haven't fulfilled it yet.
Harris was drafted 14th in 2004 by the Bears, and has been one of the league's best defensive tackles ever since. However, in the last couple years, Harris' skills have declined due to injury troubles. He's had problems with both knee and hamstring injuries in the last few years, and lost his starting position in 2010. After the season, Harris was cut by the Bears.
However, for the Colts, Harris is a cheap, low risk option to boost their defensive tackle rotation. Chris Polian has done a tremendous job of adding low-risk, high reward players in the past few days, and Harris is another one of those guys, at a position where the Colts truly needed it. Despite Harris' nagging injury bugs, he is still only 28, and could be a very productive player in the Colts system.
The only problem with this signing is that Harris has generally played at the under tackle position, a position where the Colts have plenty of options. The Colts defensive tackle roster looks like this as of now: Tommie Harris, Jamaal Anderson, John Gill, Ollie Ogbu, Fili Moala, Ricardo Matthews, Drake Nevis, Eric Foster, DeMario Pressley, and Antonio Johnson. Out of all of them, Johnson is the only proven one-tech, although Matthews may have potential there, and Nevis and Anderson are unknown. If Harris could be an effective one-tech for the Colts, it would be a perfect fit, if not, then we'll see what happens.
For now, we wait to see where this new front office goes next. Many Colts' fans are clamoring for Donte Whitner, ex-Bill, to sign with the Colts. I doubt this will happen, as Melvin Bullitt was just signed, and Whitner is rumored to be asking for a big contract. However, I would love to see it happen. Either way, this day has made Colts Nation quite excited for the 2011 season, as they should be.
In Polian we trust.
