Harris was a reclamation project when he signed with the Lions in 2021, a former first-round pick whose career seemed to be on the fritz.
He struggled through three nondescript seasons with the Miami Dolphins, got traded to the Atlanta Falcons for the measly price of a seventh-round pick, then blossomed out of the blue in Detroit, where he had a career-high and team-leading 7½ sacks in 2021.
Harris played well enough that season to earn a two-year, $13 million contract to stay with the Lions in free agency and was ticketed to play a key pass rush role last fall.
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But he suffered a groin injury early in the season, missed 11 of the Lions’ final 13 games and underwent surgery after landing on injured reserve in November.
After a spring of rehab, Harris said he feels like he’s “back at ground zero,” trying to prove himself again.
“Same mentality,” he told the Free Press this week. “I don’t look at myself as high up on the food chain or nothing like that. I feel like I’m at the bottom. That’s the thing about it. I remember A.G. (Lions defensive coordinator Aaron Glenn) kind of said, he told us a couple years ago, whatever happened last year was last year, nobody remembers that kind of stuff. So that’s the same way I think about it. I see the highlights of the film, it doesn’t matter to me and I’m trying to put new stuff out there.”
Harris, who had 6½ sacks in his four NFL seasons before coming to Detroit, took first-team reps at outside linebacker at mandatory minicamp this week and will compete with James Houston and Julian Okwara for the starting job in training camp.
Harris gushed about Houston’s play last season, when the sixth-round pick had eight sacks in seven games in his absence.
But he said watching his team play without him was one of his hardest experiences in football.
“You want to be out here and play ball,” Harris said. “I come off a great year and I want to put in another better year. It was a season of high expectations and you don’t expect to be out for the season, but at the same time, I learned a lot through that process. Taking that backseat and just focus on my body, listen to my body.”
Harris took on a mentorship with Houston and some of the Lions’ other young pass rushers last season, and he spent some of his downtime studying his own game.
He watched film of himself from OTAs in 2021 and 2022, he watched how he moved in camp last season and the details of his technique, and he came away convinced he’s a better player now.
“I feel like I’m really better,” he said. “Pass rush standpoint, I think mentally I’m just a lot smarter, a lot sharper as a football player. You’re in the same system for the most part, you just know your plays better. Know your plays, know tendencies. … And the physical part, that’s all going to come along. The hands, the footwork, the pass rush technique, the run technique, all that kind of stuff. That’s going to come with just reps and doing it over and over in camp. Right now, this isn’t a time for everybody to be at the top of their game. It’s really going into camp and at the end of camp, when I get through with the first two weeks, we play that first preseason game and you’re like, ‘Yeah, I’m built (for this).’ ”
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Harris said he agreed to take a pay cut to stay in Detroit this offseason, cutting his base salary in half to $3 million, because wanted to see through the organizational turnaround that he helped start.
The Lions went 3-12-1 in 2020, won three games in Harris’ first season, went 9-8 last year and are the favorites to win the NFC North now.
“When you’re one of the ones that helped put the fertilizer down, you want to see the tree grow,” he said.
Lions coach Dan Campbell said Harris has helped the tree grow with his selfless approach, and is positioned again to help the team this fall.
“Charles has picked up where he left off from before the injury,” Campbell said. “I’ll tell the story every year, but came in two years ago and gave him an opportunity, basically playing for minimum and earn the right, earn his right to be out there and he did that. And worked his way right up the depth chart and he’s playing for us, he’s productive. Works out on both sides. He has an injury. Well, he doesn’t miss a beat. He’s back at it, he’s working and to him it’s like, ‘I’m at the bottom again. I’m on my way back up.’ That’s his approach. And I mean, to last in this league and be a good player in this league and produce, like, you have to have that mindset and he’s got it.”
Contact Dave Birkett at dbirkett@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @davebirkett.