Shelby Harris will bring much needed pass rush power to the Seahawks

So much of the attention on the Seahawks and Broncos trade has focused on the quarterbacks, one key player has nearly been lost in the noise. Shelby Harris can make a huge impact on the ‘Hawks interior pass rush.

When the Seahawks moved on from the best quarterback in the history of their franchise, they did much more than offload salary. They brought in building blocks for the future in draft picks, which resulted in what has generally been acclaimed as the best Hawks draft in a decade. Listen, I’m not about to argue with Doug Baldwin’s assessment. Go right ahead if you want to.

The Hawks looked to the immediate future as well, bringing Drew Lock, Noah Fant, and Shelby Harris to Seattle. We’ve discussed Drew Lock until we’re blue in the face – College Navy, maybe – but haven’t really talked that much about Harris. There’s no better time than the present to correct that situation.

Shelby Harris can be the player Seahawks have missed since Bennett

On a recent broadcast of Jake and Stacy on Seattle Sports 710AM, Jake Heaps pointed out that Harris has been unjustly overlooked. He went on to say that while Harris has never been a Pro Bowler, he would bring the Seahawks an interior presence they’ve been missing for quite a while. As quoted by Brent Stecker for the Seattle Sports 710 website:

"“We’ve talked about pass rush, we’ve talked about edge rush and you love how it’s shaping up with Darrell Taylor, Nwosu and Boye Mafe, but you need serious help on the interior,” Heaps said. “You can look at Al Woods and Bryan Mone and Poona Ford and the job that they’ve done in the running game, and that’s all great. But you have not had great interior pass rush since 2018 when Jarran Reed provided you 10.5 sacks. Since that point, you have not had an interior pass rush.”"

I’m not saying Heaps is wrong. I’m pretty sure he knows about 738 times as much about football as I do. To be clear, he isn’t comparing Harris to Reed, either. He’s just talking about production. I think we can level up on the expectation of that production by looking a bit further into the Seahawks past. Let’s look at Michael Bennett.

Reed did have that great 2018 season. The problem is, he was still on the team in 2019 and 2020 and didn’t come close to repeating those numbers. 2019 can largely be written off as the league’s fault with their ridiculous suspension of Reed. 2020 is on him, though. His sacks dropped to 6.5 and QB hits to 14. Solid numbers, but it isn’t as if Reed had established himself at that 2017 level.

That’s why I’m referring to Bennett. Bennett posted at least 6.5 sacks and 18 QB hits seven times. Reed managed that just twice. Now, before you scurry off to check the same stats for Shelby Harris so you can call me out, I’ll save you the trouble. Shelby Harris has only managed six sacks twice in his career. He doesn’t even match Reed in QB hits, as his career-high is 11. He did post that number in 2020 and 2021, though.

So why am I implying – okay, straight up saying  – that Harris will be something of a hybrid between Reed and Bennett? Harris does play a lot of 3-technique, lining up outside the guard. That’s the same slot the Hawks typically used for Reed. The difference is that Harris can also slide out and play 5-technique, lining up outside of the opposing tackle.

According to Pro Football Focus, he lined up as the big end on 36 percent of his snaps last year. In that sense, he gives the Seahawks the flexibility to use him in multiple sets, just as they did with Bennett.

The other similarity Harris has with Seattle’s former three-time Pro Bowler is in tackles for loss. Bennett routinely posted double digits in this category. He slammed some poor dope to the turf in his own backfield at least a dozen times a year in eight of his eleven seasons in the league. He averaged 15 tackles for a loss per 16 games once he got into the rotation full time in 2011.

Harris isn’t at that level, no. In his best season, he recorded eight TFL and averaged 7.3 per 16-game season with Denver. Yes, that’s a bit under half of Bennett’s output. But now it’s time to look at Reed’s work in this department. Per 16 games, Reed has averaged 4.3 TFL in his career. Half of those tackles, literally 12 of his career 24, came in his spectacular 2017 season. Shelby Harris is simply a far more consistent player than Reed. He’ll give the Seahawks flexibility and consistency they haven’t had since Bennett.