On Friday night, the Eagles re-signed Anthony Harris to a one-year contract, bringing the 30-year veteran back to Philadelphia for a second season.
The move was first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter and confirmed by NBC Sports Philadelphia.
Harris became an unrestricted free agent this week, but the Eagles, desperate for safety assistance and either unwilling or uninterested in the expensive insurance in the market, brought back the longtime Viking.
Last year, the Eagles paid Harris $4 million on a one-year deal signed a year ago on Saturday, and while the terms of that deal are not yet known, it appears to be in the same range.
It’s a rather surprising move considering Harris’ play last year could best be described as boring and there was a sense the Eagles wanted to improve the safety point, which they can still do.
Harris was by no means terrible last year, but he wasn’t very productive in terms of big plays.
He really contributed to one of the Eagles’ biggest defensive games of the season. With 30 seconds left in the Eagles’ Week 17 game against Washington at FedEx Field and the Eagles went 20–16 up, Washington took 1st and 10th at the Eagles’ 20 yard line. Taylor Heinicke attempted to connect with tight end John Bates in the end zone, but Harris’ coverage forced Heinicke to throw the ball out of Bates’ reach and McLeod parried it to send the Eagles to the playoffs.
Pro Football Focus ranked Harris as the 13th best defenseman available this year in the free agency market.
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But given that the only safe players currently on the list are Marcus Epps, K’Von Wallace and Jared Maiden, it’s a safe move that at least brings back a functional NovaCare launch facility.
McLeod, the Eagles’ other starting quarterback last year, remains a free agent. McLeod and Harris both played in Virginia and entered the NFL as undrafted free agents.
Harris started 14 games last year in his first season with the Eagles and made 72 tackles, two tackles for loss, three pass deflections and an interception from Tom Brady in the regular season game when the Eagles lost to the Buccaneers.
In seven seasons in the NFL, Harris played in 95 games, started in 61, had 10 interceptions and 31 pass deflections. He led the NFL with six INTs in 2019, but since then Brady has only had one in two years.
Harris spent his first six seasons with the Vikings and current Eagles defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon was his assistant defensive coach from 2015 to 2017 before joining Frank Reich and Nick Sirianni in Indianapolis.
It was a pretty deep security class with no agents and players like Marcus Williams ($14 million a year for five years), Quandre Diggs ($13.3 million a year for three years), Justin Reed (10.5 million dollars a year for three years), Marcus May ($9.5 million a year for three years), Jordan Whitehead ($7.25 million a year for two years) and Xavier Woods ($5.25 million per year for three years) were clearly out of the Eagles’ price range.
By signing Harris for one year, the Eagles don’t have to worry about the repercussions of a limit or dead money in future seasons.