FLOWERY BRANCH -- The Falcons will use a committee approach to help replace free safety and nickel back Erik Harris, who’s headed for injured reserve.
He suffered a torn pectoral muscle early in the 29-21 victory over the Panthers on Sunday.
Harris, who signed as a free agent after playing the 2020 season with the Las Vegas Raiders, started 12 games for the Falcons. Harris had 64 tackles, three tackles for losses, two quarterback hits and eight pass breakups. He was replaced by Jaylinn Hawkins in the Carolina game.
“It’s going to be tough, obviously, with his veteran leadership, his play, his personality, just everything that Eric brought to the table,” strong safety Duron Harmon said. “It won’t just be one guy that replaces what he does. It’s going to be multiple guys, but we have full faith in Jaylinn, Richie (Grant) and Shawn (Williams) to go out there do their job at a high level and just not have this defense miss a beat.”
Harris was having a solid season. Teams completed 28 of 41 passes when his receiver was targeted (68.3%) for 309 yards and a touchdown. Quarterbacks had a passer rating of 98.5 when throwing at Harris, which was down from the 124.1 they had last season with the Raiders.
Also, Harris missed 11 tackles and missed-tackle percentage of 14.7% which was down from the 17.6% he had last season with the Raiders.
Hawkins and Shawn Williams will get most of Harris snaps at safety and Richie Grant will get his nickel snaps.
“The guys are just going to have to step up,” Falcons defensive coordinator Dean Pees said. “Hawk will step up. He was rotating a lot in there anyhow. Duron has been going almost the whole time. We’ve got Shawn Williams now. He’s going to have to step up.”
Grant, the Falcons’ second-round pick this year, will concentrate on the nickel position.
“It’s hard to get him a lot of reps at safety, when you are trying to get him a lot of reps at nickel,” Pees said. “He is still a safety, but he’s really primarily the nickel first.”
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