I feel bad for Darius Harris
 

Darius Harris took over the starter role once Willie Gay Jr. missed his games. He played at an extremely high level and did everything he could to earn himself some playing time.

Well Willie is back and as a result Harris has played 20 defensive snaps since and only had 3 snaps on defense Sunday night. I'm glad Willie is back and don't think Harris should take any snaps from him, but they have been starting Leo Chenal and he has not looked good at all. Why can Harris not play that LB position? Harris looked great filling gaps on run plays and making the tackle and he's a much better pass defender. So why is he not starting over Leo?

the chiefs ****ing destroyed tennessee outside of two plays and you're whining about darius harris? LMAO

Because this isn't Madden

Agreed. Harris needs to start over Chenal. Came to that conclusion rewatching the game last night.

Chenal hasn't done anything with his opportunities while Harris shined.

What in my post is whining? Leo Chenal was one of the main reasons they had that 48 yd pass play, cuz he missed a tackle.

Ok, explain to my why Harris can't play that LB position.

SFC

And while we're here, Willie Gay needs to wrap up and tackle more consistently. He always seems to have a few plays per game where he either over runs the play or just drops a shoulder and the ball carrier keeps on going.

Play gooder Foosball

Second this but they are two different kinds of linebackers. Maybe when we play different style of teams than Tenn he will get more time.

Chenal is the first guy that misses that tackle on Okonkwo and should have stopped him for a 3-4 yd gain.

Shrug. All i know is Harris is a sure tackler. Chenal...not so much.

Yeah the tackling things was supposed to be Chenals calling card but yeah Harris looked much better out there

I get that they play different positions, but what is it that Chenal is supposedly better at? Also Harris' two best games were against the Colts and Raiders. Both of those teams are pretty similar to the Titans.

He had some really good tackles in the Titans game.

We needed a white LB after Niemann left. Hence, Chenal gets the nod.

I think Harris swaps out with Chenal depending on the gameplan. They weren't worried about covering the pass as much so they put in Chenal to help stop the run.

He did. He also had a couple of plays where he thought he could just put a shoulder into a guy and he was going to fall down.

Just nitpicking here of course, but he has room to grow.

he throws his shoulder into derrick henry lol

You have to have someone in the car to talk to the police if they get stopped.

I'm a Harris fan. He'll get his shot at some point and will be successful.

Don't forget he missed 4 games

I honestly thought Chenal was going to wreck shit, but he’s been a bit of a disappointment. I know he’s still learning but I thought tackling would be his strong suit.

It's definitely a shame, Harris is a legit NFL starter. Feel bad for him but it's never a bad thing to have depth. If Gay wants too much money or screws up again, you've got someone here who can fill 90% of his shoes.

The KCSN guys said on rewatch that Chenal struggled a bit at the beginning of the game but played great in the second half.

Dude's making like $800K and saving a LOT of wear on his body while proving he's an NFL quality player.

I don't feel bad for Darius - things are going just fine for him.

I know everyone on CP (but me) is a gazillionaire but I'd be pretty happy with 800k

He's better than Chanel

Yeah, probably.

The Chiefs are still trying to walk that line between winning now and developing guys for the future. I think it's fair to say they've done an excellent job of it to this point.

It the Titans game I think they just wanted someone out there who would play with reckless abandon and get downhill to try to stop Henry before he got up to speed. I don't think that sort of PT split will be the norm - at least for now.

Harris and Chenal have completely different roles in this defense. They can't just insert Harris at a position he doesn't even play. With Gay back, there's no room for him as a starter.

I bet you’ll see more Harris against the Jags this week because of Ettiene.

I feel bad for Chad Henne. He won us a playoff game against Cleveland and since Mahomes came back he’s seen zero playing time.

I'd be happy for Harris to take more of Chenal's snaps. I liked Chenal as a pick and I'm glad he's getting snaps, the experience should hopefully help him. But right now he's pretty lost unless he's right up on the line. If they use him like that, cool, he's better than Harris. Anything and everything else is gonna take time and Harris deserves the nod.

I get that technically Harris is a Will and Chenal is a Sam, but Harris didn't look like he had any troubles with shedding blockers or making tackles. I'd get the issue is there positions were flip flopped and they were asking Harris to cover guys when he's not used to it, but that's not the case.

They usually cross-train them.

The role Harris is in now is essentially the role Bolton was in last season - backup Mike and Buck.

Harris can absolutely play LB3 in our base sets over Chenel. But he has a different approach and skill set. The staff appeared to value Leo's more last week.

That's not to say they'll value it more NEXT week.

This is true. They play matchup defense more often than not. So there will be games where Harris has more snaps, and games where he will have less.

But my point stands. If they're putting Chenal out there, they think his skillset is better suited for the matchup. In those cases, there's just not room to get Harris on the field much.

From the strong side, he'd have a completely different responsibilities, both in the run game and in coverage.

I'm not saying Harris shouldn't play, don't get me wrong. It's just that when they go and put Chenal in there, there's no place for Harris to play. He doesn't have that skillset. He's more like Willie Gay and the only way for him to play A LOT is for Gay to miss more time.

It's still an extremely small sample size, but at this moment I'd rather see Willie out there, in spite of what Darius has put on film, which has all been pretty good. Gay just seems to be the more athletic, faster player right now.

Either way, Spags will put in the guy he thinks matches up better that week, and I'm good with that for now.

Omg, this reminds me. During the beginning of lockdowns one of the DJs who DJs at Sandals was doing live sets online, and people were sending tips via Venmo etc. there was a white couple we know that were staying in Jamaica for lockdowns, and they were staying in the same apartments as DJ Bryan. They ended up going over there a lot while he was doing his sets. One time his neighbors called the cops because he was playing the music too loud. We can all see and hear what’s going on because of the stream. They sent the white guy out to talk to the police. I was dying. Shit was hilarious. Then when the cops left, DJ Bryan CRANKS up

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=6-tNcHTLnIU

Before he ended his set for the night. Good times!!