2. Chris Harris
Many were shocked that Chris Harris even returned to the LA Chargers for the 2021 season. The Chargers could have saved a fair portion of the salary cap by cutting Harris but instead, the team opted to cut Casey Hayward.
While some thought they would cut both, it made sense to cut Hayward and not Harris. Not only did the team save more money by cutting Hayward, but Harris is a better scheme fit as he can play man coverage in the slot.
Cutting Harris would have left a hole in the slot and an underperformer on the outside. It makes ample sense to draft that new outside corner to replace Hayward and get one more year out of Harris in the slot before drafting a slot corner in the mid-rounds of next year’s draft.
Like Joseph, it does not matter how well Harris plays in 2021, he should not be re-signed by the team for 2022 and beyond. He is on the wrong side of 30 and we just saw with Hayward how quickly that can affect a player. Heck, it already affected Harris and affected him before he was even a Charger.
The Chargers need to get young to build a truly respectable secondary. Having a core of Michael Davis, Asante Samuel Jr and a mid-round slot corner (assuming they get someone exciting) is far better than paying Harris to give the Chargers just one more year in 2022 and ignoring the slot corner position long-term.