Throw it and he’ll catch it
Harris is Patriots’ good-hands man
The first points of the Patriots’ 2019 season were secured in typical Maurice Harris fashion. Harris aligned in the slot on the short side of the field, with Braxton Berrios in the same spot on the opposite side of the formation. The play called for both slot receivers to run fades to the back corners of the end zone. When Brian Hoyer took the snap, he never bothered to look to Berrios’ side. He knew where this ball was going.
The 6-foot-3 Harris had a step on Lions rookie cornerback Amani Oruwariye, so Hoyer lofted the pass in his direction. Oruwariye grabbed hold of Harris’ left arm as the ball arrived. Harris casually snagged it with his right hand, brought it to his chest, and wrapped both arms around the ball just to be safe.
This has been the book on Maurice Harris forever.
Just ask his first cousin, two-time Pro Bowl receiver Keenan Allen.
“He has unbelievable hands,” said Allen, who is entering his seventh season with the Chargers. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him drop a pass. Just his ability to track the ball, his hand-eye coordination… If you throw it up, he’s going to get it.”
One memory still sticks out to Allen: Years ago at an Alabama football camp, which attracted some of the best high school players in the nation, Harris slipped coming out of his break on curl route, got his head up just in time to see the ball coming, and plucked it out of the air with one hand as he lay on the ground.
“There’s no way he’s supposed to catch that ball,” Allen said.
Growing up together in
Greensboro, N.C., Allen and Harris predictably dominated the competition at a young age. They rotated at quarterback and receiver throughout their high school years.
“The team was pretty much me and Maurice, so we had to do pretty much everything,” Allen explained. “When I went to quarterback, it was damn near ‘Drop back and throw the ball to Maurice.’ And vice versa.”
Allen initially committed to Alabama as the nation’s No. 1 defensive back, but ultimately decided to play wide receiver at Cal. Harris, one year younger, followed his cousin west the following year. As they progressed to the highest levels of the sports, Allen and Harris faced a similar obstacle: They possessed great size, making them difficult matchups in the slot, but they lacked elite straight-line speed.
At the 2013 NFL Combine, Allen clocked a 4.71 40-yard dash, a number that unquestionably impacted his draft stock. Wide receivers such as Cordarrelle Patterson (Vikings), Justin Hunter (Titans), Aaron Dobson (Patriots) and Terrance Williams (Cowboys) came off the board before Allen.
Allen’s uncanny agility made up for his lack of deep speed. As Harris said, “for his size (6-foot-2, 211 pounds), it’s not natural for someone at that size to be so quick.”
“Obviously I had the quicks and the moves to make guys miss,” Allen explained. “(Harris) was more slower, his foot speed wasn’t as fast, so he had to make the tough catches all the time. So he always wanted to work on those things —ladders, foot drills, anything to get his feet moving faster, and obviously he’s gotten better at it and he’s creating more separation.”
Allen added that Harris has always maintained “a confidence and competitive edge that can’t nobody mess with (him), and that technique and body manipulation to make the DB miss.”
Three years after Allen entered the league, Harris went undrafted. He latched on with the Redskins and spent three seasons trying to carve out a role as a mismatch in the slot. After flashing in limited opportunities with the Redskins – a 10catch, 124-yard performance against the Falcons and an absurd one-handed 36-yard touchdown catch versus the Vikings were the highlights last year – Harris is looking to jump-start his NFL career with the Patriots.
Harris finds himself in an interesting position this summer. He looked like the team’s second-best receiver throughout the spring and in the opening week of training camp, but he’s recently taken a backseat to undrafted rookie Jakobi Meyers.
Meyers all but assured himself of a spot on the team with a silky smooth sixcatch, 69-yard, two-touchdown performance in the preseason opener against the Lions. Of course, Meyers’ sudden emergence doesn’t mean Harris will be squeezed out of a spot. There can be room for both of them.
Harris’ contested catch ability, coupled with his instinct for getting open over the middle, makes him a unique talent among the New England receivers. He delivered the one-handed touchdown catch in the preseason opener, and nearly had two other one-handed grabs on deep passes down the sideline (both were technically drops, although defensive pass interference could have been called each time).
Allen believes the New England coaching staff will maximize Harris’ skill set, putting his cousin in a “unbelievable” position to succeed.
“Their gameplan is always second to none,” Allen said. “…With that knowledge around him and that experience, he can learn and pick up on the terminology and everything within a year. It’ll be great.”
As he’s seemingly been surpassed by Meyers on the depth chart, Harris has said all the right things. He’s concerned with improving throughout camp, not with the pecking order at receiver. He’s soft-spoken and fairly low-key during interviews. Still, he embraces the competition, the fight for a highly coveted spot in a Tom Bradyled offense.
“He’s very humble, he’s not going to step on anybody’s toes,” Allen said. “But when the ball is snapped, he’s definitely hungry and confident.”