Dynasty Spotlight: Demetrius Harris

Remember last off-season’s positive reports on Jordan Cameron and Julius Thomas? There’s some hype around another tight end who may not be the same degree of prospect this year, but the similarities with the buzz surrounding Chiefs’ tight end Demetrius Harris is uncanny.

A former Wisconsin-Milwaukee basketball star, Harris is currently a fixture in OTA reports and, over the last month, has often been mentioned positively in beat writer snippets. Whether it’s head coach Andy Reid emphasizing he looks great on the field and is now a ‘football player’ or beat writers highlighting ridiculous catches, the stream of support for the second year tight end is furious. I set up alerts on Harris a month ago and my inbox is blowing up on a daily basis with new reports. It’s time to stash him in larger leagues if you haven’t already.

The skeptics are aplenty and they’re screaming, “fluff piece,” but that’s not any different than last year with Cameron and Thomas. In this instance, the skepticism makes a lot of sense considering the pads haven’t come on yet, but buzz like this can’t be ignored and dismissed. If there’s one thing we know about the dynasty format it’s that you can’t wait. If you want a boost to playoff or championship contender status from stashes like Cameron and Thomas, you must add now with the potential risk that it’s premature.

Tracking him over the last month, this is why Harris is a fantastic stash:

Basketball Background

People are tired of hearing about this with tight ends and some believe it’s exaggerated, but the bottom line is basketball ability is a proven skill set which translates well at the NFL level (Cameron, Thomas, Jimmy Graham, Tony Gonzalez, Antonio Gates, etc).

Harris was a forward at Wisconsin-Milwaukee and led the team in rebounding in his senior season, but he didn’t play any college football. He originally was set to play football at Arkansas State, but it didn’t pan out given academic ineligibility. Because of that, prior to being drafted, he hadn’t played football since high school. Instead, basketball was his college sport until his head coach reached out to an NFL agent to pass the prospect along within months of the NFL Draft.

Given the lack of college football, Harris was a project and still is.

NFL Draft Attention

[inlinead]As one scout simply put it, “He’s so raw. He hasn’t played football in four years.” Given the lack of college football experience, he was considered a long shot, which caused him to go undrafted.

Harris ultimately signed as a free agent with the Chiefs after a late entry into the NFL Draft. He wasn’t even considering the NFL until he received a call from the Chiefs in early April 2013 expressing their interest. After receiving that call, he only prepped four days and worked out with the Chiefs in early April. Soon after that, in late April, he participated at his Pro Day where roughly ten teams showed up and the buzz surrounding his athleticism soon followed.

All of this seems to be a non-factor given Harris went undrafted, but the level of interest from these NFL teams in the matter of a few days again highlights the highly coveted basketball skills of tight end prospects regardless of how raw the prospect.

Measurables

In regards to his athletic ability, during the predraft process, freakish was the term ascribed to Harris by some. This classification led to meaningful attention from a number of NFL teams in the weeks before the draft. It’s difficult to extract his pro day results, but after some digging here are his numbers from his workout with the Chiefs compared to other hybrid tight ends:

If interested, his pro day workout can be found here.

He’s a bit light for a tight end given his height, but his 40 time and broad jump are at the top end of the measurable scale. His vertical is also on par with this group. Given that, the measurables are clearly there. The problem with Harris’ pre-draft performance is that he only put up 225 pounds on the bench twice. So, the basketball conditioning didn’t exactly produce upper body strength. While on the practice squad with the Chiefs, upper body strength, adding weight, and football were the focus in rounding Harris into a more refined prospect, or simply, convert him from a basketball player to a football player.

Opportunity

Given the lack of football experience at the college level, Harris spent his rookie season on the Chiefs’ practice squad as a project. Now, entering his second year, he’ll compete for a roster spot and playing time with Anthony Fasano, Sean McGrath, Travis Kelce and Richard Gordon.

At tight end, aside from Kelce who is a decent prospect, Harris is competing with role players who are also solid blocking tight ends. Given the year on the practice squad and the frequent off-season buzz, the Chiefs will be hard pressed not to have him on the active roster. Another practice squad stint could risk the Chiefs losing Harris. With the promise he’s starting to show, that’s unlikely to happen.

In considering the offense as a whole, Dwayne Bowe is currently the only legitimate option on the outside. As a result, he’s one of the few who could impact the target availability, which bodes well for Harris. The Chiefs need another pass-catching option given the lack of playmakers on the roster. Because of that, the continued emergence of Harris could breed another legitimate fantasy option. If the positive reports on him continue once he puts the pads on, snaps should follow. The Chiefs could potentially split Harris out wide while one of the blocking tight ends or Kelce plays in-line. The bottom line is that there are plenty of targets available in Kansas City.

2013 Offseason Buzz

The availability of a potential opportunity in this offense makes this off-season buzz surrounding Harris more encouraging.

According to Harris, he’s up to 257 pounds after working the Chiefs’ strength and conditioning program through his rookie year and into the offseason. From a weight perspective, this size puts him in a solid range as we can see given the tight end comparisons above. Also, remember his pro day where he only put up two reps of 225 pounds? He’s now putting that up regularly.

Andy Reid definitely sees the change in Harris as noted in two separate instances:

“First of all, he did a great job in the weight room. He and Barry (Rubin) became one there. They joined hips there and started working that son-of-a-gun to where he felt strong, and so far he’s been able to transfer that on the field, which is a good thing.”

and

“I’ll tell you he’s a football player right now. I think this camp was great for him. I thought he played exceptionally well. He’s so big and he’s worked so stinking hard in the weight room, he’s been living in there with Barry (Rubin) this offseason and you can tell. You can see he’s gotten stronger.”

Chiefs’ Offensive Coordinator Doug Pederson also likes what he sees noting, “The emergence of Demetrius Harris, he’s a tremendous talent.”

Some beat writer clips highlighting solid OTA impressions:

Demetrius Harris continues to impress. Dude ran right past Cooper and hauled in a deep pass from Bray on a corner route. Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) 

TE Demetrius Harris has an enormous catch radius and intriguing athleticism. He’s going to be dangerous if he ever develops Fasano’s hands Terez A. Paylor (@TerezPaylor) 

In OTAs today, easy to see why they’ve been intrigued by ex-hoops star TE Demetrius Harris. Never an easy transition, Mike Sando, ESPN.com (@SandoESPN) 

Summary

Given how successful former basketball players have been in converting into successful NFL tight ends, coupled with his showing this off-season, Harris is a must stash.

He could certainly fall on his face once the pads come on, but it’s a much better position to make a drop call a few months from now than kicking yourself for not picking up the next tight end breakout candidate.

Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveWyremski

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