HARRIS Resign or Not ..Wally

[VictoriaFan]

offer him some of Dean Vallis pay cheque, he hasn't done anything all year.

[Blitz]

Gary Lawless on TSN has written that Tedford and Harris have a "disconnect" and that Harris will not return to the Lions if Tedford is back. His piece had some other suppositions that were a little out there (Jim Popp to the Riders, Eric Tillman returning to the Riders) so I find his certainty a little dubious.
But I do have to admit that I have been concerned with Tedford and Cortez's use (or lack there of) of Harris for stretches this year.

If this is true, then it's time for Andrew to move on. First of all, he's the CFL's leading rusher. What more does he want? And, second, no player can be bigger than the team. I like Andrew a lot, though, and hope Lawless is blowing smoke.

Andrew Harris has made it very clear, publically on specific occasions that he has been unhappy with his role in the offence and the direction of the offence under three different offensive coordinators. I don't believe that was wise, nor was it wise for him to refuse to talk to reporters and storm out of the dressing room this year as well.

I don't agree that having a starting Canadian running back is a problem right now for our Leos. I believe we need to rotate in more for Harris. Eighteen games is a long season and this yeqr Harris has played almost all the time at tailback. Lochard has really not been given a chance and he is a runner who can run inside and outside. Murray Lawrence could be inserted and used on swing patterns and screens on passing downs to give Harris a break. Rainey can do the same thing. Lumbala could be inserted for second and long as a blocker on occasion (Chap used him in this way) and he could also be given a rep or two in short yardage situations.

Harris positively impacts the ratio. If he gets injured then we can insert an import tailback from the practice roster. That impacts the ratio in that situation but an import tailback playing regularly would impact the ratio even more.

Calgary was wise to trade for Messam. Something we could have considered. Messam can step in for Cornish, when injured or rotate in for him. We could also have drafted a National tailback who was more of a tailback and less of a return guy this season. But I still believe Lochard could get the job done, if needed.

In terms of salary, I'm sure Wally will be renegotiating Lulay's contract in the off-season and will get the bucks there or somewhere else. The big question in my mind is whether Wally really wants Harris back.

[WestCoastJoe]

Running backs are relatively easy to replace. Int RBs are almost a dime a dozen, and there are many, many good ones. A top level Nat RB is much more rare. Pretty much impossible to replace at the same level with a Nat RB.

Fortunately teams do have considerable ratio flexibility even if their draft/development program leaves much to be desired.

Part of the Andrew Harris situation is in regard to the fans. I think Andrew is something of a fan favourite. Certainly he is with me. I love his effectiveness. I love his Canadian passport. I love his style as a player. He reminds me of Walter Payton. Marcus Allen. Too high praise? Not in my opinion. Is he as good as those guys? No one said that. He can run with power. He can run with elusiveness. He can run with speed, football speed also. He is instinctive in what he does, subtle even. He is durable beyond durable. He is terrific as a receiver. And he is these things regardless of his passport.

Grumpy or unhappy at times? Might be. Passionate? At the highest level. Committed and courageous? At the highest level. As talented as any RB in the league? Beyond question. Storming out? Sure. Not advised. But IMO he is a very good citizen, and a very good teammate.

Does Wally want him back? Dunno. Does Andrew want to return? Dunno. Does Andrew have an issue with JT? I doubt it. I think all he wants is to run behind an effective O Line, with effective plays and play calling. As the media say, he needs his touches, and he needs support from the above.

Along with Joe Smith and Willie Fleming, he is amongst my all time favourite RBs with the Lions.

Will I, as a fan, be ticked if he moves on? It depends on how it happens, and how it is done. If he moves on, I will root for him to succeed. And against us, I will root for us to win, and for him to run wild. And that is something which IMO he is more than capable of doing.

[B.C.FAN]

Running backs are relatively easy to replace. Int RBs are almost a dime a dozen, and there are many, many good ones. A top level Nat RB is much more rare. Pretty much impossible to replace at the same level with a Nat RB.

Fortunately teams do have considerable ratio flexibility even if their draft/development program leaves much to be desired.

Part of the Andrew Harris situation is in regard to the fans. I think Andrew is something of a fan favourite. Certainly he is with me. I love his effectiveness. I love his Canadian passport. I love his style as a player. He reminds me of Walter Payton. Marcus Allen. Too high praise? Not in my opinion. Is he as good as those guys? No one said that. He can run with power. He can run with elusiveness. He can run with speed, football speed also. He is instinctive in what he does, subtle even. He is durable beyond durable. He is terrific as a receiver. And he is these things regardless of his passport.

Grumpy or unhappy at times? Might be. Passionate? At the highest level. Committed and courageous? At the highest level. As talented as any RB in the league? Beyond question. Storming out? Sure. Not advised. But IMO he is a very good citizen, and a very good teammate.

Does Wally want him back? Dunno. Does Andrew want to return? Dunno. Does Andrew have an issue with JT? I doubt it. I think all he wants is to run behind an effective O Line, with effective plays and play calling. As the media say, he needs his touches, and he needs support from the above.

Along with Joe Smith and Willie Fleming, he is amongst my all time favourite RBs with the Lions.

Will I, as a fan, be ticked if he moves on? It depends on how it happens, and how it is done. If he moves on, I will root for him to succeed. And against us, I will root for us to win, and for him to run wild. And that is something which IMO he is more than capable of doing.

That's pretty much how I see it. Harris is a fan favourite and MOP-calibre running back with excellent receiving skills that haven't been fully utilized under Cortez. The team could replace him with two Americans for the same money but I doubt that they would get the same level of production. I don't know what impact Harris has in the locker room, but on the field he is a positive force that opponents game-plan to stop.

[WestCoastJoe]

Running backs are relatively easy to replace. Int RBs are almost a dime a dozen, and there are many, many good ones. A top level Nat RB is much more rare. Pretty much impossible to replace at the same level with a Nat RB.

Fortunately teams do have considerable ratio flexibility even if their draft/development program leaves much to be desired.

Part of the Andrew Harris situation is in regard to the fans. I think Andrew is something of a fan favourite. Certainly he is with me. I love his effectiveness. I love his Canadian passport. I love his style as a player. He reminds me of Walter Payton. Marcus Allen. Too high praise? Not in my opinion. Is he as good as those guys? No one said that. He can run with power. He can run with elusiveness. He can run with speed, football speed also. He is instinctive in what he does, subtle even. He is durable beyond durable. He is terrific as a receiver. And he is these things regardless of his passport.

Grumpy or unhappy at times? Might be. Passionate? At the highest level. Committed and courageous? At the highest level. As talented as any RB in the league? Beyond question. Storming out? Sure. Not advised. But IMO he is a very good citizen, and a very good teammate.

Does Wally want him back? Dunno. Does Andrew want to return? Dunno. Does Andrew have an issue with JT? I doubt it. I think all he wants is to run behind an effective O Line, with effective plays and play calling. As the media say, he needs his touches, and he needs support from the above.

Along with Joe Smith and Willie Fleming, he is amongst my all time favourite RBs with the Lions.

Will I, as a fan, be ticked if he moves on? It depends on how it happens, and how it is done. If he moves on, I will root for him to succeed. And against us, I will root for us to win, and for him to run wild. And that is something which IMO he is more than capable of doing.

That's pretty much how I see it. Harris is a fan favourite and MOP-calibre running back with excellent receiving skills that haven't been fully utilized under Cortez. The team could replace him with two Americans for the same money but I doubt that they would get the same level of production. I don't know what impact Harris has in the locker room, but on the field he is a positive force that opponents game-plan to stop.

[DanoT]

Gary Lawless, like a lot of journalists some times runs out of things to write about so they make things up, err I mean speculate. Earlier in the year it was "Tedford will be fired if the Lions don't win", then it was "Tedford is not happy and will leave at the end of the season", now it is "Tedford and Harris don't get along". What is next?

We do a lot of speculating on Lionbackers but unlike journalists who reach thousands of fans, we only communicate with a few dozen fans so we can't really do much harm.

[TheLionKing]

offer him some of Dean Vallis pay cheque, he hasn't done anything all year.

And Matt Norman's. At least Valli has played some. Norman has yet to see the field.

[Blitz]

There are Leos fans and Harris himself who believe that he has not been utilized enough in our offence over the years.

While there have been games in which Harris has had few carries or has been stuffed at the line of scrimmage too often, that has mainly been the result of our offensive structure. We have been in the spread offence too often and defenses have loaded the box. We either ran Harris into a brick wall, with two many defenders to run block or we didn't give Harris the football because our results were dismal.

However, when you look at our utilization of Harris from 2012 to present day, he has been utilized more than any tailback in the CFL.

The CFL has always carried stats on rushing attempts but until this season it did not count the number of times a receiver or tailback was targeted in the passing game. However, a tailback usually has a very high percentage of receptions per number of times targeted.

2012- 3rd most rushing attempts, 75 receptions – 1st. (note - overall we were 2nd in CFL rushing attempts)
2013 -3rd most rushing attempts, 61 receptions – 1st
2014 – 6th most in rushing attempts, 46 receptions – 1st (injured for part of the season
2015 - 1st in rushing attempts, 59 targeted passes- 1st, 46 receptions – 2nd (Messam has been trargeted 58 times and has 47 receptions)

When both rushing and passing are put together Harris has been utilized more than any other tailback in the CFL, since he became a starter. In 2012 and 2013 Jon Cornish and Korey Sheets rushed the football more often but were rarely used in their teams passing attack. Instead they were mainly used as pass blockers.

In 2013 Harris was 3rd in rushing attempts and 1st amongst tailbacks in receptions, even though he shared tailback duties with Stefan Logan for the last part of the season.

In 2014 Harris was injured and that impacted his number of times rushed but still he was used in the passing attack more than any other CFL tailback.

This season Harris has the most carries in the CFL. He has rushed the football 203 times –Sutton is 2nd with 144 rushes and Messam 3rd with 135 rushing attempts.

I believe the stats tell a number of stories. The first, as mentioned above is that overall, Harris is a highly utilized back in our offence and always has been since becoming a starter - in fact, in terms of both rushing and passing the most utilized tailback in the CFL. Secondly, because we have utilized him a lot in terms of both rushing and passing, he has been targeted by defenses as the way to minimize our offence.

Therefore we have seen the box loaded up, especially inside by defenses due to our penchant to run the inside zone read on first down. Harris has also often been spied in the passing attack. Thirdly, I believe the stats also tell the value of Andrew Harris as a tailback to our team and he is a National to boot.

In terms of the utilization of Harris - in terms of how defenses are defending him, I believe we need to

1) use more variety of running plays, as we did last game and also attack the perimeter more often in our running attack
2) use power formations more often, as we have done recently, to provide more blockers when we run the football, since defenses load the box
3) play action pass often on first down, as we also have done recently and focus on the weakness of defenses as they load the box
4) come back to Harris more often later in the game, when we have forced defenses to adjust to our play action pass success on first down and their defensive lineman are tired as well and
5) use Harris more often in the passing attack with screen passes and combination route pick plays that allow Harris to negate the spy defender that is often used on him in the passing game.

Should we sign Harris to a new contract? Yes. The length of time is not important because contracts are not guaranteed anyway. Harris is still a very productive back at 29 years of age and he is a double threat, which is very important. His pass blocking is not good enough and he doesn't seem to like pass blocking but overall, with his National passport and his variety of skills, he should be signed to a new contract and a very good one. He deserves it, based on his past record, his performance this season, and his age is not a factor at this point. He has also been healthy for most of his time as a Leo.

Harris has been too outspoken. maxlion's point that no player is bigger than the team is bang on. Harris is also a leader or is supposed to be one on our Leos team. Leaders are mature, do not sulk or complain publically when they do not get the football for enough carries in a game or are not targeted enough. Harris is not the young rookie, with the great story of playing junior football in Nanaimo, after coming West, and then winning the top Canadian in the Grey Cup game, in his first season as a starter.

He is now a veteran on our Leos team. Sometimes he needs to see the big picture and sometimes our offensive coordinators have needed to see the big picture too but those things should be done internally. However Buono should not hold this against Harris, who is passionate and sometimes lacks impulse control with his comments but Buono can do some of his famous 'mentoring' as a 'legend' rather than taking those occasional outbursts by Harris personally.

Harris is also a fan favorite. This should not be the primary factor but it is a factor with attendance dwindling and the fan base dissolving. Attendance has been used as the reason for Wally getting rid of people so it should also be considered when offering new contracts too.

What we should be doing is platooning Harris more often. We should be giving Rainey and Murray Lawrence some reps on some passing downs and getting their speed into space. We should be giving Lochard the odd carry on first down and spelling Harris off. We can also use Lumbala out of the spread on second down as a blocking back for some second and long passing attempts. We need to keep Harris fresher, especially over an 18 game season.

[Hambone]

I find Harris to be somewhat enigmatic. He shows brilliance then when he gets the ball in space. Between the tackles he often leaves me wanting and looking for more. At times he has me wondering about his ability to read the holes and adjust. Utilization-wise I'd agree that he has been underutilized as a receiver out of the backfield. He's best when he gets the ball with room. Quite often though when I see him release out of the backfield it seems like he's winding up going in the opposite direction from where the QB is rolling. In terms of carrying the ball he's already surpassed his previous career high of 198. He's at 203 carries and counting with 2 games to go. Going into training camp he's talked about wanting to take on more of a leadership role which is a positive. However some of his actions indicate he's still not ready to walk the walk 24/7.

It will make for a difficult negotiation if Tedford wants him back and really that's where the decision lies. There's no sense in Wally trying to break the bank if Harris isn't a must-sign player in Tedford's eyes.

Other factors that will have a play:
Harris will be 29 in April. This is his last chance to get a max value contract. He will be pushing for that.
Harris will be 29 in April. He's at what is normally deemed the back half of a RB's prime. He's quickly approaching a point when running backs start to show signs of decline.
Harris lives in Winnipeg in the offseason. His daughter lives there too.

My gut feel is that if the Bombers have strong interest in Harris, and why wouldn't they, they will be difficult to compete with. Buono will have to outbid them, perhaps by quite a bit. Simply matching them won't get it done. If the Bombers want to break the bank then there is no chance of Harris returning to BC.

[cromartie]

offer him some of Dean Vallis pay cheque, he hasn't done anything all decade.

FTFY

Seriously, though. I love Andrew as much as the next fan, and if he stays, I'll be happy.

But if Wally is Wally, he probably assumes Andrew is expendable, getting up there in age and that someone will pay more for his services than he thinks a RB pushing 30 is worth. Ultimately, it's better to lose a guy a year too early than a year too late so....

[peeby]

I'm goin' with the Harris to Winnipeg crowd here. I'm from Winnipeg originally and knew a bunch of ex-Winnipeggers out here. I wouldn't go back for love or money, but I'm alone in that. All these other people I've known swear by the place. Andrew Harris may be one of them. Add to that, that the Bomber playbook was always geared toward having a strong RB. Not sure about now, but they've had some pretty slick ball-carriers over the years. Why wouldn't Harris go if really good money was offered? He has to try and earn as much as he can right now, because it ends in a year or two.

Now, will Travis Lulay join him there? Or maybe SK or MTL?

[Spud387]

I'm goin' with the Harris to Winnipeg crowd here. I'm from Winnipeg originally and knew a bunch of ex-Winnipeggers out here. I wouldn't go back for love or money, but I'm alone in that. All these other people I've known swear by the place. Andrew Harris may be one of them. Add to that, that the Bomber playbook was always geared toward having a strong RB. Not sure about now, but they've had some pretty slick ball-carriers over the years. Why wouldn't Harris go if really good money was offered? He has to try and earn as much as he can right now, because it ends in a year or two.

Now, will Travis Lulay join him there? Or maybe SK or MTL?

I believe Winnipeg is his 2nd choice, but BC is his #1 choice. He has business relationships here that he'll want to be involved with and those could be impacted if he went to Winnipeg. If BC doesn't work out, Winnipeg would probably be top on his radar.

I suspect Lulay is stay on as a Lion in the veteran backup role, eventually transitioning to a coach. I don't think any other team is going to offer him more playing time considering his injury history. He also has a young family. It'll be good to have a veteran back up. Jennings has been lights out so far, but as we have seen time and time again, young QBs showing tons of promise to end a season only to show up next year and not have nearly the same success. I am hoping that is not the case, but Jennings is no guarantee yet.

[Hambone]

I'm goin' with the Harris to Winnipeg crowd here. I'm from Winnipeg originally and knew a bunch of ex-Winnipeggers out here. I wouldn't go back for love or money, but I'm alone in that. All these other people I've known swear by the place. Andrew Harris may be one of them. Add to that, that the Bomber playbook was always geared toward having a strong RB. Not sure about now, but they've had some pretty slick ball-carriers over the years. Why wouldn't Harris go if really good money was offered? He has to try and earn as much as he can right now, because it ends in a year or two.

Now, will Travis Lulay join him there? Or maybe SK or MTL?

I believe Winnipeg is his 2nd choice, but BC is his #1 choice. He has business relationships here that he'll want to be involved with and those could be impacted if he went to Winnipeg. If BC doesn't work out, Winnipeg would probably be top on his radar.

I suspect Lulay is stay on as a Lion in the veteran backup role, eventually transitioning to a coach. I don't think any other team is going to offer him more playing time considering his injury history. He also has a young family. It'll be good to have a veteran back up. Jennings has been lights out so far, but as we have seen time and time again, young QBs showing tons of promise to end a season only to show up next year and not have nearly the same success. I am hoping that is not the case, but Jennings is no guarantee yet.

Perhaps he's involved in more things but from what I heard Harris' business relationships here may amount to a sandwich shop/deli around Davie and Thurlow. That's a fairly portable business that could be easily relocated to his offseason home in Winnipeg where his daughter also lives. I guess the question is would he want to continue splitting the year between the two places or would he be getting to where he wants to live/work year around in the same location be it Vancouver or Winnipeg? Football careers being as terminal as they are he's probably looking at maybe 3 more years.

[B.C.FAN]

Harris has made Vancouver his year-round home and has been looking to establish business interests that he can continue in his post-football life. The sandwich shop is a partnership with ex-teammates Jon Hameister-Ries and Andrew Jones. Hameister-Ries is a chef and the driving force behind the restaurant. Hameister-Ries also has an MBA and works for a Vancouver financial-services firm. He won't be relocating the business to Winnipeg, although expansion could be a possibility.

I fully expect to see Harris in B.C. next year, splitting his time between the Lions and his growing business interests. His popularity as a Lion creates opportunities for him off the field.

[DanoT]

I've been to Meat City and it is a fast food type sandwich shop, not a restaurant. I had a decent sandwich but really it is nothing special.

Danny's Whole Pig BBQ And Bucks Sports Bar in Winnipeg is much better.