LA Chargers: Five overrated and underrated Madden 21 rankings
Overrated: Chris Harris, 87
Chris Harris was a huge addition for the LA Chargers as a slot corner in free agency. There’s still some confusion as to exactly role he’ll play in 2020, but both he and the Chargers have signaled that he’ll move back to the slot.
Most of Harris’ 2019 decline when talking about statistics had to do with Vic Fangio forcing him to play outside cornerback. The depth of the LA Chargers’ secondary allows Harris to go back to what he does best-slot coverage. Last year’s coverage grade was about 18 points lower for Harris than when he previously played slot corner in 2018.
Cornerbacks tend to hit somewhat of a wall around 30 as well. It’s less of a concern when Harris is going back to the slot, but if an injury were to happen to Casey Hayward or Michael Davis, it wouldn’t necessarily be an optimal transition to put him on the outside again.
What will help Harris is playing with a much better secondary than he had the last few years in Denver. It wasn’t exactly the 2015 “No Fly Zone” era for the Broncos’ defense in recent years. Whether he’s playing mostly in the slot or getting even a couple outside snaps, having a loaded secondary helps aging corners.
This is mostly a matter of personal philosophy for me. While I still think Harris is solid for what he does, it’s tough for me to give a rating higher than 85 to an aging corner with an incomplete game. He’ll have better pieces around him, but there’s certainly a possibility of age-related decline.