Chris Harris: 54 snaps for the LA Chargers
Chris Harris is the oldest member of the secondary for the LA Chargers and with his age, and the fact that he got injured last season, I would have expected the team to be somewhat cautious with his playing time.
While Harris is a big name he is not the same player that he was four years ago and is not the most efficient cornerback on the defense. He does still bring value, though, and I would have predicted that the team would have maximized that value by keeping him fresh and essentially not playing him on first downs.
That was not the case as the Chargers ran five defensive backs nearly the entire game and had Harris playing safety while they were moving Derwin James around the defense.
Staley stressed the importance of being a versatile defense and not falling in love with one personnel grouping or style of play. The biggest emphasis for him in the offseason was that they would cater the defense to the opponent.
So we definitely should have expected some different looks from this defense. What I did not expect was Chris Harris to play safety in Week 1 and play 98% of the defensive snaps.
Harris did fine and this is by no means an effort to say that he should have played less but it still was shocking to see him in this role.