The Saints’ experienced cornerback corps now includes one of this era’s most accomplished cover men. The team reached an agreement to bring in Chris Harris, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets.
New Orleans is adding the All-Decade corner on a practice squad deal. This opens the door to Harris playing a 12th NFL season. Prior to Harris signing a two-year deal with the Chargers in 2020, the Saints were in on the ex-Broncos stalwart. New Orleans will now see what the veteran defender has left. The Saints are planning to bump Harris up to their 53-man roster after a short ramp-up period, Troy Renck of Denver7 tweets.
Harris, 33, said before training camp he was generating interest. It is unclear how many teams pursued him, but he will rejoin Denver teammate Bradley Roby in New Orleans’ Marshon Lattimore-fronted secondary. The Saints had Paulson Adebo on their injury report last week and placed rookie Alontae Taylor on IR late last month.
The 11-year veteran landed on the 2010s’ All-Decade team for his slot consistency, and although Harris regularly played outside in Denver as well, the former UDFA’s Chargers role would point to the Saints eyeing him for his specialty skill. The Bolts used Harris mostly as their slot defender during his two-year Los Angeles run, but the team added Bryce Callahan this offseason. Despite being on the downside of his career, Harris was still effective when healthy in L.A. He finished with the lowest completion percentage allowed when lined up in the slot last season. That said, the four-time Pro Bowler missed 10 games during his two-year Charger run.
The Saints traded their slot man of recent years to the Eagles, unloading C.J. Gardner-Johnson after a contract dispute led to a brief hold-in period. Adebo missed the first two games this season due to injury but returned to a full workload alongside Lattimore and Roby in Week 4.