A seven-year veteran, Harris was a second-team All-Pro in 2010. He started in the season-opening win over the Atlanta Falcons but sustained a pulled hamstring toward the end of the game.
Harris missed the next three weeks recovering before returning to the starting lineup for an Oct. 10 loss to the Detroit Lions. In that game, a missed assignment by Harris resulted in a 73-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Stafford to Calvin Johnson. Afterwords the team sat down with Harris to inform him of plans to go with second-year man Major Wright in the starting lineup.
Harris expected to play a backup role in Sunday’s victory over the Vikings, but just hours before the game was told he’d be placed on the inactive list. Bears coach Lovie Smith said the team made Harris inactive because the safety didn’t play a role on special teams.
“It’s pretty simple for us,” Smith explained. “We have a starting crew. If you’re not in the starting lineup, you have to be able to play special teams. We base the rest of those positions on special teams. It’s how we’ve always done it. We’ll continue to do it that way. When you say special teams are important, you have to have some guys that you feel like can do the job there. That was the main reason Chris [Harris] didn’t dress.”
Harris is in the final year of his contract, Harris hasn’t received any overtures from the club about signing a new deal, leading the veteran to believe he’s not a part of Chicago’s future plans.
Harris has played in 87 career contests, making 82 starts in seven seasons. Harris has posted 467 career tackles, broken up 25 passes and posted 15 interceptions, in addition to forcing 12 fumbles.
