David Harris (LB NYJ)

[meatwad10]

Haven't seen much buzz on this guy, but his past 2 games are very startling. 41 tackles in 2 games, 24 in tonights game, where did this guy come from? Is he just picking up tackles by his teammates lack of production, or is he really just everywhere on the field?

[killiansjmd]

He's the Jets 2nd round pick from Michigan. He's been starting the last 2 weeks with Vilma going on the IR.
It's only been two starts for him but he's been real solid for the Jets in run support. He struggled yesterday trying to cover Cooley.

[CC]

He was absolutely awesome at Michigan last year, all over the field making plays. I obviously wasn't expecting this but the guy is a tackling machine. I picked him up in my IDP league.

[Atog]

Everybody on Michigan's star-studded defense last year (Leon Hall, Lamarr Woodley, Alan Branch, etc. ...all All-Americans as I recall) said that the best player on their defense was David Harris. Unlike everybody else Harris sort of come out of nowhere his senior year but he extremely productive.
He's a classic throwback run-stopper and although he's not embarrassingly bad at coverage, stopping the run and making tackles is his specialty...it's a Michigan thing.

Once upon a time the man in my avatar was at a coaching convention where a high school coach was trying to teach college coaches a completely new defensive strategy that he was convinced would revolutionize the game. When somebody asked him why his team did so poorly on defense, then, the coach responded by saying that his team wasn't good at tackling. So, the guy in my avatar said (paraphrasing) "screw strategy, the key to playing effective defense is fundamental tackling!"

That has been the University of Michigan defensive philosophy for the last 35 years or so.